Test and Itchen Association Going Forward

Chalk stream fly fishing in Hampshire UK

Our plans to protect fishing on the Hampshire chalk streams and support members in their aims and goals

For over 100 years the Test and Itchen Association has been dedicated to the preservation, enhancement, and sustainable management of the Test, Itchen and Meon rivers and their tributaries. Our commitment is to ensure these rivers remain a thriving habitat for wildlife, a source of prosperity and enjoyment for the angling and wider community, and a legacy for future generations.

The T&IA was set up as a campaigning organisation, it helped frame the first Salmon act, fought pollution during early road building and throughout our history has taken legal action and funded research to protect our rivers.

Our History

The Challenge

Declining health and biodiversity of our rivers
Specific species that once thrived here are now endangered
Continued long term loss of fly life – marked this year
Pollution in its many forms
Threats to flow rates from drought and near drought conditions
Pressure on the rivers from further housing development

The Test, Itchen and Meon, like most of the nation’s rivers, are steadily declining in health and biodiversity. Some specific species that once thrived here are now endangered. The continued long term loss of fly life was marked this year.

The culprits are over-abstraction of water by Southern Water and pollution in its many forms (household sewage and chemicals, agricultural pesticides and nutrients, industrial pollutants and runoff from roads and urbanised areas).

Accelerating the damage is the trend of hotter drier summers and wetter winters associated with climate change which, combined with rising population and increased house building in the SE region, puts further pressure on the system of supplying water and managing waste water. A system that relies on our rivers.

The need for change

Government and Regulators have started to react to the dire situation our rivers are in, but their response is too slow and not always well informed, especially in regard to the particular challenges facing chalk streams. There is enormous public concern about sewage pollution in rivers, but other threats (over abstraction, other sources of pollution) don’t get the same airtime. We need to make sure that the specific needs of chalk streams, due to their unique nature, are not overlooked in the forthcoming national review of the water sector and any changes that follow. We are also mindful that with such change, the call for greater public access to the rivers may be an issue to contend with in the future.

In the last few years, along with the raising of public awareness, the demands that are being placed on our rivers means that if we are going to represent our members in a meaningful way we have to do more and work harder to achieve the desired outcomes to enhance and secure the value of our extraordinary, environmental facility and asset. The Association is ever mindful that the Test, Itchen and Meon bring environmental and economic value and benefits to all those who own and use the rivers. If this is to continue, we have little choice but to take assertive action involving all stakeholders, to secure the future for the next generations.

To that end, the members have asked, and the Board has resolved, that the T&IA should step up its activity to protect our rivers.

Our Goals for the Future

Conservation

Improve the water quality of the chalk streams
Ensure we have year round sustainable levels of water in our rivers
Improve the river habitat to cope with the effects of climate change
Bring back the salmon to our rivers

Fishing

Ensure the rivers have a sustainable balance of wild and stocked fish for game fishing
Promote the wonderful sport of game fishing on Hampshire’s iconic chalk streams
Encourage future generations into the sport

How will we achieve these?

Work in partnership locally: We are a small organisation so need to join forces with other partner organisations and local communities in the catchment.

Increase our influence: We are working with other NGOs and campaign groups to press those in power for reform of the water sector to protect and restore our rivers.

Grow our membership: We aim to grow our membership and attract new forms of support from commercial organisations and others.

So Far:

Whilst continuing to support riparian owners and river keepers with the day to day issues of river management, attending catchment meetings and liaison with the authorities, 2024 has been a period of considerable change as we pivot towards becoming a more vocal campaigning organisation. We cannot claim credit on our own, but we have provided the drive behind a lot of things in the catchment.

Some of the highlights are:

On Sewage Pollution: With the help of others such as the Hampshire River Keepers Association, we have been at the forefront of raising the voice about sewage in the rivers in our catchment. We stopped the Southern Water over pumping operations at Chilbolton and Longparish. We, with the Angling Trust, and Activist Anglers coordinated the Fullerton Protest and supported the Newbury Protest. During this period we received national and local media coverage.

On Chemical Pollution: The published research we helped fund into the levels of chemical contaminants in the Rivers Test and Itchen has helped raise the profile of this underlying scourge of our rivers, both locally and at national levels.

On General Water Quality: In 2023 we set up, alongside Watercress and Winterbournes, the Water Quality Monitoring Network, the initial aim of which is to create a baseline of two years data. We continue to fund 12 Smart Rivers sites on the Test and Itchen. We are actively engaged with the organisers of the newly created Pan Parish River Pollution Forum set up to support concerned parish and town councils in the catchment.

On Habitat: We provided much of the source material and hosted the Unearthed journalist Emma Howard who ran a major story on Natural England’s inability to stay on top of habitat condition reports.

On Salmon: We are now a member of the AT Salmon and Sea Advisory Group (SSAG) and also sit on the Itchen Salmon Delivery Plan Working Group led by the EA. Whilst these groups are struggling to have any impact on the decline, much of which is happening at sea, we are pushing hard for all possible action in the rivers to prevent the extinction of these unique creatures. Behind the scenes there is a potential new partnership being lined up to help drive that action to save this iconic species.

