Visitors to Wardown Park on Saturday 6 September 2014 were treated to free activities, advice and water-saving devices – all to celebrate the River Lea. 

The event marked the launch of the Luton Lea Catchment partnership, a group of individuals and organisations working locally to improve the Lea from its source and through Luton, enabling communities to be involved in decisions that affect them. 

Alister Leggatt from Affinity Water said: “The catchment partnership is a great way to bring local businesses, organisations and communities together to work collaboratively and highlight the issues affecting the river. In partnership we can combine our resources, energy and enthusiasm to develop projects that will improve not only the river and its biodiversity locally, but also benefit the environment and communities throughout the Lea catchment.”

As well as being able to make their own dragonfly, use natural paints to bring a banner to life and get loads of tips on how to save water, event visitors had the chance to tell the partnership what improvements they think the River Lea needs.

Saturday’s suggestions included litter picking and rubbish clearance, raising awareness of the river’s course through the town, and addressing various access issues. But the list doesn’t end here! The partnership would like to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – do you have any ideas for improving the quality or quantity of the water in the Lea through Luton? You can also tweet your suggestions @gwklutonandbeds using #LutonLea.

Your ideas will join larger scale projects already identified by the partnership, including sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) in green spaces, improvements to the Lea Linear Park and a research project at Luton Hoo Lakes. These will be developed into a catchment plan and everything will be made public in the next few months – so watch this space!

 

 

Painting a banner with natural paints at the launch event

Design by LTD Design Consultants and build by Garganey Consulting.