Southern Water is set to continue making improvements along the Lukely Brook as part of its work with the Newport Rivers Group – a group of local organisations, businesses and individuals who are working to better the water environment in the county town.
The Lukely Brook is an important chalk stream that flows through Carisbrooke, providing valuable aquatic habitat, supporting the ecology of Plaish Meadows and acting as a key public amenity to local residents.
Southern Water operates 2 licensed groundwater abstractions near to the Lukely Brook, which supply the Isle of Wight with clean drinking water.
Where the Lukely Brook flows through the more urban areas of Carisbrooke, the stream has historically been modified for access (ford crossings) and industry (water mills and ponds). Sluices, weirs and culverts constructed as part of these modifications and the resulting large jumps in water level can stop fish (and eel) from swimming freely up and down the stream.
In 2020, Southern Water either modified or replaced 4 of these historic structures so fish can now travel further up the Lukely Brook to Clatterford – around 1.3 km further than was possible before.
Fish passes, sometimes called fish ladders, were installed within existing structures at Carisbrooke Mill and Southern Water’s Waterworks in Carisbrooke. A series of 3 small weirs were constructed below a culvert at Wellington Road, and the Garden Weir (behind Carisbrooke Road) was replaced with 3 small rock weirs creating a series of lower ‘steps’ that fish are able to swim up, especially when the flow in the stream is lower like in the summer.
In addition to removing these barriers to fish movement, Southern Water has also agreed with the Environment Agency to reduce the amount of groundwater they are allowed to abstract from the Chalk here. These changes were similarly implemented in 2020 and will make more water available to the Lukely Brook during dry summer periods, helping to protect the valuable ecology it supports.
Now, Southern Water are undertaking further river habitat enhancement work on the Lukely Brook between its source near to Bowcombe, down to Towngate Pond in Newport, that will make the stream even more resilient to environmental change, improving flows and water depths in the stream and providing increased public amenity value.
Examples include cutting back bank vegetation to allow more sunlight into the channel, planting marginal aquatic plants, and redistributing gravel in the riverbed to create more variety in flow and water depths.
To find out more visit http://www.islandrivers.org.uk/lukely-brook-enhancements/.
Really great that the river wildlife is being looked after, not so happy that the cost of doing so will be added to our water bills, as I think lottery funding, or wild life charities should pay for such, not residents.
Where’s the shopping trollies…. Oh, yet to arrive
love a good shopping trollie
Very useful things – shopping trolleys. Cheap too, mine only cost me a pound.
It is good that this is being done. More should be. But who pays? Owners of the land that these streams run though restrict access. On their land so their stream they say. So maybe they should step up and pay for this work.
Now, if they could just stop illegally dumping sewage into the sea when there is no justification thus undoing all the good they are doing here…..