Darwin Plus open for latest funding round for UK Overseas Territories Defra: ‘There has been media coverage of the Darwin Plus funding scheme for UK Overseas Territories (OTs) re-opening for the latest round of applications and two government direct grants to St Helena and Montserrat. Darwin Plus provides around £3 million of funding annually to environmental projects […]

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Philip Hoare Guardian ‘They might as well have shot a giant panda. This week an Icelandic whaling company, Hvalur hf, caused uproar when it was revealed that it had killed a blue whale. Hvalur has killed hundreds of fin whales – mostly destined as meat for export to Japan. It resumed its hunt in June, after a three-year hiatus. But […]

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The National Infrastructure Commission is calling on the Government to put in place a long-term strategy to deliver a nationwide standard of flood resilience by 2050 – with funding for flood risk management increasing significantly over the coming decades. The call is among a range of recommendations the Commission has made in the first-ever National Infrastructure […]

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New guidance gives water companies greater freedom to adopt Sustainable Drainage Systems Water UK has published a pre-implementation version of the 8th edition of ‘Sewers for Adoption’ with the expectation that the document will come into effect in mid 2019 as part of the implementation of the Ofwat Code on Adoption Agreements. The SfA8 manual sets […]

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People often think getting legislation passed is the big step. Government’s blocking of SuDS at the behest of the housing industry shows that lobbies can still exert a powerful effect. At least the Welsh have come to their senses. Susdrain Blog Following consultations in 2017, the Welsh Minister for Environment has now signed the Commencement […]

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Defra & Natural England’s response to George Monbiot in the Guardian George Monbiot writes in the Guardian today raising concern over the functions of Natural England. He cites the recent (June) House of Lords NERC Act 2006 committee report that highlighted reductions to the budget of Natural England. The government responded to the committee report in May. Defra response […]

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Anglian Water’s new wetland in Ingoldisthorpe has been formally opened by children from the village primary school. The one-hectare site acts as a natural treatment plant to over a million litres of water, with treated water passing through to be further filtered before returning to the River Ingol. This natural filtering process improves the quality […]

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