Sanders Park Wetland CREDIT Lucy Wood Environment Agency
Love Your River Bromsgrove
Defra's Love Your River campaign aimed to raise public awareness about the health of our rivers and the water we use.
The campaign concentrated on issues that affect rivers and encouraged people to think about:
- how the water we use in our homes or businesses affects the water in our local river
- how the pollutants we dump down our drains harms our local water
- the fact that there is likely to be less water available for people and businesses in the future and the knock-on effects this will have on the natural world around our rivers
- how we could get by with less water in the event of droughts
- On average we use nearly 150 litres of water per person per day and it is easy to forget that our actions have a direct consequence on the health and wellbeing of our local rivers. That is why people were asked to look at their own lifestyle to see if there are any changes they could make to help our rivers flourish.
- Homes don't have to be next to a river for pollution to occur - road drains, for example, are only designed for rainwater and link directly into water courses but sometimes washing machines etc. are incorrectly linked into these drains.
Love Your River in Bromsgrove
The watercourses in Bromsgrove are failing the Environment Agency’s standards for chemical quality and wildlife. We partnered with the Agency and local people to improve water quality and to help wildlife in the town. We focussed our attention on Bromsgrove because it is especially important as the last Worcestershire stronghold for water voles. The town watercourses have the potential to be far better for wildlife and can be enhanced for their public benefits as well.
Work carried out
We delivered a wide range of work through the Love Your River Bromsgrove project. This included...
- Habitat creation and enhancement to improve water quality through reducing diffuse pollution and the impact of manmade structures on wildlife. This provided additional benefits such as flood relief and habitats for water voles.
- Creation of a wetland area known as a Sustainable Urban Drainage (SuDs) feature to clean run-off from surrounding roads before it enters the Battlefield Brook. The wetland also stores rainwater, helping to reduce flooding downstream and it will increase food and suitable banks for water voles voles, hopefully allowing their numbers and local range to increase.
- Working closely with local schools and residents to raise awareness and deliver wetland planting across the town.
- Further work with home-owners helped improve the banks along the Battlefield Brook where it borders people’s gardens.