WORK started this week to restore the weir and leat on the West Okement River below West Bridge. The project is being carried out by the Okement Rivers Improvement Group. The group?s chairman, Cllr Christine Marsh, said one breach in the weir would be left in place at the request of the Environment Agency, to assist the passage of fish. She added: ?They have already recognised that the level of water quality has improved. When they came here they found trout and salmon. It?s nice to know that we?ve got fish in there.? The group have already carried out clean ups of the river and cleared vegetation to allow sunlight to reach some of the water, allowing for a healthier ecosystem. The work will completely rebuild the weir creating a larger, deeper, healthier leat behind. Cllr Marsh said the group would like to move the sewage pipe which crosses the river at West Bridge to a less visible position, but that would have been too expensive. A leat is a man-made water channel which takes river water from behind a weir and diverts it, originally for some domestic or industrial purpose. Paul Hamblin, historian at the museum of Dartmoor Life, said the leat at West Bridge originally served Clapps Mill, a grist mill which was turned into a boot factory towards the end of the nineteenth century. The factory continued to use the power of the water until it closed in the 1960s. Cllr Marsh said the Okement Rivers Improvement Group was set up because it recognised the importance of the rivers to Okehampton. She said: ?We are a town with two rivers running through it. With development forever encroaching we wanted to do something about it.? They have carried out clean ups and traditional coppicing along the banks, rebuilt the pig bridge at the far end of Simmons Park and restored leats and footpaths. The main sponsors of the latest project are the Rock Environmental Treatment scheme - RockETS, Okehampton United Charity and the Westcountry Rivers Trust.
