The Thames Water Habitat Fund is available to anyone who has a great idea for improving the River Wandle’s health and biodiversity.

Worth £250,000 over 5 years, it’s designed to get lots of people doing lots of projects on the river, with the following guidelines:

• Since these funds have become available as a result of ecological damage to the River Wandle and the consequent reduction in amenity levels, projects should be designed to restore and improve sustainability and biodiversity within the river and its immediate surroundings and /or increase access to the natural environment.
• Grants should be used for match funding to enable funding from large grant applications to be drawn in, with a recommended minimum 50:50 ratio.
• However, small bids to the Fund are also welcome.
• Projects will have a clearly identified lead partner and actively involve local organisations wherever possible.
•  Projects should represent objective value for money.
• After completion of a project, a report should be provided by the lead partner to spread learnings and enable further promotion of the Fund’s work.

The Fund is administered by representatives from Thames Water, the Wandle Trust, the Environment Agency, the National Trust, and the Angling Trust.

We hope that many great ideas will emerge from our research and consultation on the Wandle’s Community Catchment Plan. For instance, a grant of £23,545 was made from the Fund to help the National Trust and the London Wildlife Trust to create an important area of water vole habitat on the Watermeads nature reserve in Mitcham.

If you’d like to apply to the Fund for a project to improve the future health of the Wandle, and increase your local community’s involvement with the river, please get in touch with us!