At the Wandle Trust, we work at a river catchment scale.
Rivers are not restricted by regional or political boundaries. In fact, rivers can be affected by small changes to land management miles away from their source. So it’s not enough to look at a river in isolation – we must also look at its full hydrological catchment to truly understand all the factors affecting its health.
The Wandle is a lovely river, with many stretches rich in wildlife and pleasant for people – whether fishing, cycling or simply walking along it enjoying the views and the sounds. But there are also many parts of the river that suffer from neglect and pollution, not to mention reduced natural habitat that comes from being modified by features such as concrete banks and sluices.
Throughout spring and summer 2012, the Wandle Trust ran a series of consultation workshops along the river, to help us understand what local people want from their river, and create a Catchment Plan for improving the whole river for people and wildlife for the long term.
In total, 428 people of all ages participated in 27 workshops across the 4 Wandle boroughs, and 99 online questionnaires were completed. This represents engagement with 56 different organisations and interest groups, as well as schoolchildren: click here for a full list of organisations which contributed to this consultation.
Because we wanted the Catchment Plan to be based on sound science as well as the wishes of the local community, we also held intensive meetings with scientific experts from many organisations who contributed their knowledge of fisheries, hydromorphology and other related fields.
We are delighted by this demonstration of interest and support, and would like to thank all of you who spared time to take part in shaping the future of the Wandle!
Please click on the links below to download an electronic copy of the Wandle Catchment Plan, either in full or in sections according to your area(s) of interest.
Full Wandle Catchment Plan (in pdf format)
Wandle_Catchment_Plan_-_Sept_2014_-_Full_Document
Wandle Catchment Plan by sections (in pdf format)
WCP_Sections_0.1-0.3_Summary,_Index_and Acknowledgements
WCP_Section_2_-_Wandle_and_WFD
WCP_Section_3_-_Wandle_Catchment_Characteristics
WCP_Section_4_-_Water_Quantity_and_Flow
WCP_Section_6_-_Dynamics_of_Flow
WCP_Section_7_-_Ecology_Related_to_WFD
WCP_Section_9_-_Ecosystem_Services
WCP_Section_10_-_Future_Pressures_and_Changes
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