With Truss, Letwin and Stewart moved on there will be a continuing need to remind the new ministers of the value of catchment solutions. Two updates and interesting information
River restoration Centre, Holnicote Natural Flood Management Project members site visit
by Jasmine Errey on Monday, 18th July, 2016 ‘On the first Wednesday of July we ran the first of four RRC Members Site Visits for 2016, to explore the Defra Multi-Objective Flood Management Demonstration Project: “From Source to Sea: the Holnicote Experience”. This project was announced in April as one of four 2016 UK River Prize finalists.The National Trust’s Holnicote Estate in West Somerset had 33 visitors for the day, including members from several wildlife and rivers trusts, consultancies, Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and others. Unusually, almost all RRC Staff and Board members also attended, as the day coincided with the RRC AGM. The project involved over 3000(!!) small natural flood management (NFM) interventions across two river catchments, and we were lucky to have a tour of a few of these in both uplands and floodplain areas, by the National Trust Project Manager, a tenant farmer managing the land and several consultants and contractors involved in the work. This was a great opportunity to learn about all elements of the project and ongoing management and monitoring of the site. It was the first catchment-scale NFM project I’d seen close up, and there were a few things that I found particularly interesting, which I thought I’d share here. Click here to read more
Slowing the Flow – EFRA & LWEC Science
Relu research that helped to slow the flow creates flood of requests
A video about the early work between academics and the community reflects on the importance of the liaison is getting this project off the ground; it is now available on line. Relu’s Understanding Environmental Knowledge Controversies project has had very positive impacts for Pickering in North Yorkshire, resulting in a scheme to “slow the flow”. This helped to ensure that Pickering was not one of the communities flooded during winter 2015/2016. Mike Potter who, along with other local residents was an active participant in the project, said: “The media response was overwhelming, as was the flood of requests from other desperate communities struggling for protection. Lobbying for similar measures to be adopted nationwide has been helped by the stream of VIP’s beating a path to Pickering – Prince Charles, Oliver Letwin MP, Environment Agency CEO and chair and many more.”
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