Clean up the River Len

The recent motion to give the River Medway rights has been forwarded to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Rights for nature and particularly the right to flow for rivers have been initiated by indigenous communities across parts of the world and have directly and indirectly met some success (particularly in Central and South America. However, within the heavily legally regulated European context declarations of rights for nature have been more symbolic in nature and have achieved little to date in practical terms.

A more practical and effective model has been pursued in France, where restoration of the Loire River Valley, Dordogne River Basin and latterly the River Seine has delivered remarkable results. The secret to French success has been tough and high profile stakeholder groups involving landowners, regulators and local government agencies all working towards a bold and unified vision, think ‘La Loire Sauvage’.

As the largest catchment in Kent covering 930 square miles (2,409 km2) comprising some 25% of the area of Kent testing a stakeholder group using the Medway and its tributaries would be too ambitious and complex (after all Maidstone only has an interest in a short length of its course). Indeed, the River Medway flows for 70 miles (113 km) from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary in north Kent.

There is already in existence a promising Upper River Beult farm cluster group – facilitated by South East Rivers Trust – which has shown some promise.

However, geographically the most appropriate riverine focus for such a task group is undoubtedly the River Len. This small river flows for its entire length in Maidstone Borough and the Council owns some key stretches and therefore has a genuine ability to influence its future.

The River Len is heavily modified with man-made weirs, culverts and dams from its source in Lenham through to its confluence with the Medway at the Archbishop’s Palace Gardens. The structure-impeded flow of the river exacerbates pollution from wastewater and other diffuse sources such as agricultural and highway runoff. Several tributaries of the River Len are classified as chalk streams as they rise at spring-lines at the foot of the Kent Downs AONB, while other streams emerge from the Greensand Ridge. Some of these tributaries, such as the Hollingbourne Stream, Lilk at Bearsted and Fair Bourne at Fairbourne Heath have high profiles in their own right.

We proposed that Maidstone Borough Council initiate, launch, lead and provide secretariat for a River Len Stakeholder Task Force with participation invited from key landowners along the course of the river Len and its chalk stream and Greensand tributaries alongside the Environment Agency, South East Rivers Trust, Kent County Council (including Kent Highways), National Highways, South East Water, Southern Water, NFU Kent, Leeds Castle Foundation, River Len Local Nature Reserve, Kent Wildlife Trust and potentially academic engagement from University of Kent and/or Greenwich.

The vision for the Stakeholder Task Force will encompass:

• Progressive removal and/or bypassing of manmade barriers to ecological movement i.e. restoring the right to a natural flow;
• Setting measurable targets and achieving continuous improvement across flow rates and water quality (including mitigating current pathways for diffuse pollutants including agricultural and highway run-off);
• Enhancing and recreating riparian habitats along the course of the River Len and its tributaries, including wet woodland, marsh and fen, wet heathland, flood meadow, ponds and ditches; and
• Restoration, expansion and reintroductions of declining or lost riparian flora and fauna including migratory fish, DesMoulin’s Whorl Snail, White-clawed Crayfish, White-legged Damselfly, Water Shrew, Water Vole, Otter, Common Snipe, Lapwing, Woodcock, Southern Marsh Orchid, Black Poplar.

Postscript: With the learning, experience and leadership the Borough Council will take from its stewardship of a River Len Stakeholder Task Force MBC would become a powerful advocate for the rehabilitation of the wider River Medway catchment.