£2.4m to protect the River Lambourn

The £2.4 million investment is independent of work on Thames Water sewage treatment plants in the upper reaches of the river, which are already at capacity, known to have discharged over 1925 hours of waste since the beginning of 2025 into the River Lambourn. It also doesn’t include several projects facilitated and overseen by the North Wessex Downs National Landscape team, under the “Farming in a Protected Landscape” (FiPL scheme, which result from groups of neighbouring farmers working together.

Cllr Tony Vickers asked at a recent Council meeting: “Are projects from all the various funding streams being managed in a joined-up way in the rural areas?” He was told that the Environment Team are aware of all these projects. When details are available, they will be publicised.

Cllr Denise Gaines said “This is fantastic news for our chalk streams. For too long our rivers have been plagued by Thames Water’s continuous sewage dumping.”