Following, a public consultation in partnership with the Town Council, the Stamford local community gave a thumbs up to the proposed habitat enhancement works on the Millstream, that are now underway this week.
Funded by the Environment Agency and Stamford Town Council, the project targets a critical part of the watercourse at the confluence of the river Welland on Stamford’s popular and well-used Town Meadows.
The work complements past efforts conducted by the Stamford Millstream Group, with support from the Welland Rivers Trust (now East Mercia Rivers Trust) and the Environment Agency to improve the water flow and the habitat for the UK’s most endangered mammal, the water vole.
Andy Sadler who works on the Welland and Nene rivers for the Environment Agency said the work has lots of benefits for everyone. “We’re going to add in around about fifty tonnes of limestone gravel that will help in two ways. It will provide a nice little home for the invertebrates that live in the water, and because we will be raising the bed level a bit more the water flow will break over the top and allow oxygen in. So, it’ll improve the water quality as well. And a bit more of a nice feature really to encourage people to get to know their river a little bit more is put in a gravel beach, an area which is really shallow, graded and safe for everybody to wander down and really engage with the river.”
East Mercia Rivers Trust’s Welland Project Manager, Patricia Antunes is working closely with Lions Environmental Contractors to deliver the much-needed improvements said, “We are particularly pleased with the amount of public interest and support we have received for this project. It will look a bit stark initially, but very quickly the vegetation will establish, and this will improve the habitat for wildlife and the enjoyment value for the local community.”