Lower Itchen restoration - a proposal for the city.

Who cares about the Lower Itchen and her potential to be something other than a boat navigation strip or industrial waste dump? We at Southampton National Park City do!

That's why together with Friends of the Itchen Estuary supported by the Maritime Volunteer Service, we set about mapping the riverbank to spot opportunities for interventions that would encourage biodiversity. Drawing upon local knowledge of the history of the Itchen navigation and the expertise of our trustee and Senior Conservationist Zeno Wijtten as well as a report by ecologist David Fairlamb of Natural Links, we drew together a proposal for Southampton City Council's call for sites where there is potential for biodiversity to be increased - you can download the proposal yourself down below.

Local Plan Call for Sites - BNG River Itchen.pdf

Download PDF • 1.93MB

In 2022 we put out a public consultation on priorities for SNPC and the top priority identified was to work towards a clean River. Since then, Friends of the Itchen Estuary and Southampton River Rights movement have sprung up - the former to promote citizen science led campaigning and the latter to work towards a collaborative charter for the Rights of Southampton's Rivers - and you can sign up for email updates on how to get involved by clicking here!

We have continued to create community engagement around biodiversity at the River, hosting events such as balsam bashing, litter picking and a bioblitz at Riverside park. We funded a public mural at Woodmill depicting the importance of the Itchen to Atlantic salmon and we are funding through our Young Placemaker scheme further citizen science and art by the group 'Guardians of the River Itchen'.

In 2025 one of the ecology officers mentioned a project in Bristol harbour where floating ecosystems have been installed, so we set about investigating the possibilities. There are a lot of organisations focussed on interventions for nature along the Itchen, but none downstream of Woodmill. We were told by the chief ecologist that she had had to turn down funding for biodiversity net gain in this area because there were no worked up proposals.

As well as submission to the Local Plan we have sent this document to the HIWWT, the Wessex Rivers Trust, ABP and Southern Water Services. We know there is money for net zero and for biodiversity net gain. We know the tide is turning as evidenced by the SCC motion on rights of rivers. We know everybody has boxes to tick around community engagement and corporate social responsibility - so we aim to take the proactive measure of submitting a plan directly to decisions makers. We'll report back on any progress!