Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Leader Cllr Paul Harvey and Co-Leader Cllr Gavin James have criticised proposals by Southern Water to remove more water from the River Test, accusing the company of failing to plan for the inevitable.

The River Test, a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest, begins near Basingstoke and flows 40 miles down towards Southampton Water. It is home to more than 200 species, features in novel Watership Down and is one of England’s precious chalk streams, commonly regarded as the country’s equivalent of coral reefs and rainforests.

But now, Southern Water is asking the Environment Agency for permission to remove more water than it already does from the river, going beyond the usual limits that protect the globally rare chalk stream and the species that live there, including Atlantic salmon and brown trout.

Writing to Southern Water’s CEO to object to the company’s drought order, the council leaders echoed the concerns of charity WildFish that draining more water than usual would increase water temperatures and lower oxygen levels, harming fish and insects and stopping species migration.

It follows a unanimous call by councillors in May to recognise local rivers’ rights, including to be free from pollution, to support native biodiversity, to flow without obstruction and to be sustained by fresh-water sources.

The letter also criticised Southern Water’s underinvestment in new water infrastructure and the recent doubling of its CEO’s salary to £1.4 million, despite its financial difficulties, that followed a government ban on paying bonuses.

Leader of the Council Cllr Paul Harvey said: “Southern Water’s proposal to drain more water from the River Test could have been avoided entirely had it properly planned and invested in long-term supply measures, such as building new reservoirs and increasing water recycling over recent decades.

“While it is welcome news that the first reservoir for thirty years will be built in the region, it is too little and too late. The environmental damage that drawing this extra water from the river will do is unacceptable.

Following the ‘rights of rivers’ motion being agreed earlier this year, the council is working with partners to draft a ‘declaration on the rights of the river’.

The council’s efforts to improve rivers are supported by its biodiversity strategy, adopted last year after it declared an ecological emergency for the borough in 2021.

More information about its work to protect, reconnect, restore and enhance nature is at www.basingstoke.gov.uk/ecology