Chalk Stream Group launches plan for restoration

The Chalk Stream Restoration Group last week launched its Implementation Plan to deliver recommendations set out in the Chalk Stream Strategy, which it published in 2021.

Chair of the group, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, said the Implementation Plan was “more likely to yield results than anything we have seen before” because it has been agreed by all parties (regulators, industry, NGOs and stakeholders) and is “forensic, realistic and pragmatic about the actions required, how long these will take to enact, and how iterative the process is”.

The plan set out the problems chalk streams are facing and identified solutions. It is designed to be re-published regularly and as such will be updated with specific goals relating to all recommendations in the strategy and the associated timelines in due course.

The launch took place at an event on Thursday attended by water minister Rebecca Pow, the Environment Agency and Natural England, among others.

Some campaigners on Twitter panned the plan. Feargal Sharkey commented: “So a bunch of people sat in a room yesterday to relaunch the failed chalk stream strategy. Govt thinks the EA has enough money, the chair of the EA doesn’t agree and everyone ignored the two biggest issues actually facing chalk streams, over abstraction and pollution. Pointless.”

• There were reports last week of locals’ fears that the River Granta, a chalk stream and tributary of the River Cam, would dry up given its levels are already very low.