At our AGM, held in April 2026, our Chairman Stuart Merrylees circulated his report covering activities over the past year and issues that are affecting and threaten the health of the river.
Shortly after I joined the DRiPS committee in 2001, the Environment Agency published an elegant booklet with a CD entitled “Revitalising the River Darent – a second chance for life”. There was a pdf with movies of speakers from the EA and from DRiPS. 25 years on, the CD is nearly forgotten, but we have some of the movies on our website (including the one featured below).
The CD marked a flagship event for the Environment Agency. With government finance and help from the water companies they had launched the Darent Action Plan – some new water supply was piped from a quarry near Bluewater and some abstraction was reduced elsewhere and the concept of an Environmentally Acceptable Flow (EAF) was introduced. OFWAT had been created in 1989 to oversee the newly privatised water companies. The EA has now been progressively defunded and the water companies have been starved of investment. No one today knows how the story will end. The government has barely responded to the Jon Cunliffe report, published in 2025. Thames Water has £20 billion debt and has finds it much cheaper to pay the fines than to fix its problems.
Chalk Streams and the Rights of Rivers
Autumnal reflections on the River Darent.
Meanwhile the national plight of our chalk streams has hit the headlines, thanks to the work of the conservationists like Charles Rangeley-Wilson who has worked with WWF, founded the Wild Trout Trust and writes regularly on chalkstreams.org. A number of District Councils are now passing motions to protect the rights of their river in future planning decisions. DRiPS is delighted that Sevenoaks District Council has taken this step for the Darent. The legal consequences of making this move have yet to be established and we are delighted to have Paul Powlesland talking at our meeting tonight.
Can we manage our water better?
The answer almost certainly has to be yes. In the south east, we largely rely for water storage on the chalk aquifers beneath our feet. These were first drilled in the 1800s and managed by local water companies, now subsumed into Thames Water, SE Water, Southern Water and so forth. Within London there is a limited water ring main and this may be extended one day if and when a new reservoir is built near Abingdon. Just like managing the nation’s gas and electricity suppliers, our water companies must together grapple with cost effective storage and connectivity. Every 5 years, the water companies are obliged to submit their asset management plans to Ofwat and the current cycle called AMP8 runs until 2030. And every year, government puts increased pressure of local planners to accept even more housing, seemingly blind to the fact that water resources are finite and both water supply and sewage treatment plants are in dire straits over much of the country.
A new Darent Action Plan
In 2022, the Wild Trout Trust published a report by consultant hydrologist John Lawson showing that the Darent and Cray are still two of the most heavily abstracted chalk rivers in the country. DRiPS, in partnership with the SE Rivers Trust and with the Darent Valley Trout Fishers, asked John Lawson if he could work with the water companies to look for possible solutions. John was one of the first people to write a study of the Darent when he worked with Halcrow back in the 1980s and he has become a nationally recognised expert on chalk streams and abstraction impact. His new report is due to be published in May. The partnership sees this as a potential New Darent Action Plan and we thank all those councils and angling clubs who have contributed to fundraising – there is still a chance to add your voice! We all hope to see a significantly better base flow in both rivers in the next few years.
The Darent Valley is a national treasure and has been recognised as such by DEFRA who provided funding for a Darent Valley Landscape Recovery Scheme. You can find them on darent.org where you can read about their goal for Nature and Farming to work in harmony. Our DRiPS president William Alexander heads up the group. As their website says:
The Darent Valley landscape is a survival story. It is situated on the doorstep of London, within 17 miles of Big Ben, with a population of 1.3 million living within 10km, and bisected by the UK’s busiest motorway. This historic area of outstanding natural beauty is today under huge pressure from people and its proximity to London.
Does the Darent need a Sewage Treatment Plant?
This is not a question we plan to address to tonight. Given the record damage that such existing plants have done to so many of our nation’s rivers, you can guess our view on this subject. The principle is simple: we must never let water enter chalk streams that is inferior to its natural spring-fed chemistry. Maybe it should be enshrined in the Rights of Rivers.
Our DRiPS Podcast
Last September our secretary Jackie recorded the podcast Dip into the Darent with Chris Gardner, just before he left South East Rivers Trust (SERT). The new role of Catchment Officer on the Darent and Cray has been taken by Dr Isobel Ollard. A warm welcome to Isobel!
Surface Water and Building in the Flood Plain
It is unfortunate to say the least, that so many of our surface water road drains either go into a sewer or straight into a nearby stream. As we all know, runoff from roads, drives and farmland is no longer simply rain. Modern building regulations require new developments to direct surface water into land around the property using Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). Polluted water should then be filtered by natural processes before it arrives in the aquifer. How can the water quality it be monitored, especially if the new building is in the flood plain?
Partnerships
DRiPS attends the Darent and Cray Catchment Improvement Group meetings throughout the year and it’s a great forum for exchanging information.
We must thank Mark Gallant and NWKCP and everyone who volunteers to do stuff on the river. Mark has also been a DRiPS committee member for several years.
Finally, I must thank all our DRiPS committee members and our many friends and collaborators for their hard work in the last year. We give a warm welcome to James Nedham who we co-opted onto the committee last year.
In 2025 DRiPS celebrated its 40th anniversary with a summer gathering at The Quadrangle. No one can possibly predict what the next 40 years will bring. There is little doubt that we must strive for resilience and self-sufficiency.
Stuart Merrylees, Chairman
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