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This is the Save Lea Marshes (SLM) Newsletter for May 2026. This month we have some updates from previous issues and some new information. We always like a theme and this month there is quite a watery element to our coverage.
RIVER & WATER NEWS.
Our first feature is the SLM nine-day River Pilgrimage. What a week it was. Outstandingly sunny weather for the time of year (25 April - 3 May) during the whole week despite wet-weather warnings for the final weekend. We started out on the Saturday at Leagrave on the far side of Luton where the Lea begins as a chalk stream and, day by day, railway station by railway station, we worked our way to the final stop at Trinity Buoys Wharf, where our precious Lea finds its way into the Thames. Each day we had a new set of people (although some people made it on more than one day), and each day there was something new either in the character of the river and its surroundings or in terms of fauna and flora and particular interests from people on the walk.
Overall, our walk had the following objectives: to explore lesser-known parts of the river, to raise awareness of the condition of the river (we tested it for phosphate and ammonia on each day), to promote the idea of the Lea having "River Rights", to bless and heal the river (we collected some water at the beginning of the walk and poured some of it back into the river on each of the subsequent days), and to bring people together. Along the way, some other things entered "our flow": a chance visit to a local church on the first Sunday found a multi-media exhibition on the theme of water. We talked with the artists about our mutual aims and the next day, quite by chance, we met one of the artists again. The exhibition was called "Watershed: A River's Call to Action" and featured the River Batford. It is touring and should be at the Houses of Parliament in June. Other features along the way included: one person finding us by drone along the route and demonstrating how useful drones could be in reporting river pollution incidents, a welcome at Three Mills on its 250th anniversary, and finding out that Canning Town is a hotspot for music for Goths on a Sunday afternoon. We will shortly be putting up a Blog post of the walk on our SLM website, so look out for that; we are also discussing plans to hold an exhibition of our photos and videos taken along the route.
Rights of Rivers has also been in the news with the River Wye being declared to have rights this week.
The Government has also just announced 13 new bathing sites across England, as the outdoor swimming season has started. However, 12 of the sites have warnings about pollution (as reported in The Times and by the BBC). With the heatwave of the last few days there have been stories of people being drowned and being killed by the shock of jumping into unexpectedly cold water, and also of wildlife being disrupted during the nesting season in ponds, e.g. on Hampstead Heath.
Our fourth watery story is about the proposed "Surf London" venue being planned in Enfield in the Lea Valley Park. Estimated to cost some £60 million, a 200 metre wide surf pool is planned, using the latest artificial wave technology; it will be surrounded by other leisure and sporting provision as well as glamping huts. Will this be popular with dedicated surfers and those seeking to find new surfing skills? Who knows. There is a smaller facility that has opened in Bristol. This is another "big venture", that Lee Valley Regional Park seem to prefer backing over the more nature based aspects of the park.
RIGHTS OF NATURE BILL
A really exciting bit of national news is that, on 1 June Baroness Natalie Bennett will carry out the first reading of the Rights of Nature Bill in the Lords. An independent group, with backing from the Green Party, has been working towards a Bill for a few years. The most important aspect of this Bill is that, if passed, Nature will have rights in law (in the same way that companies have had rights in law for decades). This will establish a "nested hierarchy" of synergistic rights. For further information see https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2026/may-2026/lords-private-members-bills-ballot-2026/ . The full text of the Bill and explanatory notes can be found at https://www.natures-rights.org/uk-bill.
TURNED GREEN.
There was quite a turnaround in the local elections this month, with both Waltham Forest and Hackney changing from Labour Party control to Green Party control. SLM would like to thank the outgoing councillors for their support over the years and also welcome the new Green Party councillors. We hope that the new administrations will prioritise keeping both boroughs "open and green" and particularly that they will support the East London Waterworks Park project as it is much more suited to the difficult site that is currently the Thames Water Depot than the proposed Secure Children's Home .
BOOK NOOK
Our recommended book this month is the RSPB Pocket Book of Hedgehogs by Hugh Warwick, Bloomsbury, hardback circa £10 but available pre-publishing from 11 June from Bloomsbury at a cheaper rate. Also, available on Ebook (Epub and Mobi) at £7.69. Hugh Warwick, a well-known hedgehog campaigner and expert on hedgehog biology and conservation, has written a book that draws attention to the current plight of hedgehogs and offers guidance on what everyone can do to help, presenting fascinating facts about the beautiful creatures and their place in eco-systems, and features the hedgehog in cultural history and folklore.
AND FINALLY...
A shout-out to Cody Dock - one of the places we visited on our River Pilgrimage (and voted by me to have provided the best lunch!). Not only is it a great place to visit but it also has produced a great ecology report The Cody Dock Tidal Lea Ecology Report 2021-22, the result of thousands of hours of volunteer work and a thorough examination of the tidal Lea, once a heavily industrialised river. See https://codydock.org.uk/.