Hertfordshire’s River Stout, one of several chalk streams facing pollution problems, will be restored after a government grant was released to the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust on March 15. Carry out recovery work.

The £25m Species Survival Fund has allocated resources to 20 new conservation projects across the country, focusing on restoring “critical habitat areas” the size of the city of York.

Residents of Bishop’s Stortford, a historic market town along the river, welcomed the funding announcement and highlighted the importance of the river to their community.

“I’m really happy with the funding because it’s for natural resources rather than another cafe or fancy restaurant,” postman Neil Whitbread, 57, told us independent.

“The Stout River is more polluted than it was when I was a kid because we used to swim there. But I wouldn’t swim there now,” Whitbread added.

He said many people had found rubbish in and around the river: “Shopping carts have been pulled out of the river.”

Whitbread said Stout was a “comfort” to local residents. He said: “When I was growing up, this river has always been a part of my life. I have laughed there and cried there. I took my children to fish there.”

Like Whitbread, crew member Frederica Presenza, 34, and Wetherspoon class president and student Billianna Instrall, 19, cherish their time in the stream.

“I had the pleasure of watching a swan swimming in the reflection of the moon last night after get off work,” Pressenza said. “It’s a symbol of hope – knowing that this swan had recently lost his life partner but was still so calm and relaxed, I felt the same way.”

Instral said: “When the weather is nice, my family and I often walk along the river and enjoy the river scenery. My parents love canal boats, and we often pick out beautiful canal boats and admire them.”

Instrall thinks the funding announcement is “amazing”: “The Stort is our name, our heritage. I can’t imagine not having it here, so if there’s anything that needs to change to keep it alive for us, I’d be happy to hear it This news.”

Ben Partridge, 31, who makes a living supplying coal, gas and diesel to boatmen on a canal boat on the Stout River, was also delighted to hear the news because he believed some of the river’s Part “requires a lot of care and attention”. “They don’t often want to fund something. It’s mostly just take, take, take, not funding.”

The Stort is just one of Britain’s polluted chalk rivers, a rare special lowland stream Typically rising from a chalk aquifer, the water is clear and the plant life is diverse. Year 2014 Report The majority of Chalk streams globally are classified as “poor health”, with no streams in “high” status, 23% of streams in “good” status, 46% in “moderate” status and 30% in “poor” status. or” status. bad”.

Some 85 % of the world’s 200 chalk rivers are in southern and eastern England.

“The majority of the funding will be for capital improvements on the river,” said Sarah Perry, river catchment coordinator for Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. “We are carrying out works on 11.5km of Chalk River.” Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust received £1.7m as part of the fund.

Other projects included in the funding package will also restore waters in other parts of the UK, including the River Medlock, which is managed by Groundwork Greater Manchester.

“This is a really exciting opportunity to improve habitats and connect people with nature,” said Lucy Stowell-Smith, Groundwork Greater Manchester project manager.

However, some environmental movements are unhappy with the new government funding.

“We can’t just throw some money here and there. It has to be part of a coordinated plan, but we don’t have a coordinated plan. It’s a mess,” said Friends of the Earth nature campaigner Paul de Zilva.

An Extinction Rebellion spokesman said the government’s approach to nature and the environment was “piecemeal, inadequate and contradictory to say the least”.

They added: “They are allowing water companies to kill our rivers with sewage, while their licensed new drilling in the North Sea is doubling down on the extinction of much of life on Earth.”

Thomas Atkins, a researcher at the Leverhulme Center for Nature Recovery at the University of Oxford, said that while the funding allocation was “a positive move”, providing £25m each for 20 projects was “insufficient” to achieve what the government is legally bound to do The goal is to prevent the decline of species by 2030, and resources are abundant.

“From a biologist’s perspective, we need systemic changes in the way we manage and develop our countryside to have any chance of success,” he comments.

Still, Whitbread is pleased the government is funding the rewilding of the Stout River, saying: “This river is for everyone, no matter how rich or poor you are.”