10 ways you can help the River Ver

1. Social Media: Get your phone out!
Let’s show how much our community values the River Ver for recreation, for dog-walking, for kids’ fishing, for walking, for relaxation and more.

Use #riverver to post photos of how the river looks. Post pics of you and your friends & family near the river, old photos, then & now etc. Tag us @VerValleySoc on Facebook, twitter and Instagram, we can share them too.

If you don’t do social media, email us your photos and we’ll use them for you.

2. Write/Email to AffinityWater
email: complaints.central@affinitywater.co.uk
For the future (after the experience of summer 2019) – ask for increased publicity for water saving messages and hosepipe bans before the River Ver dries up

Call for fast tracking of new strategic resources like the South East Strategic Reservoir at Abingdon so there’s more room to protect the environment when groundwater is low.
Demand that some water from new strategic schemes is formally committed to further reducing the abstraction from the chalk aquifer, especially at the head of the Ver Valley

3. Write/Email to Defra and the EnvironmentAgency
email: water.resources@defra.gov.uk and enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Call for fast tracking of new strategic resources like the South East Strategic Reservoir at Abingdon so there’s more room to protect the environment when groundwater is low.
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Demand that some water from new strategic schemes is formally committed to further reducing the abstraction from the chalk aquifer, especially at the head of the Ver Valley

4. Ask your local MP to help save our chalk stream.
Here’s a draft reply you might like to use
Most of the Ver is covered by bim.afolami.mp@parliament.uk, maina@parliament.uk or penningm@parliament.uk

5. Join the Ver Valley Society
And make your voice heard more effectively www.riverver.co.uk/join-us

6. Ver Valley Society monthly working parties
Come and help – do your bit for the little river we do have.
Here’s where we will be next.

7. Use water wisely and save as much as you can.
See www.affinitywater.co.uk/saving-water.aspx

8. Report leaks.
In dry weather they are easy to see – report to AffinityWater (0800 376 5325) and post photos on social media. We would prefer the water in the Ver than running down the road!

9. Join our lobbying work group
And help bring a change to Government’s view of what’s acceptable damage to do to the environment in the name of public water supply – email our Chairman, John Pritchard

10. Respond to consultations
Keep an eye on our website for news of Defra, EA, Affinity Water consultations. We’ll do our best to give you plenty of notice and a few tips on what might be helpful to write.
Next up is an EA consultation likely to be opened in December 2019: Challenges and Choices Consultation (River Basin Management Plan 3)

Stepping stones in Verulamium Park 21.09.19 ©Alison Debenham
Ver Valley Society