Aquatic plants in an English chalk stream by Linda Pitkin/2020Vision
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Save our Chalk Streams
Currently, only 11 out of 220 British chalk streams have any legal protections, and even these fall short of the measures needed to defend these rivers.
England's chalk streams are one of the rarest habitats on earth! Their crystal-clear waters are home for salmon, water voles, white-clawed crayfish and kingfishers, making them our equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest. A truly special habitat that we are lucky to enjoy.
Our chalk streams need protecting
Many of our chalk stream rivers are now polluted, dirty and choked by pollution, threatening the wildlife that calls them home and the people that rely on them for their wellbeing. The Government must introduce specific protections for all chalk streams in their planning reforms, to ensure these unique habitats are conserved and put into recovery for future generations.
How can chalk streams be protected?
Some chalk streams have been given Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status but this designation is not well-suited to protecting those chalk streams which are heavily influenced by activities across their catchments. New protections in planning will safeguard all chalk streams and give them a chance to recover.
We are calling for bespoke protection for our chalk streams, as outlined by the CaBA Chalk Stream Restoration Strategy.
These protections must:
- Introduce a 50m minimum ‘no development zone’ buffer as recommended by Natural England.
- Redefine chalk streams and their catchments as ‘irreplaceable habitats’, alongside ancient woodland, with stronger wording to protect chalk streams throughout national planning policy guidelines.
- Encourage parallel investment in water supply and treatment infrastructure as a condition of planning approval.
What are BBOWT doing?
March 2025
We asked our MPs to attend the second reading of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill on 24th March to raise the importance of chalk streams and the need for protections for them in the planning system. During the reading, chalk streams were mentioned 15 times!
Chris Hinchliff MP tabled the chalk stream protection amendment. We are asking all our MPs to add their name and show their support.
February 2025
The Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, responded to our joint open letter.
November 2024
We signed an open letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP.
Find out more: Nature charities urge UK Government to protect rare chalk streams
October 2024
We asked our MPs to attend the ‘Chalk Streams: Sewage Discharge’ debate. Local chalk streams, including the Pang and the Loddon, were discussed as well as the need for recognised special status and designation for chalk streams, buffer zones and nature-based solutions. Click below to read the full debate.
September 2024
We asked our supporters to complete our e-action to respond to the Government’s planning reforms in the National Planning Policy Framework consultation. The e-action allowed you to personalise your response with why you think chalk streams are so special into a template with our policy asks. Hundreds of supports took this action so thank you!
Save our Chalk Streams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyi4ibdqFpg)
BBOWT president Steve Backshall explains the importance of chalk streams and how you can help to protect them.
October 2023
The Wildlife Trusts put on a parliamentary roundtable hosted by Maria Miller MP to bring attention to the crisis, and several other MPs advocated for more ambitious measures to safeguard chalk streams in the Government’s plans.
CEOs of BBOWT and Hampshire and Isle of Wight (Estelle Bailey and Debbie Tann) and Water Policy Manager at the Wildlife Trusts (Ali Morse) meet with MPs about chalk streams.
Autumn 2023
We asked supporters to email their MP to help chalk streams today – not in 2063.
September 2023
BBOWT join forces with other local Wildlife Trusts to launch the Save Our Chalk Streams campaign.
What you can do!
The Planning & Infrastructure Bill is a key opportunity to strengthen protections for our precious chalk streams. We have been working with other Wildlife Trusts and MPs on this to help the submission of an amendment to the Bill for chalk streams protections in the planning system:
- Ask your MP to add their name to the amendment:
- The Government should urgently clarify its plan for chalk streams by releasing an improved version of the previously promised ‘Chalk Stream Recovery Pack’. Getting as many signature as we can signals to Government that there are lots of us who care about chalk streams. Sign and share the petition to ask the government not to abandon the Chalk Stream Recovery Pack:
The Letcombe Brook running through BBOWT's Letcombe Valley nature reserve. Picture: M Bailey
Chalk streams near you
Among the glorious rivers we have in our three counties are some of the country’s most beautiful chalk streams.
In Oxfordshire, the Letcombe Brook and Chalgrove Brook are both chalk streams; Berkshire is home to the Pang, Kennet, Aldbourne, Dun and Lambourne, while Buckinghamshire boasts the Chess, Misbourne and Wye.
FAQs
Why are chalk streams special?
With only around 220 existing worldwide, these cool, fresh, oxygen-rich waters provide the perfect habitat for rare British species like water vole, southern chalk stream Atlantic salmon, brown trout, southern damselfly, water crowfoot, and white-clawed crayfish.
Over 85% of the 220 chalk streams in the world are found in the South of England, truly one of the rarest habitats on the planet. They are also incredibly rich in life; home to more species of plants than any other English river and include species found nowhere else. They are England's equivalent to the Great Barrier Reef or the Amazon Rainforest: a truly special natural heritage and our responsibility.
How are chalk streams under threat?
England's rarest habitat and richest chalk streams should be clear, and sparkling with vitality. Instead they are becoming clogged and choked by toxic chemicals, fertilisers and sewage. Drought and over consumption are draining the life out of rivers, with devastating consequences for the wildlife and people that rely on them.
Healthy rivers are vital for our water supply, our food security and our ability to withstand a changing climate. We can't allow the abuse of these vital life support systems to continue.
Do any chalk streams have protection?
Currently, only 11 out of the 220 British chalk streams have any legal protections as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). These are Berkshire and Wiltshire’s Kennet, Hampshire’s Test, Somerset’s Frome, Dorset’s Bere Stream, Norfolk’s Nar, Yorkshire’s Hull headwaters and Greater London’s Crane.
Only 4 are protected as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), a higher level of protection: Berkshire’s Lambourn, Hampshire and Wiltshire‘s Avon, Hampshire’s Itchen and Norfolk’s Wensum. But while these protections are helping to keep these rivers in a better state than chalk streams that are not protected, we need stronger regulations specifically designed for our chalk streams.
The Government said that our rivers won't be healthy until 2063. Why?
Currently, only 16% of waters in England are in good ecological health and none meet chemical standards. Staggeringly, this means not one of England's chalk streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries or seas are in an overall healthy condition. Even the 16% that are in good ecological health are not in good health overall because of the chemicals they contain.
Previous targets required by the Government to get our rivers in to good overall health by 2015 and 2021 have been missed.
The Government's 'river basin management plans' that launched in 2022 stated that the Government predicts that all of our rivers and streams won't be in good overall health until 2063. That's four decades away!