Better Rivers Fund for Stockport Hydro

Stockport Hydro Plant receives support from United Utilities Better Rivers Fund 

United Utilities has teamed up with Greater Manchester’s first community owned hydro-electric project at Otterspool Weir in Stockport to provide safety equipment and River Ranger support through the water company’s Better Rivers Better North West Community Fund. 

Mark Sewell, Wastewater Catchment Manager for Manchester, met with volunteers from Stockport Hydro to handover buoyancy jackets and waterproof waders. Meanwhile, River Rangers, Dan Lynch and Ashleigh Royds got to work helping with maintenance activities including cleaning the plant’s debris barrier and the fish pass. 

Volunteer, John Pengelly from Stockport Hydro explained: “The kit which has been donated by United Utilities will help us to safely remove debris and litter in the river which can impact on the performance of the hydro power plant. This will also allow us to check the river levels before annual maintenance activities take place.”  

Mark Sewell said: “United Utilities has a number of assets which interact with the River Goyt in this area and over the years we have been engaging with John in his roles with the Stockport Hydro Power Plant and Friends of Chadkirk Estate to help these groups better understand the extent of our operations and to identify where we can work together to improve river environments. Through our River Rangers we’ve been able to support river clean-up activities in the Goyt and its tributaries and we’ve also been able to provide safety equipment to John and his team to help ongoing efforts to deliver in river clean up and maintenance activities”.