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Southern Water Project Aims To Improve Carisbrooke's Lukely Brook

Editor5807, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A Southern Water project aims to improve Carisbrooke's Lukely Brook.

The chalk stream flows through the town, providing valuable aquatic habitat and supporting the ecology of Plaish Meadows which is designated as a Site of Interest.

Southern Water operates two licensed groundwater abstractions near to the Lukely Brook, which supply the Isle of Wight with clean drinking water.

Where the Lukely Brook flows through the more urban areas of Carisbrooke, the stream has historically been modified for access (ford crossings) and industry (water mills and ponds).

Sluices, weirs and culverts constructed as part of these modifications and the resulting large jumps in water level can stop fish (and eel) from swimming freely up and down the stream.

Work undertaken to date

In 2020, Southern Water either modified or replaced four of these historic structures so fish can now travel further up the Lukely Brook to Clatterford.

Fish passes, sometimes called fish ladders, were installed within existing structures at Carisbrooke Mill and Southern Water’s Waterworks in Carisbrooke.

A series of three small weirs were constructed below a culvert at Wellington Road, and the Garden Weir (behind Carisbrooke Road) was replaced with three small rock weirs to create a series of lower ‘steps’ that fish are able to swim up.

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