River Restoration on The River Lee

Our FiveRivers consultancy team recently attended a community engagement event at Wardown Park in Luton for the River Lee Family Fun Day. We were kindly invited by the catchment partnership and attended with Affinity Water.

We are currently delivering river restoration design on a stretch of the River Lee through Fallowfield Nature Reserve and past the area known as at Bide-a-While, as part of our framework with Affinity Water. The River Lee, a valuable chalk stream, forms part of Affinity Water’s programme, and the work aims to improve the waterbody’s WFD status. Currently, low flows, road runoff and historical modifications are negatively impacting the river. Our work has assessed the current constraints and features of the River Lee, and evaluated the potential restoration options, providing concept designs that were reviewed by stakeholders and then refined to detailed, construction ready designs.

Our current designs are exploring options including: berm creation, woody habitat enhancements, vegetation management, bank regrading, introduction of a wetland system, and wetland scrapes.

The engagement event was attended by Ellie and Ebony, who created an interactive stall featuring cartoon visualisations, information boards, and the project designs for our Bide-a-While project. The team engaged with local residents, answering questions and raising awareness about our ongoing work.