Draining of the Filter Beds at Seething Wells




 
Many noticed the draining of the water in the filter beds, even though it took place the week before Christmas. I have no hotline to the offshore company who own the site and can only hazard a guess as to why this is happening now.The water level had risen to the top of the filter beds posing a management issue and leaving it any later could fall foul of the bird breeding season. If proposed Environment Agency charges for abstraction and disharge go ahead from April 2018 it could be very expensive to discharge the water  see https://consult.environment-agency.gov.uk/new-charging-proposals-fromapril2018/








There used to be a charge for a discharge permit until deregulation followed Agency staff cuts. Abstraction for small amounts of water became free but this has not helped the environment and our local rivers such as the Crane, Hogsmill and Beverley suffer constantly from low flows. So the Agency have to reconsider but the admin causes a financial headache and any new charges must reflect the true cost of officer time (especially as much of it is spent sitting in traffic as they negotiate larger and larger jurisdictions). 


The Agency  also propose increases to permits to carry out habitat improvement work such as angling clubs and rivers trusts have been doing for years. A permit to place woody debris into the river channel currently costs £50 but would increase to £764 - more than the work would actually cost to carry out. Similar massive increases are proposed for permits for fish passes and off-channel fry refuges.


The Angling Trust has lodged a formal objection to the scale of the proposed increases http://www.anglingtrust.net but it would be most helpful if as many people as possible replied individually to the consultation; although I tried to answer a small part of the questionnaire but then found it impossible to submit.
Consultation ends 26.1.18




There were winners and losers after the draining. The winners were the little egret (above) and several lapwings, which enjoy poking around in  mud for invertebrates. Good numbers of fishing heron, cormorant and even a little grebe was seen struggling with a small roach. The losers were of course the stranded fish.

 Be aware that Planning Guidance for the river side is under consultation, which includes a viewing platform over the filter beds.The draft Kingston Riverside Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) sets out a vision for Kingston Riverside  from Canbury Gardens to Seething Wells and how it should change over the next 10-15 years. 

Supplementary Planning Documents provide more detailed guidance about policies in the Core Strategy and the Kingston Town Centre Area Action Plan (so-called K+20). They are a material consideration when determining planning applications.

Feedback is important and will be used to finalise the SPD before it is adopted. Once adopted it will provide more detail about how planning policies are applied to the riverside and guide future investment priorities for public spaces in this area.

The consultation period runs from the 19th of January until the 18th of March 2018. You can download a PDF version  of the document by visiting https://www.kingston.gov.uk/riverside. Copies of the document are available at borough libraries, and at the council offices at the Information and Advice Centre on the ground floor of Guildhall 2, from 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts

Most viewed

Heritage Trees part 2: street trees.

Image
  Oaks and maples Cambridge Gardens 2019   Street trees can often be the most beautiful objects in our streets. They are important to their communities as well as having environmental benefits. They are a living history in our landscape and can have particular connections. They may be fragments of a previous landscape incorporated into a modern street scene, such as the oaks at Cambridge Gardens once  part of the Duke of Cambridge's estate.  A great read with information on how to research street trees is a  History of Street Trees by Dr. M. Johnston.  London plane trees CRE 1976 Beech tree, Chesterton Terrace 1976 Studies show that the difference in local tree cover can reflect the various socio-economic groups. In Victorian times middle class areas were planted with many street trees or had higher quality front gardens than working class districts; now referred to as 'green equity'. It can be demonstrated by looking at old photos of the seven...
Read more

Fishing the Hogsmill

Image
Fly-fishing the Hogsmill   It is interesting to see the river from a different perspective: the Hogsmill is popular with anglers at this time of year; although it is unusual to see someone fly- fishing. A chub has just been caught on bread and it looks a good size. Trout are sometimes seen in the Hogsmill and can sit in the weir notch by the school. Our own Richard Jefferies in his book 'Nature Near London'  remarked on the Hogsmill trout as far up as Tolworth Hall Bridge (now the A240). chub    This fish was carefully unhooked and orientated in the swim where it soon finds it way - probably to the next father and son - sitting further upstream. These anglers have caught the 'ghost' koi within the last two weeks and appear to be the second successful pair to catch the pond-escapee in the last few days. Ghost koi are a British invention. They were produced by accident in the early 80’s when a farmer allowed a mirror carp and a koi to spawn together. The offspri...
Read more

Seething Wells: they've done it again

Image
The last day of May, I went to see if I could find the black redstart that had been widely reported, no luck but it will turn up again on one of the old buildings. The lush vegetation was looking beautiful between the Filter Beds at Seething Wells. I made a note of the breeding birds: goldfinches twinkling away, blue tits gathering food, sand martins flying over the FB's (only two this year unfortunately) moorhens and some scruffy little coot chicks entangled in the algal blooms.   Proud parents were showing off their four Canada chicks; they can cover a lot of ground in a short space of time they were soon feeding on water pepper and bistort gleaned from  the ziggerat-sided basins. A song thrush sang from the wharf alongside greenfinches as well as the seasonal chiff chaff; although this year all numbers are down, reflecting not only the topsy-turvy Spring but also the continued tumble in insect numbers (even seed eating birds are dependent on insects to feed their youn...
Read more