Consultation on the East Hampshire river basin catchment

We held an initial consultation on our draft DWMP in September and October 2021. The purpose of the consultation was to gain feedback and advice from our customers and organisations on our developing Plan. We specifically asked about:

• Our Strategic Environmental Assessment Scoping Report
• Our selection of wastewater systems to take forward into the Options Development and Appraisal stage of the DWMP in the first cycle, and
• Our developing plans on each of the 11 river basin catchments.

Our report on the initial DWMP consultation is now available.

When we consulted on the developing plans for the East Hampshire River Basin Catchment you told us that the key issues we needed to take into consideration were:

• Storm overflows and discharges to the Solent and Harbours need to be reduced and effluent treatment upgraded to improve water quality and return these habitats to favourable status. Water effluent treatment should remove plastics and agents harmful to wildlife.
• The investment strategy for both Peel Common and Budds Farm should be changed from ‘improve’ to ‘change’. Both have an extremely high number of significant risks, the growth projections are high and the impact on the environment is serious.
• Wider issues need to be considered such as economic and social issues and protecting the natural environment.
• The DWMP needs to align with other environmental strategies so that the time and funding of external organisations and local community buy in which is essential to tackle issues such as water use, winter water storage, nature corridors, FOG, hard landscaping and misconnections.
• Funding for a dedicated enforcement officer should be considered.

How we responded to the issues raised during the workshops and the preliminary public consultation is set out in our Register of Stakeholder Comments.

We held a full 12 week public consultation on the draft Regional (Level 1) DWMP between Monday 13 June and Monday 05 September 2022. Our Statement of Response to the issues raised is published on the home page of our website, and a report and analysis on the consultation is published on the Have your say page.