News

Graham Flatt 1949 - 2025

22nd August 2025 - our friend and co-founder of Upper Itchen Restoration CIC, Graham Flatt, passed away yesterday.

A good friend of our river and the surrounding landscape, he looked after our Bighton Lane sampling site, close to the source of the Alre.

Here he is with one of his bee hives at the Bishop's Sutton BioBlitz in 2023.

Our thoughts are with the Flatt family.

Monitoring Summary Report for July

11th August 2025 - our summary of monitoring for July is published today, featuring our invertebrate of the month.

You can read it here.

In July, we contined to observe a hike in Phosphate levels on the Alre, with low flows on all sites as the drought takes hold.

New Interactive Phosphate Map

4th August 2025 - Upper Itchen Restoration CIC is working with the Test & Itchen Association on an interactive phosphate map of the Test, Itchen and Meon. You can view the first version here. By making nutrient levels in sensitive waters visible, this is the first step in our campaign for lower standards for phosphate and other nutrients in chalk streams.

The map shows the 60-plus locations on the 3 chalk rivers where volunteers sample water quality. You can use the map to see where the Environment Agency takes official samples and also where Southern Water discharges treated effluent from sewage works.

Let us know what you think !

BBC South visits Micro-Particulates Project

1st August 2025 - today Jon Cuthill, Environment and Climate Change correspondent for BBC South, came to film our micro-particulates project in action.

Volunteers collected samples from the River Alre, together with an invertebrate display and mini-aquaria to show some of the creatures affected by micro-plastic pollution.

Look out for the edited package on the BBC Website in August !

CIC calls on Southern Water to do more on Drought

14th July 2025 - we have a drought in Hampshire, with low water levels in our rivers. The Itchen at Ovington is only 25cm (6 inches) deep !

Southern Water is applying to the Environment Agency for a hosepipe ban (Temporary Use Ban, or TUB) to come into force on 21st July. We say that this action should have been taken earlier, to protect our precious chalk streams which provide much of Hampshire's drinking water.

We have asked Southern Water to publish figures for its abstraction from the Itchen at Totford and Otterbourne.

Meanwhile, let's all do what we can to reduce our water use - see our Publications page.

You can read about the TUB at www.southernwater.co.uk/help-and-support/temporary-use-ban-advice/.

Monitoring Summary Report for June 2025

8th July 2025 - our summary of monitoring for June is published today, featuring our invertebrate of the month.

You can read it here.

In June, we observed a hike in Phosphate levels on the Alre, perhaps a result of the low river flows after recent hot weather.

Removing Invasive Plant Species on the Candover

4th July 2025 - working party today at West Lea Farm Shop cress beds, removing invasive Monkeyflower.

Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) is a perennial wetland plant with attractive yellow flowers, but it forms dense stands from its creeping roots, which create thick mats. Although it has some value for bumblebees, it can out-compete native emergent plants, and over time may cover a whole watercourse, altering flow and disrupting the ecosystem. Originating in North America, it contains substances which deter herbivores from eating it.

From our surveys, there is a lot of it on the Upper Itchen streams this year. We are removing it !

If you see Monkeyflower in a river, stream or pond, then let us know on upperitchenrestorationcic@gmail.com.

Garden and Green Fair, Alresford

29th June 2025 - Upper Itchen Restoration CIC stand today at the Garden and Green event in Broad Street, Alresford - part of the Winchester Garden Festival.

Alongside our usual river invertebrate displays, we were talking to visitors about how to choose household cleaning products which do less harm to nature, and how to save water in the garden and at home.

See our latest leaflets

Household Cleaning Products

Saving Water in the Garden

Letter to the Hampshire Chronicle on Drought in the Itchen

26th June 2025 - today we wrote to the Editor of the Hampshire Chronicle, calling for water conservation measures to avert an impending drought on the Itchen.

Read the letter here.

Also, Dr Martin Burton has produced a report proposing a new method of drought prediction, as climate change brings us hotter, drier summers. Read it here.

Monitoring Summary Report for May 2025

19th June 2025 - our summary of monitoring for May is published today, featuring an unusual invertebrate of the month, which is new to our monitoring !

You can read it here.

Working with Environment Agency on Road Run-off in the Upper Itchen

12th June 2025 - today we took a representative of the Environment Agency on a walk-over of 4 sites where we know sediment is running off local roads into our chalk streams. Proposals are being documented to mitigate these issues, so that we can approach Hampshire Highways and landowners with a view to resolving these issues.

At one site, Drove Lane on the Alre, we have been able to demonstrate from sampling data that invertebrates sensitive to sediment have declined in the past 2 years.

Monitoring Summary Report for April 2025

5th June 2025 - our summary of monitoring for April is published today, featuring our creatures of the month.

You can read it here.

Hampshire WI discusses household cleaning products

1st May 2025 - today's panel discussion at the Womens' Institute 'Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife' campaign featured 2 of our directors, Martin Burton and Nick Walton, speaking about how we can all make choices in household cleaning products to benefit our rivers.

See our leaflet on the topic here.

Monitoring Summary Report for March 2025

7th April 2025 - our summary of monitoring for March is published today, featuring our invertebrates of the month.

You can read it here.

Upper Itchen Restoration CIC awarded grant to monitor Oxygen levels in River

March 2025 - Upper Itchen Restoration CIC has been awarded a generous grant by Winchester City Council under its Community Small Grants Scheme. This will enable us to add Dissolved Oxygen (DO) testing to our monitoring.

Good levels of DO are essential to many creatures living in the river. In particular, brown trout depend on high levels of DO, and their eggs will not develop without it. This is also true of many invertebrates, such as mayflies.

We believe that DO levels in the Itchen are not always sufficient for a healthy ecosystem. One factor is climate change (because warmer water can hold less oxygen, and our data shows gradual warming of water). Another is excess nutrients, which can cause algal blooms (like that of 2022), resulting in fluctuations in DO which impact on creatures living in the river – see our explainer on Eutrophication on our Nutrient Pollution page.

Appledown Lane Waste Water Treatment Works, Alresford

February 2025 - Southern Water has agreed to include a tracer study at the Appledown Lane waste water treatment works in Alresford in its planned programme of work, known as AMP8, for 2025-30. The Appledown Lane works discharges treated effluent into groundwater. Although this effluent has been treated at the works, it still contains levels of phosphate and other nutrients which could impact the chalk aquifer and the Upper Itchen ecosystem. Noone knows where this discharged effluent goes underground ! The tracer study is intended to find the route this waste water takes through the fissures in the underlying chalk, to establish if there are any negative impacts.

Upper Itchen Restoration CIC awarded grant for monitoring

January 2025 - Upper Itchen Restoration CIC has been awarded a generous grant of £1,000 by New Alresford Town Council (NATC) to support continuing monitoring of water quality. The money will enable us to purchase consumables for other sampling equipment to continue monitoring at 10 river locations for 2 years up to 2027.

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