A £100,000 funding boost has been agreed to expand and speed up work to restore a chalk stream tributary near Basingstoke. 

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is providing the funding to the South East Rivers Trust to enhance its project to restore part of Petty’s Brook, a tributary to the River Loddon. 

This section of the brook, near Hanmore Road in Chineham, currently flows through a concrete channel with a flat, uniform bottom and steep edges that give plants little room to grow. 

The project will transform it into a more natural stream by removing the concrete and reshaping it with gently sloping banks that plants like wildflowers can grow on. The stream’s bed will also be varied to create different depths, which will provide refuge for wildlife when water levels are lower. 

The trust already had £200,000 to improve 300 metres of the brook. The money was secured through an Environment Agency enforcement undertaking, following a 2022 pollution incident that killed fish and other wildlife. 

Detailed proposals for improving the stream are now being drawn up, with the aim of starting major nature restoration work in summer next year.  

The trust had been aiming to improve an additional 250-metre stretch of the brook in the future. The council’s funding means this work can be brought forward to begin in the next two years, creating new habitats and food sources sooner to support the waterway’s wildlife. 

Cabinet Member for Climate and Ecological Emergency Cllr Chris Tomblin said: “Our funding boost will significantly expand and speed up the South East Rivers Trust’s project to restore Petty’s Brook, a tributary to the River Loddon as a globally rare chalk stream habitat that is so important for our borough’s native wildlife. 

“It was only in March that our Cabinet adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Rivers, committing this council to go as far as it can to protect the waterways that flow in Basingstoke and Deane. This is just the first example since then of how we are now delivering on that pledge.  

“While water companies continue to fall short and cause harm to these fragile environments, this council is focused on stepping up as it works closely with the South East Rivers Trust and other partners to restore and protect Basingstoke and Deane’s rivers and streams.” 

Enhancing rivers and streams is a part of the council’s climate and ecological commitments, strengthened further by the council’s adoption earlier this year of its Declaration on the Rights of Rivers. 

More information about the council’s action to enhance nature is at www.basingstoke.gov.uk/our-nature-action   

More information about the South East Rivers Trust's position on Environment Agency enforcement undertakings is on its website at www.SouthEastRiversTrust.org/about-us/enforcement-undertakings-our-position