Removing, lowering and modifying weirs can have beneficial effects for waterways and their local environments, and these improvements can also help satisfy the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) – European legislation on integrated river basin management which was introduced in 2000.

Locally, Sevington Weir has been partially removed. The Ashford Volunteer team first constructed a post and faggot boom slightly downstream  to protect the bank from any adverse flooding effects.

The Weir’s removal which will allow both  fish passage and the re-naturalisation of the stream. It will also reduce flood risk to 13 houses upstream. Note that  the caption picture shows the weir not yet removed i.e. cut down to water level