08 Sep 2022

Defra have announced the projects that will receive funding from the Landscape Recovery Scheme. The initiative is being hailed by land managers and conservationists as the most “exciting and important” step in a generation to restore lost biodiversity. Projects include recreating water meadows in the Cotswolds, reviving eel-rich waterways in the Severn Valley, and restoring […]

08 Sep 2022

UKHSA and MHRA are expanding polio sewage surveillance to a range of areas outside of the capital. Following the findings of poliovirus in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works, which covers parts of North and East London, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) working with the Medicines and Healthcare product Regulatory […]

01 Sep 2022

Water quality trading has been proposed as a way to address water pollution, where one source of pollution is allowed to emit a pollutant at levels greater than required by buying “credits” from another source that is able to control pollution levels below the required threshold. An article published in Contemporary Economic Policy provides a comprehensive review […]

01 Sep 2022

UK Government launch Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction plan Defra have announced the new storm overflows discharge reduction plan, which sets stringent new targets to protect people and the environment. This will require water companies to deliver the largest infrastructure programme in water company history. As we have previously covered, the announcement follows a series of […]

01 Sep 2022

Work at Dumbreck Local Nature Reserve has seen the re-naturalisation of 600m of the Garrell Burn with two new fish passes created, improvements to the wetland habitat, new paths created, two bridges replaced and a new one installed, and two boardwalks upgraded. Monitoring by Clyde River Foundation has identified salmon fry upstream from the fish passes […]

01 Sep 2022

News outlets have reported that the UK government’s plan to cut millions of hours of raw sewage discharges by water companies each year is facing a judicial review on the grounds that it is unlawful. The conservationist charity WildFish is calling for the storm overflow reduction strategy, published on 26th August, to be withdrawn immediately, […]