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EA Flood Defence Team Plans for Substantial Dredging of River Loddon

Ian Crook

Ian Crook

Senior Member
Hi All,

Through my involvement in the Loddon Conservative and Consultative Committee, I have learned that the EA flood defence team has plans to substantially dredge the River Loddon from Arborfield through to Whistley in order to aleviate risk to Lower Earley and Whistley areas and match support their current flood map modelling. This could involve the removal of between 1 and 2 metres of river bed throughout most of this area which could spell disaster to the normal flows and put us back 10 years in habitat protection and improvement. There will be a meeting in March to go through their plans in detail and hopefully try, together with othr members of the committtee to find an alternative solution. One argument will be that no amount of dredging will remove the bottleneck to flow which is Loddon Bridge, unless this is widened nothing will ever improve!!

Sorry I don't have much detail right now but rest assured once I do have I will tell the world and ask for the support of all Loddon Anglers, even those who live in Lower Earley and Winnersh!!
 
Flood defence dredging..............and the success of the Dorset Stour flood defence scheme from the 70's/80's..............

Middle river dredged and ended up almost barren of fish.......

Barbel corner on Throop dredged and almost drained the river.......cobbled weir, glens weir and golf course weir needed to be constructed to hold some water back............

General straightening and dredging throughout the river and added abstraction has left the river on its' knee's......... and now we are looking at introducing flow deflectors and general habitat diversity structures to improve habitat to help fry recruitment........

All started from flood defence works.......! One of the prime barbel rivers of the past now almost devoid of barbel.

A lesson to be learned or just a coincidence? Good luck on the loddon. Unfortunately it will be 5-10 years before the reality of the consequences kick in but trust me they will.

Darren.
 
Hi Ray,
The ones i know of are ...
Farnham Angling Society
Arborfield Angling Club.
Farnborough & Disrict Angling Society
Wokingham Borough Council
Twyford & District Fishing Club
Reading & District Angling Association

Ian.
 
Hi All,

Thanks for the early replies, I was posting to give early heads up, the clubs are all together and part of the Consultative Committee which will take th EA Flood Defence team to task, together with the EA Fisheries Department who are on our side of the fence, it is not fait au complet just yet and we will hopefully stop any stupid action taking place, the current plan is very knee jerk as far as we can see as a result of the flooding in Feb 2009, the resulting pressure from residents association which the EA and council received. The EA FDT have altered the modelling showing which roads and properties are at what level of risk and they now need to engineer a solution to match their modelling..............

I will keep you informed and the angling trust, of which the controlling clubs and the actual consultative itself are members of will be kept updated.
 
There is also Gresham Angling Club, the Red Spinners, Swallowfield Angling Club, Arborleigh Angling, I am a Twyford & District Fishing Club representative on the committee.
 
21 Club
City of London Piscatorials
Wokingham DC
are 3 other clubs/fishery owners affected by this.

I'm prepared to undertake active anachistic action over any plans to dredge the Loddon.

So the question that needs asking is What the Loddon Consultative Group plan to do about this, as they are controlled by the EA in many respects and have been talking a lot on Loddon enhancements/improvements etc?

Graham
 
I know I'm a boring old fart, but why do we build houses on flood plains, then ruin our beautiful rivers to protect greedy developers?

Dredging has never stopped flooding. It just takes longer to overflow the banks.

Leave our rivers alone, go build your houses elsewhere.
 
If they try to keep the water in the river upstream of Whistley the areas downstream will be reprieved by maybe minutes not hours, the resultant bottle neck of water IN THE RIVER will then push harder, and the result will be even more severe flooding for the residents downstream.
These so called experts are numpty's putting it very politely, what are these so called engineers actually taught at university ?
Maybe someone ought to build a model, and give them a couple of buckets of water to demonstrate the effects.


Graham Elliott wrote -
I'm prepared to undertake active anachistic action over any plans to dredge the Loddon.

I'm with you there Graham

Ian
 
I am with Graham too!
To present a case against the plans, I would look to get in touch with Darren Smith and try to get as much information as you can on the previous dredging activities that ruined the Dorset Stour. Pete Reading, the Chairman of the R and C section of the BS wrote an article in the 'Barbel Fisher' on the subject and a read of it should give you some interesting pointers too.
A presentation of information coupled with pictures as to what works they undertook there, followed by the same of the work they undertook to rectify it all would deliver well I feel.
I am sure that the Stour is not a lonely case, and there must be others of dredging having taken the life away from a river. It may be possible to have it backed up with other cases too.


Damian
 
In my opinion, it needs to be nipped in the bud 'now' and mobilise everyone before it goes further along the line. I am sure Martin Salter MP would also be against it!
As Damian and Darren have metioned, it has been done before on the Stour with disasterous consequencies in later years to where it then has to be rectified.
The Loddon is also listed as an SSSI and protected.
http://www.english-nature.org.uk/special/sssi/unitlist.cfm?sssi_id=1002963
http://www.english-nature.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1002963.pdf

The Angling Trust and more so, Fish Legal, would be an immediate port of call for the member clubs involved to where they will act with lawyers.
With other issues to the side, I am sure the Barbel Society (Pete Reading) could also have an input, as they are well in with the EA, especially on the Dorset Stour and other rivers.
I am sure that the riparian owners can refuse the EA access to their land also.
Natural England are another immediate important point of call!
Again, it it wise to put across the wider picture to Environmental Destruction to habitat including the flood plain, wildlife, birds, wildfowl, flora and fauna and everything along the food chain and not just fish and fishing.
 
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The river Wensum could be used as a case study as the river has been subject to dredging in the past which had adverse effects on the fish/wildlife populations and is now the subject of a case study by natural england to reverse the effects of the past dredging and mill installations along it's length.
 
I can remember what a dire mess they made of the Mole/Ember flood "improvement" works back in the 70's. What had been (the Ember) a lovely little stream turned into a concrete lined canal!
The weirpool above the roadbridge at Hampton Court used to produce great catches before the work was done, after it was just dead.

Let's hope that sense can prevail on this one.
 
Environmental destruction is absolutely the prime issue here and therefore it's crucial to alert or involve the various wildlife and conservation groups. There are various wildlife species found along the Loddon that are legally protected along with thier habitat.
 
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