Working with the Itchen Navigation Project, Environment Agency funding has enabled a significant expansion in works at ‘The Malms’, which has led to improvements for fish passage and river habitat.
With the help of lottery funding, the Itchen Navigation project is now able to tackle long-standing issues of bank instability, impoundment and siltation caused by historic structures along the highly modified channel.
On one obsolete lock near the Malms on the Itchen Navigation, modern concrete walls have now been removed to allow the free flow of water. Original historic brickwork was retained, which is part of the Navigation’s heritage. At a second lock, a bypass channel is planned to enable the free upstream migration of fish and this will help remedy one of the reasons for failure identified under the Water Framework Directive.
