Maltings River Park works aim to create right habitat for fish

Fencing that was put up along the River Avon running through the Maltings in Salisbury has now been taken down.

Planned works have been carried out as part of the River Park project that the Environment Agency is leading in the city.

The scheme reach a point at the end of October where the River Avon could flow through Central Car Park again, and we've been told much of the engineering works have now been completed.

Project lead for the Environment Agency, Andy Wallis, says the works should be completely finished 'around May, June time'.

What work was being done?

Last week's works were aimed at creating gravel berms in the river.

Andy explained what they are:

"These are sort of low level banks along the edge of the channel, which are really important in terms of ensuring we provide the right habitat through these channels."

This is achieved by ensuring the river flows at the right speed and keeps the bed of the channel clean, creating a habitat for fish to nest and lay eggs within the gravel.

The area required fencing off as a lot of stone needed to brought into the area, with some pathways temporarily closed.

"What we can't do is just have constantly have dumpers going around all the time with stone," Andy said.

"So we had to bring in stone at certain points and then have it within a a, a compound area and then it could then be safely moved from there to where we needed it in the channel."

The next major task

With much of the main engineering work completed, Andy told Greatest Hits Radio that they're moving to the landscaping part of the project, although there is still one outstanding piece of work to be carried out.

"The main bit of work we've still got to start is the improvements to the coach park, which we're not going to start till January because that's the quietest time for for the coaches there and that will take about 3 months to do."

Before that though, footpaths and cycle paths will be being laid, while plants will be planted in the area.

It's expected that the entire project will be concluded around June 2024.

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