Life of a Chalkstream: How Natural England are selling our rivers down the swanee

Greetings!

Did you see the headline in The Times on Monday? ‘Ban on building work puts up to 100,000 new homes on hold’ due to a decision by Natural England, the government's adviser for the natural environment, who are seeking to reduce phosphate and nitrate pollution as a result of, amongst other things, housing development.

Now I’m sure, plenty of you, like me, think this is a good thing. For too long, too many houses have been in built in all the wrong places contributing more in the space of a few decades to the destruction of our wildlife, rivers and countryside than a thousand years of climate change. But there is a sting in the tail for Natural England are not quite the guardians of the natural environment they purport to be. As you will see the key words in that headline are ‘on hold’.

Let me start by explaining exactly what it is they call nutrient pollution. As an angler you will have surely seen it, mostly from March-May as a horrible, brown sludge which floats to the surface on rivers and lakes having the appearance of a thousand of dissolving turds.

More scientifically Natural England describe it as occurring,

“In freshwater habitats and estuaries, increased levels of nutrients (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) can speed up the growth of certain plants, disrupting natural processes and impacting wildlife. This process (called eutrophication) [aka the turds] damages these water dependent sites and harms the plants and wildlife that are meant to be there. The sources of excess nutrients are very site specific but include sewage treatment works, septic tanks, livestock, arable farming and industrial processes.”

This quote is garnered from (the things I have to read ….) the Natural England summary guide to Nutrient Neutrality at a mercifully short five pages in length which contains the Get Out of Jail card for developers. It is not exactly a free Get Out of Jail card, but it will be enough to explain why the words ‘on hold’ are so important and that any gains for our rivers will end up being illusory as the houses will surely be built on the back of events that should have reduced nutrient pollution.

Nether Wallop Mill mill pond on Thursday morning showing a typical amount of overnight phosphate eutrophication

So, how do you get around the construction moratorium if you are a house builder? Well, Natural England gives you three options: build additional mitigation into your plans onsite e.g. create some new wetland. Work with the local planners to arrange for mitigation offsite e.g. create some new wetland elsewhere. Or purchase nutrient credits via a nutrient trading scheme where other landowners in the catchment have taken action to reduce their nutrient load.

It is this final option that is a true no-win for our rivers because essentially all it does is move the nutrient pollution from once source to another. And I know this to be true. I’ve heard tell of a large fish farm on a chalkstream marked for closure that will be selling its nutrient credit to developers. So, ultimately, we’ll be no better off with the dissolving turds appearing in the same lakes and the same river simply the product of people rather than fish. Which makes me think how long it will take the water companies to get in on the act by selling credits ‘earnt’ with say the installation of a new sewage processing plant. Or even the cessation of sewage spills they should not have been allowed in the first place.

This, frankly, is a bloody mess. Natural England, despite 2,000 employees and an annual budget of hundreds of millions from DEFRA, has long struggled to find its purpose, famous for offering bureaucratic solutions to practical problems. The nutrient credit scheme is just one such unwise bit of advice to government. As Aesop wrote, “Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties”.

Going solo?

I feel a bit like a dating service (Finder instead of Tinder?) as we have opened up a few of our Mayfly dates to single Rods that might have been otherwise reserved for small groups.

The beats and dates are:

Breach Farm (Itchen) May 10, 11 & 16. June 1, 4 & 5

Broadlands House (Test) May 25. June 1 & 7

Bullington Manor (Upper Test) May 15. June 2, 3, 5 & 7

Wherwell Priory (Test) May 15 & 22. June 2, 3, 4 & 5

As you will notice, if you are not already booked for a street party or some such, there are slots over the Platinum Jubilee celebration holiday June 2-5.

Bullington Manor

More fishing for sale

I’m having a bout of déjà vu having written about this fishing for sale on the River Itchen at Brambridge in this Newsletter before. That time around one of my readers thought ”I like the look of that” and promptly bought it but now, a decade on with age and travel considerations, it is time to sell up.

It is on the Itchen Navigation, effectively an extension of the River Itchen proper, but since no barge has plied the route from Southampton to Andover for over two centuries it has become a river all of its own. For those of you who have fished our beats on the River Itchen downstream of Winchester it is sandwiched between Qing Ya Xi and Breach Farm, running parallel to Kanara. More details here.

Itchen Navigation, Brambridge, Hampshire

Just an update on the Abbots Worthy Fishery that I mentioned last time around. Many expressed a 10%+ interest which left me initially oversubscribed but, as is natural evolution, the field has winnowed to leave a solid group with enough heft to make an offer shortly.

If you would like to be kept abreast of this, or future fisheries for sale, I’m creating a separate mailing list so email me with your email.

Photo of the Week

When is not sewage not sewage? When it is Wessex Water sewage!

At least according to this notice erected beside rivers in the Wessex Water region. Oh, and by the way, it is all the fault of climate change. So, that’s alright then.