Help Protect Christchurch Harbour
Template Letter to Your MP and Local Councillors
Want to make a difference?
One of the most effective ways to support the protection of Christchurch Harbour is to contact your MP and local Councillors, and raise awareness of the environmental challenges facing our rivers and harbour. Elected representatives rely on hearing directly from their constituents, and every letter helps demonstrate the strength of local concern.
To make this easier, we have provided a template letter below that highlights the key issues and requests action on behalf of Christchurch Harbour. Feel free to personalise it with your own experiences and concerns before sending it.
Together, we can help ensure that the health of our harbour remains a priority for decision-makers at both local and national level.
Find the address of your local MP and Councillor here:
Our template letter can either be ‘copy and pasted’ from the wording below or download here:
Or ‘Copy and Paste’ this Template Letter :
From
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BH……………………………
To
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Date:……………………………
Dear……………………………………………
Christchurch Harbour
I am writing to add my voice to rapidly growing concerns about the increasing environmental pressure on Christchurch Harbour. Please help ensure this issue is given a much higher priority on the local political agenda.
Issue summary
Christchurch Harbour is being placed under significant strain by elevated nitrate levels, mainly from agricultural run-off, and phosphate levels worsened by inadequate sewage treatment infrastructure.
Given the sheer scale of the Stour and Avon catchment areas, the harbour clearly needs and deserves more proactive environmental protection.
Christchurch Harbour is extremely small compared with Poole Harbour. According to DEFRA, it has as little as one-fifteenth of both Poole Harbour’s surface area and water volume. Its ability to flush water out to sea is also restricted by three key factors:
· a narrow outflow
· double high tides and
· the lowest tidal range of any harbour on the central south coast
By contrast, Poole Harbour benefits from formal environmental protection and clearer management oversight through its commissioners. It is also fed by only two small rivers - the Frome and the Piddle (which have a very small catchment area in comparison) - and has a more substantial tidal flow.
Thirty years ago, excess sewage would have flowed into Poole Bay. To protect the tourist industry, it is now pumped north to sewage treatment plants along the River Stour. And when those plants cannot cope with the volume of contaminated water, it flows instead towards our precious Christchurch Harbour.
Members of CHOG (the Christchurch Harbour Ornithological Group) understand the damaging effects of high nitrate levels, including excessive algal growth and the resulting harm to resident and migrating bird populations but it is increasingly clear that invasive weed growth is taking hold in the Harbour.
When combined with significant but less visible arrival of high phosphate levels and “forever chemicals” carried down the rivers, it is easy to understand the scale of local concern. There is a significant threat to human health with the Harbour being used by 1,000’s of people for innocent recreational purposes.
Sewage is not the only source of concern. Pollution pressures also come from the road network, cattle farming, and numerous old landfill sites upriver.
Someone must take responsibility for coordinating action. The Environment Agency is severely underfunded and, as I understand it, is not currently testing for E. coli in the Stour.
A Call for Local Leadership
Please help bring wider attention to this concern now rapidly growing among Christchurch residents. This is a matter for both current and future generations of water users - both people and wildlife.
Someone must take the lead. It is vital that politicians of all parties treat this as a high priority, and that BCP steps forward to help coordinate an effective action plan.
There is growing local discussion that Christchurch Harbour’s environmental protection will become a significant community issue in the run-up to future elections.
Delivering protection to Christchurch Harbour
I am sure you will be aware that:
1. The Christchurch Harbour & Marine Society together with hundreds of its supporters presented a professionally drafted ‘Christchurch Harbour Protection Planning Policy’ to BCP Council in March 2025.
2. BCP Council has the competence and power as Local Planning Authority to adopt the Christchurch Harbour Protection Planning Policy should it choose to do so.
3. Environmental Protection for Christchurch Harbour is due to be discussed by the Environment and Place Scrutiny Committee on 15th July 2026.
Please help ensure that BCP committee members are aware of the growing groundswell of local opinion on this issue.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
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