HALF A MILLION pounds has been secured to improve the River Adur.

Horsham District Council, working in collaboration with several other organisations, has supported 27 farmers and land managers who are part of the Adur Farming Cluster Group to successfully secure government funding for the recovery programme to improve the river.

The project will form an important part of the Wilder Horsham District initiative, which is a partnership between Horsham District Council and the Sussex Wildlife Trust, aiming to establish connected habitats that support wildlife and reverse the decline in biodiversity.

The Adur River Restoration Project is one of only 22 nationwide projects to receive funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which the council hopes will “revitalise and restore” the River Adur and its catchment.

The Landscape Recovery funding will be used to support the development of plans that will restore nature, reduce flood risks, improve water quality and boost biodiversity in the River Adur area.

It will support farmers and landowners to explore how new features and habitats can be created on their land, such as by removing embankments to allow flooding, and to improve the health of the soil through regenerative farming techniques.

Land managers will each contribute a portion of their landholding, mostly their floodplains, to create a “largely” connected area of at least 766 hectares of new habitat and river restoration, stretching from the Knepp estate to Shoreham, where the river meets the Sussex Bay restoration of the sea beds and kelp forests along the Sussex coast.

There will also be public engagement to explain the proposed changes to the communities that live and work in the area.

Horsham District Council cabinet member for environment and rural affairs Councillor James Wright said: “It is a fantastic achievement to have been awarded these vital funds after such a competitive application process which has taken many months of collaborative work.

“To have been one of only 22 projects nationally to be selected, we clearly demonstrated against stiff competition that we have pioneering ideas that will both improve the natural landscape and reverse the decline in nature.

“The project has been praised by Defra for being farmer-led. My thanks go out to all the partners we have worked with to get us this far and I look forward to the next delivery stage of this ambitious programme.”