Report: Turning the River Ouse charter into practice
Love Our Ouse and partners have published the report to come out of its day-long symposium last October exploring how the pioneering River Ouse Charter can move from principle to practice in order to give the river its own legal rights, as Tasha Padbury of Love Our Ouse explains.
The symposium in October 2025 was hosted by Love Our Ouse, Environmental Law Foundation and Moral Imaginations. We welcomed 58 participants from 35 organisations — including local authorities, environmental groups, water companies, lawyers, artists, academics, community organisations and policy makers — at Newhaven Marine Workshops, where the River Ouse meets the sea.
We explored practical ways to embed the river’s rights into local governance, planning, restoration, water management and community decision-making. Through workshops, real-world case studies and collaborative discussions, participants tested new models for representing the river’s interests and building an equitable relationship with nature.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed their expertise, creativity and care throughout the day, including the student facilitators from the University of Sussex and King’s College London Legal Clinic whose support helped make these conversations possible.
The enthusiasm and expertise offered by local and national participants towards nature-focused governance resulted in practical and realisable suggestions for implementing the Ouse Charter. We look forward to acting on the report’s recommendations and hope that lots of organisations find it a useful resource in their efforts to uphold the river’s rights.
Read the report here: https://loveourouse.org/symposium-river-ouse-charter/
Since the symposium lots has been progressing locally: parish councils are endorsing the Charter with a focused workshop planned for them; the Ouse was used as the UK case study in the recently published House of Commons library research paper; and the Adur and Ouse Catchment Partnership is actively exploring practical ways of progressing the Charter.
If you’d like to get involved in this work, learn more at www.loveourouse.org
