Community BlueScapes is a partnership between London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Barnes Common Limited, and WWT. They are coming together to create healthier neighbourhoods in the Beverley Brook catchment in Richmond and ensure communities are flood and weather resilient in the near future. 

Community BlueScapes https://www.richmond.gov.uk/community_bluescapes has been awarded £6million by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programmes managed by the Environment Agency. The programme will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and help residents adapt to a changing climate. One of the underlying approaches to the work is to contain more in existing water sites along the length of Beverley Brook to its exit into the Thames near the Barnes Wetlands Centre. A new pond is being developed in Vine Road.

See also https://richmondclimatestrategy.commonplace.is/en-GB/proposals/community-bluescapes/start

Readers will recall that Richmond Park Manager Paul Richards spoke about water management at his talk to the Mortlake with East Sheen Society (www.mess.org.uk) on 28 October 2024 (see below). They are engaged on Wetland Enhancement Projects 2024. Formerly they allowed water to drain away. They are now keeping a high water level in the Park, while avoiding flooding. There are new drainage schemes controlling flows into Beverley Brook. It was necessary to control entry to the Thames, so that it did not flood at Barnes and Mortlake. They are working with Barnes and Wimbledon Commons.

There is a puzzle in all this. The work all relates to the areas east of Priests Bridge, Castelnau and Rocks Lane and then up to Richmond Park. The area to the west of White Hart Lane is perhaps the most vulnerable for the river bank and towpath and the residents in the low-lying parts of Mortlake. The Beverley Brook water system is adjacent to that part of the Thames. As described in Bert Flood below it is vulnerable to upstream and downstream flooding. But Richmond Council seems to be leaving that to the tender mercies of the Stag Brewery developers, a far cry from Community Bluescapes and its work to involve the local communities.