February 2022

46
Wanstead Village Directory
Restoring the Roding
The Thames21 project is making improvements to the River Roding
adjacent to Wanstead Park. Catchment Partnership Development
Officer Will Oliver provides an update in the second of a series of articles
The environmental charity Thames21
has joined forces with Vision
Redbridge Culture and Leisure, City of
London (Epping Forest) and the Friends of
Wanstead Parklands to improve habitats
within a stretch of the River Roding
bordering Wanstead Park.
By adding fallen trees to the channel, we
can provide homes for a wider variety of
animals and plants by encouraging the river
to ‘rewild’ itself away from its current straight,
featureless form.
In the December edition of the Wanstead
Village Directory, I discussed in more detail
how this process works. But before work
on the Roding can commence, we must
first secure a Flood Risk Activity Permit
(FRAP) from the Environment Agency (the
government body responsible for protecting
the environment).
Bar a few exceptions, all work that happens
in a main river or on its floodplain must
have a FRAP. This permit is only granted if
the work will not increase the flood risk to
properties or businesses. Since my last article,
the Thames21 river restoration team have
written up their plans to improve the Roding
alongside Wanstead Park through the addition
of staked and secured fallen trees. These have
been submitted to the Environment Agency
and, all being well, we hope to be awarded a
FRAP by the end of February. We will then be
contacting volunteers to carry out the river
improvement project.
Whilst we wait for this permit to be approved,
it’s a good opportunity to highlight a
similar project which Thames21 has recently
completed on the River Cray at Footscray
Meadow, Bexley in south London.
River Cray (before)
River Cray (after)
The River Cray is one of only 200 chalk streams
in the world. Unlike rivers such as the Roding,
which receive large amounts of rainwater,
chalk streams are almost entirely fed from
underground water stores, which rise through
chalk bedrock. This filtered water means a
chalk stream should run crystal clear. Just like
the Roding, the River Cray has been artificially
straightened and widened over the years,
reducing the value of the habitats it holds. In
2020, Thames21 worked with local volunteers
to introduce 16 fallen trees to the river channel
alongside Footscray Meadow. The photo
above shows a section of the Cray before and
after fallen trees were used to narrow the
channel. Already, the processes described in
my last article have been kick-started with the
river developing wilder areas for animals and
plants to thrive.
Fingers crossed, we’ll soon be seeing similar
improvements in the Roding!
For more information and to get involved
with the Thames21 project in Wanstead
Park, email will.oliver@thames21.org.uk
To advertise, call 020 8819 6645 or visit wnstd.com