River Restoration Opportunity

Project driver

Amenity (place making), flood reduction and nature/biodiversity

Restoration Type

Habitat enhancement and constructed wetland

Project description

The land behind Northbrook Park contains woodland, semi-natural grassland and a small unofficial angling pond. This NFM project would enhance the current wetland features and create more runoff attenuation ponds. The site is within the Verdant Lane Critical Drainage Area and is just upstream of the South Circular and Verdant Lane junction (35,000 vehicles travel through this junction each day), which is one of the most at-risk areas in the borough for surface water flooding with over 56 properties at risk of flooding for a 1-in-30-year rainfall event. In 2007, the junction flooded to a depth of 0.5m. Extending the wetland habitat here will also help mitigate existing flooding issues onto the railway, add to the site’s designation as a Site of Nature Importance at borough level, increase climate resilience, improve amenity value and contribute to the ‘Railway Children Urban National Park’ vision of a key continuous green infrastructure link.