Form a Thames21 River Action Group

Do you have the energy, enthusiasm and drive to make a real difference to your local area? If you’re reading this then you’ve already started on the journey!

Take your volunteering to the next level by becoming a Thames21 Leader and running your own River Action Group.

Once you’ve completed our Leading Action for Healthy Rivers training course you can register as a River Action Group and be supported by Thames21 to plan and run your own waterway improvement events and activities.  Being a River Action Group means that:

  • events you organise are covered under Thames21’s Public Liability Insurance subject to Thames21’s events protocol being followed.
  • You can be supported by the Thames21 Training Officer or relevant Project Officer to plan your first event
  • You can loan equipment as planned with a member of staff
  • Your events can be publicised on the Thames21 Whats On page
  • You can take a fully funded Emergency First Aid Training course with Thames21

We have approximately 20 River Action Groups carrying out amazing work all across greater London!

Sign up to Thames21 Training Bulletin to find out when the next courses are taking place.

The possibilities for River Action Groups are endless and there is no one right way for them to operate. Some of our groups run large annual cleanup events every spring or summer, others run smaller monthly litter picking or vegetation management activities.

A number of groups partner with local authorities, collages or even canoe clubs, and some groups have successfully received grant funding to purchase their own kit or implement larger projects such as installing floating planters in their local waterway stretch!

We want to encourage and support a network of active groups of people from across London who share the same passion about caring for our waterways.

Have a look at one of our River Action Groups – the Lower Regents Coalition – in East London talking about a ‘greening project’ they’ve launched.

Map showing where River Action Group Events have taken place – As of February 2020

Here are some more of our River Action Groups. Check out their good works!

Cause Corps – Regents Canal at Camden Lock

Friends of Slough Canal – Slough Canal

Friends of the Shuttle – River Shuttle in Bexley

Friends of the Concrete Barges – Thames foreshore, Rainham

Friends of Foots Cray Meadows – River Cray, Sidcup

Friends of Osterley and Clitheroe Locks – Grand Union Canal, Ealing

Friends of Manor Farm Nature Reserve – Norbury Brook, Croydon

Friends of Rise Park – Rise Park, Romford

Friends of Thornton Heath Rec – Norbury Brook, Croydon

Friends of the Welsh Harp – Welsh Harp in Brent and Barnet

Friends of Headstone Manor Park – Yeading Brook, Harrow

Lower Regents Coalition – Regents Canal between Limehouse and Mile End

People Against Dirty – Non tidal Thames

Putney Tidy Towpath – Thames foreshore in west London

Pymmes Brookers – Pymmes Brook in Barnet, Enfield and Haringey

Ravensbourne River Rescuers – Lewisham

Royal Holloway Thames Improvement Team – Thames Path in Staines

Stonebridge Lock Coalition – River Lea in Haringey and Waltham Forest

Surge Co – Bow Creek on the Tidal Lea

Tideway – various locations across greater London

Watford in the Water – River Colne in Watford and Bushey

West London Hub – various locations on the Thames foreshore in West London