Plans to restore waterways discussed by council

Plans to spend £180,000 to restore and protect three waterways in West Sussex have been discussed by a council.

At a meeting on Tuesday, Chichester District Council members recommended that the funds be put towards the Arun and Rother Rivers Trust’s (ARRT) Chalk Stream Resilience project.

If approved, £60,000 will be used each year for three years, part-funding two chalk stream resilience officers – one focusing on the Ems and Hambrook and a second on the Lavant.

The recommendation will be put to the full council for final approval.

Jonathan Brown, cabinet member for environmental strategy, said chalk streams were “significant habitats, very rare but unprotected”.

“The new Local Plan seeks to protect them through the planning system and the creation of strategic wildlife corridors. But protection is not sufficient. We also need nature recovery,” he said.

“They’re already suffering from pollution, habitat loss, drought, interruptions to natural processes and flow and, in the case of the Ems, over-abstraction.”

All three waterways feed into Chichester Harbour, making the impact of the restoration projects wider than just the rivers and stream themselves, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council has submitted £5,000 per year over the last two years to another project covering the Rother.

Mr Brown added: “Our funding would provide certainty for a sufficiently long period, to enable real progress to be made and to maximise opportunities to apply for grant funding from other sources.”

Plans for the Ems restoration have already started, while those for the Lavant have not.

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