Public Inquiry – the River Thames

 

In March 2025 ELF was involved with the Marine Management Organisation’s 3-week Public Inquiry to scrutinise the Port of London Authority’s (PLA) draft Harbour Revision Order (“HRO”). Whilst this might sound dry, it was anything but as drama and clashes unfolded between the PLA and the raft of river objectors.

ELF instructed Claire Nevin of FTB on behalf of Thamesbank – representing the enduring spirit of three extraordinary women who dedicate their lives to campaigning on behalf of the Thames and give voice to the river’s challenges: Dido Berkeley, Emily Shirley and Diana McCann.

ELF has been raising objections to the HRO on behalf of these three women since 2021 when it was first proposed, calling for a Strategic Environmental Assessment, required in the earliest stages of any development of a plan or programme and proper consultation according to the Aarhus Convention.

Whilst the claim by the PLA was that they needed to update their statutory position to reflect modern circumstances since 1968 (the last HRO), this did not entail any update on their environmental role. No environmental assessment or information whatsoever was provided during the consultation, despite the HRO proposing significant new powers that would evidentially have an impact on the river environment. A whopping 92% of the river and riverine land and estuaries controlled by the HRO is protected for its nature interest. During the inquiry it was revealed that there were discussions internally about the need to dredge the Thames Estuary, to cope with larger ships, such new powers to be granted. And yet strikingly absent from their modernising aims were any consideration of the need to revise and modernise the powers of the PLA in the light of significant advances in environmental law since 1968 and the increasingly complex challenges posed by the climate crisis to river users and competent authorities.

It is likely that most people who live in London will have no idea that the Thames is controlled by this somewhat opaque body. The main object of the PLA is to provide navigational safety but there are many other roles that they fulfil, not least the protection of the natural river environment. Since 2023 the PLA has employed a Sustainability Director and there are a team of 9 ecologists. Yet despite this and the recognition that the PLA fulfils a significant environmental role, they stuck to their position of no environmental scrutiny required. Eventually and only under sufferance did the PLA produce their Sustainability lead so that she too could be cross examined.

ELF’s Emma Montlake in the absence of Counsel had the chance to read Claire Nevin’s wonderful closing statement on behalf of Thamesbank. Claire is a fine legal mind and we have been lucky to have her as part of our team. Our closing position remained that the HRO failed their statutory obligations including the need for a SEA, environmental information and proper Aarhus consultation.

We now wait for the chair’s decision. Either way something very good that came out of the inquiry was a sense of a variety of objectors for the first time being in a room together, finding commonality over a shared love of the river, some great connections made. ELF is very proud of its long association with Thamesbank. In the absence of an official Thames guardian, Thamesbank can be seem to play an important role in upholding the voice of the river for the river and for future generations.