The Roding Rises

Roding Rises stakeholder workshop

The River Roding is London’s third longest river. Rising near Stanstead Airport, it runs south towards the Thames, through rural Essex and into urban East London. Over the last century, the river has been straightened, dredged and subjected to pollution from agriculture, industry, road run off and sewage. Large sections of the river have been left inaccessible to the public, leaving communities disconnected from the natural spaces it provides. Surveys conducted by Thames21 have shown many people living within walking distance of the Roding in the London boroughs of Newham, Barking & Dagenham and Redbridge are unaware of the river’s existence.  

Thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Thames21 is working alongside members of the ‘Roding, Beam and Ingrebourne Catchment Partnership’ to develop a three-year project called ‘The Roding Rises’. 

Aimed at starting in early 2026, The Roding Rises is a landscape scale project, working alongside both the Essex farming communities at the top of the river and the urban communities in the river’s lower reaches. The project will deliver on three critical areas:  

Habitat Restoration: Two capital river improvement projects (one in the rural upper catchment, and one in the urban lower catchment) will be selected for delivery funding through The Roding Rises project. These projects will be delivered alongside local communities and with support of relevant members of the Roding, Beam and Ingrebourne Catchment Partnership. Through their delivery, these projects aim to inspire the wider restoration of the Roding catchment by acting as replicable case studies.  

Citizen Science: Communities will be empowered to collect data on the condition of the Roding, and supported in using this data to evidence the biodiversity the river supports and the priority pollution sources that impact the river’s health. The data collected will be used to advocate for positive, evidence-led change on the river.  

Connecting Communities: Targeted community outreach, volunteering and engagement events aim to introduce and involve a wider range of communities that live around the Roding to the river, whilst supporting individuals with developing the confidence and skills needed to speak and act on its behalf. As part of this work, an access masterplan will be developed for the lower river, which aims to set out an achievable vision for an accessible, revitalised lower Roding.    

Thames21 is currently developing the final stage application for delivery funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund that will allow this project to commence. This application will be submitted by May 2025, with a final decision on the outcome of this expected by September 2025 with a view to the three-year project commencing in early 2026.  

Thames21 is looking for residents from the Essex and East London area to support this projects development. If you are happy to help with this, please complete the following survey aimed at gathering views and ideas on the River Roding: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8R73Q5C  

The Roding Rises is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able
to develop this three-year project.