Brent Catchment Partnership

Catchment partnership vision

Our vision is to improve the condition and ecology of all watercourses within the River Brent catchment making them cleaner, more resilient and accessible, to benefit local communities and wildlife. From natural flood management, to habitat creation and restoring connectivity, our work together aims to build greater awareness, enjoyment and practical achievements to restore natural processes, reduce flood risk and increase biodiversity across the whole catchment. Our overall ambition is for catchment wide thinking with local action for a healthier River Brent that is valued by all.

Related websites

Find out more about the activities and ambitions of this catchment partnership and how you can get involved to help improve the water environment in the catchment.

Catchment challenges

Current challenges identified by partnership

  • Physical modifications

    Redundant modifications reduce wildlife resilience, habitat functionality and increase flood risk

  • Pollution from towns, cities and transport

    Chronic water pollution has adverse impacts on wildlife and human health and quality of life

  • Pollution from waste water

    Point source pollution from misconnected properties and discharges from the sewage network in densely populated area

Wider water environment challenges identified by partnership

  • Nature Recovery, designated areas for nature and biodiversity

    Due to the catchment being heavily urbanised, nature and biodiversity are at a disadvantage, development in the catchment must enhance biodiversity

  • Connecting communities with nature

    The importance of connecting the urban community with nature has benefits for both the environment and human well-being

  • Support Nature Recovery Network and Local Nature Recovery Strategy

    Aligning our goals as a partnership with these larger networks and strategies will help provide multiple benefits to projects

  • Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents

    A total of 294 spills from storm overflows took place in the catchment in 2021

  • Removing plastics/litter from the water environment

    Plastic pollution is a high priority in urban rivers and is an increasingly pressing environmental issue

  • Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change

    The heavily urbanised catchment is at increased risk to surface water flooding as well as fluvial flooding due to climate change

Future challenges predicted by partnership

  • Pollution from towns, cities and transport

    Heavily urbanised catchment, with a number of roads identified as significant sources of road run-off pollution

  • Physical modifications

    Many rivers in the catchment have been historically dredged and channelised

  • Pollution from waste water

    Densely populated catchment with frequent waste water pollution events that will be expected to increase in number unless serious action is taken

Future challenges predicted by Environment Agency

Future challenges in 2050

  • Pollution from Towns Cities and Transport
  • Invasive Non-native Species
  • Changes to the Natural Flow and Water Levels

Emerging challenges

  • Changes to the Natural Flow and Water Levels
  • Pollution from waste water
  • Pollution from Towns Cities and Transport

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

Our partnership has a large number of regular and active members, including volunteers contributing to improving the watercourses and Brent catchment’s blue spaces. Between 2016-20 we have increased engagement and completed more river restoration, thanks to an annual funding commitment by the 5 Local Authorities intersecting the river catchment. Many successful collaborations involved new partners and local groups: installing leaky dams on headwater streams, notching weirs, removing toe-boarding, marginal habitat creation and monitoring changes. We connected with local doctors and health centres to restore the River Brent, working with local residents. During lockdown we produced a video to reach out to all our river champions and continue celebrating their role in 'restoring rivers and communities' on the River Brent. We lobbied government to improve water quality and helped secure additional funds for local councils to restore river and wetland habitats in public spaces. Building on pollution evidence with citizen science from Outfall Safari, Riverfly and FreshWater Watch surveys across all Brent water bodies, we formed a water quality working group. We also celebrated 'biodiversity on the Brent' with presentations from local wildlife groups, the councils and Environment Agency via Zoom to unite all partners and friends in our shared vision and ambitions for the 'Big 5 Brent' most cherished wildlife: kingfishers, eels, water voles, river fly and bat species.

Partnership development plans

Improving the Brent and tributaries by improving water quality, fish passage and habitat improvements, including using natural flood management and water vole reintroduction. Securing more funding to support community action, focus groups and engagement with developers and planners. Increasing diversity and inclusion to reflect our multi-cultural, urban communities. Identifying new investment options from private and public sources in blue projects coupled with increasing water stewardship.

Partnership priority actions and measures for 2022 to 2027

  • Wider water environment

    Silk Stream Flood Resilience Innovation Project

    Reason for measure
    Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change
    Delivery mechanism
    Flood and Coastal Innovation and Resilience Fund
    Location
    Silk Stream and Edgware Brook

  • Wider water environment

    Thames and Tributaries Plastic Blitz Project

    Reason for measure
    Removing plastics/litter from the water environment
    Delivery mechanism
    EU funding
    Location
    Brent Rivers and Lakes

  • Wider water environment

    Increase the number of participants in citizen science through training and engagement

    Reason for measure
    Connecting communities with nature
    Delivery mechanism
    Other local funding
    Location
    Brent Rivers and Lakes

Catchment Partnership contributors

Partners involved in the creation of this page and the actions of the partnership: