Thames Waterway Plan 2006-2011
The Environment Agency developed the plan in consultation with members of the River Thames Alliance (RTA) including riverside local authorities, river user groups, businesses and landowners. The plan aims to achieve coordinated planning between councils on the following matters:
- river front development and protecting and promoting access, transport and open spaces
- protection of habitats and environment
- more and better riverside leisure facilities such as moorings, toilets and tourism information
- plans to regenerate old industrial and working sites
- more cost effective promotion of the river, boating and leisure to encourage more visitors and support local businesses
The plan is being delivered by members of the RTA and we will review progress annually.
The full plan, the summary of the consultation responses and the summarised aspirations for the Thames are all available below. The plan was subject to a Strategic Sustainability Assesment. The consultation website is still available to show how the plan has developed as a result.
The plan
We have split the Thames Waterway Plan document into sections to make it easier to download, and have provided both a high and low resolution version of the main document for those on slower internet connections.
- Thames Waterway Plan - High resolution
- Thames Waterway Plan - Low resolution
- Thames Waterway Plan - Annual review 2007
Sections
- Table of contents and section 1.0 - Introduction
- 2.0 Approach
- 3.0 Underlying principles
- 4.0 Context
- 5.0 Sustainable development
- 6.0 The River Thames
- 7.0 Socio economic baseline
- 8.0 tourism
- 9.0 Sports and recreation
- 10.0 Powered boating
- 11.0 Landscape
- 12.0 Built heritage
- 13.0 Water quality and resources
- 14.0 Climate change
- 15.0 Biodiversity and fisheries
- 16.0 Gateway opportunities
- 17.0 Education
- 18.0 Service and facilities
- 19.0 Visitor risk management
- 20.0 Targets, monitoring and review
Supporting maps
The following maps support each of the sections within the plan.
- Map 1 - River Thames and its tributaries
- Map 2 - Local Government boundaries
- Map 3 - Population
- Map 4 - Deprivation
- Map 5 - Ethnicity
- Map 6a - Tourism accessibilty (road)
- Map 6b - Tourism accessibility (rail)
- Map 7 - Visitor attractions
- Map 8 - Clubs and societies
- Map 9 - Footpaths
- Map 10 - Cycling
- Map 11 - Boat hire
- Map 12 - Geology
- Map 13 - Landscape character
- Map 14 - Landscape designations
- Map 15 - Built heritage
- Map 16 - Flood risk
- Map 17 - Conservation sites and ecological sensitivity to low flows
Aspiration maps
We have collected over 1000 observations, issues that need resolving and offers of improvement relating to the Thames. We have termed these 'aspirations' as they are aspirational rather than agreed and timetabled actions. The summarised maps are showing the aspirations reach by reach are available below. Contact us if you have any queries regarding the aspiration maps.
- Full aspiration map document
- Aspiration cover, contents page and maps 1 and 2
- Aspiration maps 3 - 6
- Aspiration maps 7 - 10
- Aspiration maps 11 - 14
- Aspiration maps 15 - 18
Consultation website
The Thames Waterway Plan has undergone several periods of public consultation as the policies were refined and aspirations gathered. the consultation website contains the previous drafts of the plan documents.
Strategic Sustainability Assesment
To ensure that the plan is sustainable, it has been subject to assesment throughout it's development. This means that the policies have been checked against environmental, economic and social criteria. A further SSA will be carried out when the River Thames Alliance has identified responsibilities and a firm timetable for action.
- SSA - Executive summary
- SSA - Main report
- SSA - Appendix 1 - Sustainability objectives
- SSA - Appendix 2 - Policies, plans and programmes
- SSA - Appendix 3 - Baseline
- SSA - Appendix 4 - Scoping
- SSA - Appendix 6 - Matrices
SSA supporting maps
The following maps support the Strategic Sustainability Assesment
- Map 1 - Overview
- Map 2 - Administrative context
- Map 3 - Landscape designations
- Map 4a - Landscape character overview
- Map 4b - Landscape character zones 1-3
- Map 4c - Landscape character zones 4-6
- Map 5 - Built conservation and heritage
- Map 6a - Designated biodiversity sites
- Map 6b - Designated biodiversity sites
- Map 7 - River corridor assesment
- Map 8 - Fisheries
- Map 9 - Environmental sensitivity
- Map 10 - Water resource availability
- Map 11 - Flood risk
- Map 12 - Bank protection
- Map 13 - Chemical water quality
- Map 14 - Biological water quality
- Map 15 - Population
- Map 16 - Ethnicity
- Map 17 - Deprivation
- Map 18a - Tourism accessibility (road)
- Map 18b - Tourism accessibility (rail)
- Map 19a - Proximity to train stations (upper)
- Map 19b - Proximity to train stations (lower)
- Map 20 - Visitor attractions
- Map 21a - Clubs and societies (upper)
- Map 21b - Clubs and societies (lower)
- Map 22 - Powered boat traffic
- Map 23 - Unpowered boat traffic
- Map 24 - Footpaths
- Map 25 - Cycling
- Map 26 - Permanent moorings