The Ouse in Sussex is a 36-mile-long river system from Slaugham in Mid Sussex to Newhaven in Lewes District. Local communities in the Ouse Valley catchment have depended for centuries on the river for fishing, agriculture, industry, recreation and culture.
Recently there has been increasing and high profile frustration at the scale of river pollution, focused primarily on Southern Water and the seeming inadequacy of the regulators and policies to protect the health of the river. It is this frustration that prompted the council to move towards creating a Rights of River Ouse Charter.
The UK has the dirtiest rivers in Europe. Not one of the rivers in Lewes district is classed as ‘Good’ for ecological or chemical status under the Water Framework Directive, despite the catchment being home to rare species including sea lampreys and the cherished and iconic local species of sea trout, protected under the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975.
Pressures on the river include road run off, agriculture, roof run off, private outflows, climate change, new development, barriers in the river and unrestricted amenity use. There’s 123 legally allowed Southern Water discharge points but 1,244 discharge points along the river.
Despite the actions taken by ourselves and others, including two previous motions on water quality, the current situation seems unchanged. Rights of Nature is a way of re-thinking our relationship with nature – from one of dominance to one that recognises interdependency and respect. It is about recognising the river as its own entity and not as something in relation to other things.
Some the rights that apply to people have been extended to corporations globally – a company which is a wholly fictional entity is recognised as a legal entity distinct from its individual decision makers. If we can define a corporation as having these rights, then it is only fair that nature and more specifically a river has these same rights.
In Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in 2021, three local authorities adopted motions recognising Rights of Nature, agreeing to develop a dialogue with the local community. In 2022 Faith in Nature, a successful natural beauty product brand made the decision to have ‘nature’ on the board. That is a person appointed as a representative for nature, who is there solely to represent the interests of nature in the company’s strategic decision making. Others like Frome have attempted to pass a Rights of River byelaw but until now no English councils have successfully passed a Rights of River motion.
We have worked closely with communities on positive nature regeneration projects like the Sussex Flow Initiative with Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust and Sussex Wildlife Trust. In September 2022 we partnered with Love Our Ouse (a locally formed group targeted at engagement with the river) and the Railway Land Trust to hold a River Festival attracting 1,600 people.
A workshop coordinated by Environmental Law Foundation and Paul Powlesland, a barrister specifically working on Rights for Nature invited people to suggest what a Declaration for the Rights of the River might look like.
Suggestions were similar to those in the Universal Declaration of River Rights. This establishes that all rivers shall possess, at minimum, the following fundamental rights: (1) the right to flow; (2) the right to perform essential functions within the river’s ecosystem; (3) the right to be free from pollution; (4) the right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers; (5) the right to native biodiversity; and (6) the right to regeneration and restoration.
It was in this context that the motion was drafted. It is based on consensus building. It is a first step in a two-year journey towards the point at which a declaration is drafted and the river has a recognised representative that will be able to speak up for it in its own right at, for example, planning meetings.
Discussion during the motion became more impassioned and supportive as councillors spoke about their own relationships with the river. It was passed with only two voting against it.
A lot of engagement work and consensus building will need to be done at many levels, whether at Government or more locally with councils, catchment partnerships, water companies, the Environment Agency and local community groups. It’s a chance to look at current and future challenges through a new lens and reframe stuck discussions.
There are unknowns as to how it will eventually work but what we do know is that the current system is not protecting nature, in particular our rivers, and local communities are deeply concerned by this. Rights of the River offers a compelling and positive way forward.
Cllr Matthew Bird is a member of the Green Party and cabinet member for sustainability at Lewes District Council.
