Thames Water have been accused of another botched job, this time on the River Wandle near Beddington, where their works have made it impossibly difficult for fish to swim upstream.
Botch job: how Thames Water’s new ‘boulders’ have made a river impassable to fish
A local environment campaigner has an email from the Environment Agency which says that the privatised water monopoly ignored advice over the demolition of a weir by the Goat Road bridge.
Jim Duffy had expressed his concerns before it was decided to demolish the weir. But his worst fears have been confirmed, after the weir was replaced by a series of concrete “boulders”.
“The fish now find it too difficult to swim upstream because of the strong currents formed by the boulders,” Duffy said.
The weir at Goat Bridge was about five feet high. Its removal was supposed to bring together disconnected sections of the river at Mitcham. “The weir currently means that a variety of aquatic wildlife such as fish and insects cannot reach a variety of habitat to complete their life cycles,” according to South East Rivers Trust before the project went ahead.
“This structure weir restricts about 500 metres of river, creating water conditions more akin to a lake than a river and leaving wildlife unable to reach a variety of habitats crucial to their survival.”
The Wandle is a rare chalk stream, which rises in South Croydon to flow northwards towards the Thames at Wandsworth via Carshalton and Mitcham. Historically, it provided habitat for a range of fish, including trout.
Thames Water conducted the work earlier this year, and replaced the weir with a rock ramp and concrete boulders.
Wandle weir: the water course at Goat Road bridge before the demolition
Duffy’s letter from an Environment Agency official stated: “We are well aware of this issue at Goat Bridge… [This] is a problem with the short box culvert immediately downstream of the rock ramp which has had a series of concrete ‘boulders’ created within and downstream of it to cause variations in water depth and thus enable fish passage…
“We have a dedicated panel of fish pass specialists and despite their feedback being given on the proposed design from Thames Water, with suggested alterations, the alterations didn’t get made.
“We are investigating what changes need to be made to our processes at the EA to ensure that feedback from the fish pass panel doesn’t get ignored in future.
“Rest assured that the design is stable and safe and does not increase flood risk… but there is still a question mark over what depths the concrete boulders will create and what species of fish it can pass. This is currently being investigated by flow monitoring.
“As a result, we haven’t yet signed off the project as complete. It is a shame that the Goat Bridge project wasn’t able to demolish the problem culvert completely but I think it will be later used as a cycle path.”
Duffy said: “The EA has been asked if similar plans to knock down the weirs at Wilderness Island can be put on hold. Concerns there include ponds on the nature reserve drying out and reduced water levels by residents’ homes creating security risks.”
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Many thanks Inside Croydon for highlighting this awful bodge job.
For several years residents along the river have been raising our concerns about when weirs are removed. It now makes no sense to destroy the weirs at Wilderness Island at a cost of millions as the fish cannot even get this far due to the blockage at Goat Bridge.
Our concerns include the wetlands on the nature reserve drying out with associated loss of habitats including for kingfishers. Turning a deep open river into a stream would destroy the character of the island while displacing existing fish like carp and pike.
Daubentons bats fled the Wandle at Hackbridge when the weir there was removed. Meanwhile residents who moved in order to live by the river will see the banks become overgrown as happened on the Carshalton branch when weirs there were removed. And the security of homes will be compromised by a shallow narrow stream instead of the deeper wider river.
Downstream flooding is often linked to weir removal. A simple fish pass would be a safer alternative without creating all these risks.
The EA email was sent to me as part of our correspondence over a couple of months.
Unfortunately the water company proposing the changes at Wilderness Island have kept residents in the dark and excluded us from stakeholder meetings, meaning we only by chance or curiosity find out about occurrences such as at Goat Bridge and even our own stretch of the Wandle upstream from Wilderness Island.
The residents in the area and particularly those whose gardens edge on the river are very grateful that Jim has kept abreast of the matters that concern us all.
There have been various suggestions made on so called ‘improvements’ but all these appear flawed as well as being very financially costly. My main concern is the wildlife and their wellbeing, with the need to preserve the rich amount we have. Bats, Kingfishers, Geese, swans, ducks and even the hope of the return of water voles as there were some placed in the Wandle previously.
Our area should be preserved as one of rich habitats for so many species not messed around with by people that have done what we all consider to be insufficient research and certainly no discussion with residents nd stakeholders. Thank you Jim!
Many thanks Christine for your supportive comments and also for your years of support for the wildlife currently thriving on the Wandle. Some will remember you staying days and nights protecting injured swans on Wilderness Island. It’s dismaying to see a mistaken design built on the river with such consequences, causing worries over what might befall our stretch of the river if the weirs here are knocked down, particularly so as we’re not involved in the stakeholder discussions.
Residents who have riparian rights because our gardens back onto the river are not considered “stakeholders” and are not consulted. As usual our Lib Dem Councillors attend meetings, the Council is termed a stakeholder but have never kept us updated. Thank you Jim Duffy for being the only one who does keep us informed.
Thanks Sheila. The council had to give way to residents in Beddington who legally challenged plans which affected their riparian rights over changes to the river by their homes. I have exchanged emails with the council officer representing Sutton but I inevitably have to take the initiative. There are no regular updates on the professionals’ meetings which I find surprising in this day and age.
When Thatcher privatised the water industry, we were promised improved efficiency, increased investment, better customer service, lower prices and the reduction of government debt.
What we’ve got is more leaks, decreased investment, more sewage, higher prices and spiralling government debt.
Instead of sorting this out, Labour have let it get worse. Steve Reed could have done something but he didn’t. No wonder water campaigner Feargal Sharkey called for his resignation https://insidecroydon.com/2025/07/21/reed-slammed-for-laughable-claims-on-private-water-industry
Reed didn’t resign. Starmer didn’t sack him either. He promoted him to a different job.
Yesterday we learned that Thames Water’s American owners tried to force Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard to pay their legal fees in retaliation for him representing the interests of the British public in court and pushing for government control of the clusterfuck monopoly.
You can rely on Labour to turn a blind eye to scandals when it suits them, and likewise ignore the public and the environment to please big business