London Rivers Action Plan

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Background

London Rivers Action Plan

This page provides an overview of river restoration activities in the Greater London Authority. The London Rivers Action Plan guide, published in 2009, and resources should appeal to anyone with an interest in improving the wildlife and amenity value of a river, including community groups, local businesses, planners and developers all of whom should be working together with national agencies to achieve the aspirations outlined.

Link to the Rivers Action Plan document: A tool to help restore rivers for people and nature - 4.53MB

Supporting organisations


This Action Plan has been developed to provide a delivery mechanism to take forward London's river restoration strategies - “A strategy for restoring rivers in North London” (2006) and “River restoration - a stepping stone to urban regeneration highlighting the opportunities in South London” (2002).These strategies have been very successful in stimulating river restoration across the London area.

This plan will build upon their success and look for river restoration opportunities that will benefit people, businesses and wildlife by putting river corridors at the heart of regeneration and renewal through the enhancement of riverside parks, green spaces and the built environment.

The main aim of this London Rivers Action Plan (LRAP) is to provide a forum for identifying stretches of river that can be brought back to life.This can be done by improving river channel or riparian habitats, by removing or modifying flood defence structures where safe to do so, or by reclaiming 'lost' rivers currently buried under the Capital's surface. Nearly 100 projects have been identified with numerous large scale projects on the Lee,Wandle, Ravensbourne, Crane and Roding catchments.

This document focuses primarily on restoration opportunities along the non-tidal freshwater tributaries in the context of the planning process and the Mayor of London's aspirations for all Londoners to have access to high quality natural green spaces.However, it also recognises the contribution of other organisations that have specific restoration related roles along the River Thames and its estuary.

The plan
•Supports the delivery of the Thames River Basin Management Plan under the Water Framework Directive;
 •Contributes to sustainable regeneration through the implementation of the Blue Ribbon policies;
•Contributes to the implementation of the Mayor's access to nature aspirations;
•Supports one of the London Plan’s biodiversity targets to restore 15km of river by 2015;
•Supports the delivery of the Environment Agency's Thames Catchment Flood Management Plan.

Case studies in Tidal Thames

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Catchment Based Approach

In March 2011 Richard Benyon, Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries, announced the Catchment Based Approach to delivering the Water Framework Directive. A catchment is an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, where the waters drains into another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean. The Thames River Basin is an area spanning 16,133km2 from the source of the River Thames in Gloucestershire through London to the Southern North Sea. The freshwater Thames becomes the tidal Thames at Teddington all the way along its length it receives water from the rivers draining into it and the land surrounding it. The chemical, physical and biological characteristics of our water (water quality) is affected by every activity that takes place on land as well as through our actions in abstracting, using and returning water to rivers, the sea and the ground.

Catchments are the natural scale to consider this aspect of the environment. Through better coordinated action at the catchment level by all those who use water or influence land management, we can improve water quality for our own health and use and for the health of the aquatic habitats and associated animals. The Catchment Based Approach aims to explore better ways of engaging with people and organisations at a catchment level and encouraging greater local participation to achieve more for communities and the water environment.

In April 2011 the EA began piloting this approach in 10 catchments. In January 2012, a further 15 pilots, hosted by external organisations, were established. The Environment Agency website provides a map of all the Water Framework Directive Management Catchments in England.

The Your Tidal Thames project was one of these pilots, hosted by Thames21 and Thames Estuary Partnership. At the launch of the Catchment Based Approach in 2011 Richard Benyon said that the pilots should:

“Provide a clear understanding of the issues in the catchment, involve local communities in decision-making by sharing evidence, listening to their ideas, working out priorities for action and seeking to deliver integrated actions that address local issues in a cost effective way and protect local resources”

In June 2013, Defra launched a Policy Framework to aid wider adoption of the Catchment Based Approach. The policy sets out the high level objectives for the approach, to establish Catchment Partnerships in every catchment in England where there is an interest in doing so to:

  1. Deliver positive and sustained outcomes for the water environment by promoting a

better understanding of the environment at a local level

  1. Encourage a more transparent form of decision making, in support of local

collaboration or partnership working, for both planning and delivery. More information on the contributions that the Your Tidal Thames project makes in delivering the Catchment Based Approach see the About us section of this Webpage.


1.2 The pilot year

During the pilot phase of the Your Tidal Thames project, in 2012 the project was co-hosted by Thames21 and the Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP).

The Pilot Project aimed: To develop an effective, deliverable and sustainable Catchment Plan to help achieve the Water Framework Directive (WFD) objectives for the tidal Thames by engaging the wide range of communities, residents, river users and interest groups and utilising their experience, concerns and expertise.

The Catchment Based Approach (CaBA) for the WFD requires local community involvement to be at the heart of the development of Catchment Plans. YTT wanted to ensure through effective stakeholder engagement that those connected with, or who care about the river, had an opportunity to have a say in the improvement of the tidal Thames. Achieving this engagement over an area as large as the tidal Thames, where there are so many diverse communities and river users was a challenge.

During the pilot year the Your Tidal Thames team engaged widely across the tidal Thames area. This was achieved by taking engagement to the community rather than trying to bring people together in one place at one time. The key engagement tool was a Catchment Plan Template which was made up of 5 sections and prompted people to give their views on the tidal Thames.

The titles of the sections in the Catchment Plan Template were:

  1. In your view, what problems are affecting the tidal Thames?
  2. What can be done to address these problems?
  3. Action Plan - What should the target be to achieve and by when? Who else can help deliver this target? What part can you (or your organisation) play?
  4. How do you use or relate to the tidal Thames?
  5. Your Contact details.

With this as the basis for engagement the Your Tidal Thames Project Team sent an introductory email to the people on both organisations databases – a combined number of nearly 6000 people. As a result of this, and other engagement work such as events and conferences, we spoke directly to 1,412 people about the work of the project and reached a further 14,622 people via online and social media. By the end of 2012, 62 individuals and 53 organisations had provided their views for input to the Catchment Plan.


About us

Tidal Thames Catchment

Enhancement Projects

Proposed Case studies in Your Tidal Thames

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contact us

21 Alice Hall]


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Supplementary Information

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Additional links and references

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Link Description
http://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/portal/ho/wfd/water/choices The Challenges and Choices consultation (launched June 2013) describes the significant water management issues in the river basin district. There is also a consultation on the nationally significant water management issues called England’s Waters: Challenges and Choices
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/140092.aspx Additional river basin district specific information to support the “Challenges and Choices” public consultation document
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33106.aspx Information about river basin districts, catchments, water bodies and the river basin management planning process

Link back to the main Thames River Basin page: Thames

Link back to the main England country page: England

Link back to the main England background information: Country info:England - background information

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