Fleet Pond Nature Reserve SSSI | Hart District Council

Please see our FAQs on the recent fish deaths at Fleet Pond lower down the page.

Site information

Free parking (2.1m height restriction) No time restrictions
Fleet Train Station car park - charges apply
Signposted walks
- Red (unsurfaced) 1km
- Yellow (Unsurfaced) 3km
- Blue (Unsurfaced) 4km
Information boards
Map and noticeboards
Picnic area
Benches
Bins
Fishing platforms
Viewing platforms

All group-led activities must contact the Education Ranger before they visit the site. Further information on organising educational visits can be found on our Education page.

If you intend on pond dipping using your own equipment at Fleet Pond, please make sure you help us 'Stop the Spread'. Make sure you have contacted our Education Ranger before doing any pond dipping on Hart land.

Where you'll find it

Fleet Road A3013,
Fleet,
GU14 0LZ

View destination on Google Maps

What you'll find there

Fleet Pond is the largest freshwater lake in Hampshire and the nature reserve has 54.6 hectares (141 acres) of varied habitats. The pond itself occupies approximately half of this area. The surrounding land features heathland, woodland, reedbed and marsh, and is home for many species of birds, butterflies, dragonflies and wildflowers. Fleet Pond is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI.) There are several benches around the site and a designated picnic area near the car park.

The area is managed by the Hart District Council Countryside Ranger Service in partnership with the Fleet Pond Society which provides generous support to the Countryside Rangers as well as offering exciting volunteer opportunities for the local community.

Fleet Pond has been given a prestigious Green Flag Award.

Please keep dogs under close control.

Toxic Blue-Green Algae

Fleet Pond experiences blooms of Blue-Green Algae during the summer months. Please keep an eye out for any warnings on site. When it is present on site please stay out of the water and keep your dogs under control; do not let them enter the water. If your dog does go into the water, please seek immediate advice from a vet. Any questions please contact the Countryside team.

Management Plan

Fishing and boating policy

If you intend on fishing using your own equipment at Fleet Pond, please make sure you help us 'Stop the Spread'. Make sure you have contacted our Countryside team to acquire the correct licensing for any fishing before visiting the site.

Fishing and Boating Policy
Regulamin korzystania z łodzi / Polish Boat policy and Byelaws
The fishing season is CLOSED

Wildlife

Top 10 species found at Fleet Pond:

Adder
Grass snake
Slow worm
Cuckoo
Reed warbler
Snipe
Goldcrest
Teal
Common whitethroat
Noctule bat

News and updates

Unfortunately, all activities and events for the time being for 2020 have either been cancelled or postponed during the current pandemic.
All volunteering is currently on hold, however if you are interested in helping out with volunteer tasks once they are up and running again, visit the Hart Voluntary Action website or call them on 01252 627070.

Death of fish at Fleet Pond

Hart District Council worked with the Environment Agency and Fleet Pond Society following the death of a significant number of fish at Fleet Pond during unusually high temperatures w/c 10 August. A clean-up operation has been completed and measures put in place to mitigate conditions.

Read our FAQs below for more information:

What happened to cause such a large number of fish to die?

We do not have the exact cause confirmed. However, we have experienced a heatwave of 34C for six days which raised the temperature of the water to 30C. This high temperature, compounded with the die-back of blue green algae and the shallowness of the lake, depleted the oxygen in the water to dangerous levels. Any one of these factors could have killed the fish but it may be a combination of them all.

What could the Council have done to stop this from happening?

We have never had this happen before and experts at the Environment Agency Fisheries Team has told us there nothing we could have done to prevent this occurrence from happening. It has advised that this is a natural disaster brought about by extreme, but naturally occurring, factors out of our control. We thank the Environment Agency for its expertise and support and will be working closely with it throughout this incident.

Could you have pumped air or water into the lake?

It is not a simple matter of pumping air or water into the lake as it would not make much difference over such a vast water body and the disturbance that this would have on the fine silt would have caused more harm to the fish, potentially resulting in more deaths. Where we could do this safely, we have installed an air pump to provide a small refuge in a location where there was limited silt. The best thing for the lake is to have a sustained period (potentially several months) of colder wetter, windier weather.

Why couldn’t the Council act faster?

This incident happened over the space of a few hours and was observed by Hart Rangers and Fleet Pond Society who reported this immediately. There was a team of specialists from Thames Water and the Environment Agency supporting the Council and Fleet Pond Society within an hour of this being reported.

What can the Council do to prevent this from happening in the future?

As the site is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, any chemical intervention is likely to be destructive to the remaining wildlife and would not be an option we would explore. The only way to improve the lake environment and prevent future large algal blooms is to encourage water plants to flourish within the lake. We have been working together over the last 10 years to achieve this and recent surveys show that we are now starting to see an improvement in all areas of the lake. There is still a fair way to go and we will continue to work with our partners at Fleet Pond Society, Natural England and the Environment Agency in building aquatic flora that stabilise the ecosystem for fish, improves the water quality and ultimately greatly improves the wildlife value all round.

App

Fleet Pond now has its very own interactive app thanks to the Fleet Pond Society. The app includes trails, a map, points of interest, a gallery and additional information. You can access the app on Apple or Android.

Apple Link to the Fleet Pond Society App

Android Link th the Fleet Pond Society App