AN AMBITIOUS plan to create a wetland to cut ‘nutrients’ getting into the River Meon and also to make it possible for more nitrogen to enter the Solent is with South Downs National Park Authority.

The proposal at Whitewool Farm in East Meon, owned by the Butler family, includes a stream and springs which form a headwater of the River Meon, that enters the Solent at Titchfield.

It is planned to widen a stretch of Whitewool Stream and flow it ‘online’ through created reed beds to help take the nutrients out of it before it join the River Meon.

But purifying the water at East Meon, will mean developers can put nitrogen in housing estate waste water into the Solent.

A report to national park planners says: “This reduction will be used to offset nitrogen within wastewater created by proposed housing developments within the South Hampshire region (Peel Common and Budds Farm Wastewater Treatment Works).”

There are also fears that as water from Whitewool Stream is being sucked into reed beds, this innovative scheme will reduce the amount of water getting into the River Meon system.

At the moment water table levels in around East and West Meon are about 30 feet lower than usual.

This means there is less water in the River Meon, its tributaries and run-offs than in the rest of year – in some parts of the system the river beds are showing.

Although this has happened in the past, concerns have been expressed that increasing climate change, more water being taken from aquifers to supply new estates and businesses, and the proposed nutrient mitigation works on Whitewool Stream, this could become more common.

And it may even lead to some of the Meon system drying up permanently.

But in a report, project spokesman Martin Hawthorne said: “The outflow from the habitat will effectively be the same as present.

“The intention is to create a habitat that not only removes nitrates, but also creates a wide range of habitat improvements.”

There are also plans to make the stream freer flowing, and create more habitat for river dwellers like fish and improve river banks for water voles.

And a flowering water meadow will be planted in the stream.

And on one bank, a water meadow and wetland woods will be planted.

West Meon Parish Council has no objections to the proposal.