On the Stocking Debate: We remain engaged with the EA and are pressing them for more science to inform the debate and helping inform their approach to future trials.

On Beavers: The debate on the effects of beavers on chalk streams and salmonids has been revived by The Wildlife Trust, who have started lobbying for unhindered widespread introduction and protection of Beavers. We are now on the inaugural Hampshire Beaver Advisory Group meeting in November and will be alive to the threats to rivers.

On Water Quantity: We sit on the Southern Water, Water for Life Engagement Board and are lobbying hard for the benefits of the Havant Thicket Water Recycling Scheme which will lead to big reductions in abstraction.

Southern Water Dialogue: The effect of this campaigning has resulted in a renewed and empowered relationship with Southern Water. We have had two community meetings with them at CEO and Board Member level involving Angling Trust, Hampshire River Keepers Association, Wild Fish, Wessex Rivers Trust and Activist Anglers. The result is that SW regularly engage with this grouping on a range of issues on the rivers, including the sharing of data from their waste water plants and input into the placement of permanent chemical monitors close to waste water treatment work outflows. The Association is the nominated lead for coordinating this work.

Council Local Development Plans: There has been a round of new Local Plans outlining the ambition to build well over 65 000 houses in the catchment. We have been robust in commenting on all these plans; local authorities must ensure that sufficient water and waste services are in place before housing pressures cause more harm to our rivers.

On Commercial Sponsorship: We have secured our first commercial member of the Association. Four local Fuller’s pubs will be joining us and they will be offering discounted accommodation for bookings through our website.

Internal Changes to The Association: We are modernising the association’s digital offering and ways of working so that we free up staff from administration to do more campaigning, practical advice to members and take a greater role in Catchment Management. To date we have:

Updated the look and feel of the Association website and enabled user self-service. We have added more content and there is more coming.
Introduced a bulk email facility that will allow easier and quicker communications with members.
Introduced a customer relationship management database that allows more accurate control of our membership.

Future Plans

Catchment Management: We have been lobbying hard for a renewed and empowered Catchment Partnership to draw in a more comprehensive list of partners, such as Highways England and farmers groupings, that are vital in driving the real physical changes required in our catchment. The idea is gaining traction and we hope to be able to update you with progress shortly.

Water Regulation Review: We are working with the Angling Trust on policy proposals that get at the systemic problems that have brought this country to the water crisis it finds itself in. This started at this year’s UK Rivers Summit where we worked with Jim Murray, of Activist Anglers, to put forward the argument ‘it is not just about sewage’. We want Government to understand the problem as a critical national issue about the long term sustainability of our rivers – water quantity as well as water quality. In effect, we are pushing for better policy, better regulation and governance at a national and catchment scale. We have established a channel of communication with DEFRA and will be meeting with them soon to communicate the needs of chalk stream habitats and discuss improvements that could be made to catchment management.

Projects we would like to do: There are a number of further ideas on the stocks to help increase membership and raise funds. We will need a different model to fund some of these future projects.

A project to quantify the catchment wide economic benefits of Game Fishing to demonstrate the value to our wider community and policy makers.
Better mapping and a more comprehensive view of the owners on the rivers to help with membership recruitment, as well as advice to owners.
A post pollution event protocol to help better coordinate amongst owners and keepers and with other agencies/organisations.
A digital Rivers Report to give members the option to go paperless, which will save money.
Exploring ideas for late fishing availability, to help attract a wider membership.
Gearing up to run donation campaigns for specific research topics and discrete projects.

Membership: We are developing plans for differing kinds of membership, including commercial supporters and also a plan to help recruit more members. For example, if every member recruited one more member next year, we would be on a more sustainable footing. We offer free advice to many local parishes, smaller associations and clubs and it may be time that we ask them for a contribution. We are testing the waters to see if this is viable.

Why we need to raise subscriptions

The call by members for more proactive work led the Board to choose to do more, as outlined above. To enact that work, in late 2023, the Board authorised an uplift in the team along with more hours to do the work: The Executive Director from 2-2.5 days per week, Administrator for one day a week and separate communications support. We continue to engage the same contracted finance officer and website manager. Overall, this has raised our staff costs.

Subscription fees have been held down for a number of years – we last raised individual membership in 2017 from £37 to £40. We have been subsidising subscriptions from reserves and this is no longer sustainable. Since 2017 the CPI has been 30% (Bank of England Calculator) and some of our costs have risen in line with this.

We recommend that individual members’ subscriptions increase from £40 to £50 and that Riparian owners will need to accept a similar percentage increase, closer to 20%. We will be writing to each owner in the New Year with their revised fees. If owners need to know their costs before the end of the year for budgeting purposes, we can provide the revised fees on an individual basis this year. We believe that the fees for smaller riparian owners should be higher than individual members and are therefore recommending raising the minimum fee for riparian owners to £100.

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