February 2024

On Thursday 8^th February, the Bristol Avon Catchment Partnership hosted a successful Stakeholder Workshop at the West of England Combined Authority Offices in Bristol.

The workshop provided a chance for attendees to explore the current and emerging partnership projects across the catchment, as well as where the partnership would like to collectively prioritise investment for the benefits of the water environment.

Partners at the workshop also discussed the positives of partnership working, as well as the barriers, including what can be achieved collectively to improve communication, governance, access to funding opportunities, and data access, amongst more.

Approximately 45 partners from 22 organisations attended the workshop, and we’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the event, with a special thanks to the West of England Combined Authority for hosting us. It was a great success and the BACP Team has gained lots of extremely valuable information, feedback, and insight into how the partnership can continue to grow and unlock more opportunities in favour of our water environment.

We will be sharing the outputs of the workshops over the coming weeks once we have collated everything into a more digestible format. If you would like to know more in the interim, please contact us on: info@bristolavoncatchment.co.uk

 

It has recently been confirmed Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART), the Riverfly Partnership hub for the Bristol Avon Catchment, carried out the highest number of Riverfly surveys nationally in 2023!

Riverfly are very sensitive to pollution and can be used as effective early indicators of pollution events, which sometimes are not obvious to a passer-by. BART volunteers use the  Angler’s Riverfly Monitoring Initiative method to sample Riverfly and if the number in a sample drop below a ‘Trigger level’ the Environment Agency is notified so that the problem can be identified and action taken. You can find out more about BART’s Riverfly initiative here.

The Riverfly Partnership visited the Bristol Avon catchment to interview Charlie Tricks, one of BART’s regular Riverfly’s monitors. Charlie tells how he had studied A-level biology and wanted to be a marine or freshwater biologist, however had never pursued a career. 42 years later, he was introduced to the Riverfly Monitoring programme, and was “entirely in my element”.

As a result of being involved in the monitoring, Charlie has been involved in many debates on the management of the River Chew, and wider catchment area, and has helped influence restoration work on the river.

To read the article, select the February newsletter on the Riverfly Partnership website.


 

North Somerset Council has successfully been awarded a £450k grant towards the North Somerset Peatland Initiative. The project was one of 13 successful bids to the Lowland Agricultural Peat Water Discovery Pilot Scheme, a new government scheme aimed to conserve and restore peatlands across England.

Functioning peatlands can provide a wide range of environmental benefits, such as storing carbon, flood protection, and improving biodiversity. However, when peatlands are poorly managed or damaged, they can have the opposite effect.

The Peatland Initiative will see North Somerset Council work alongside landowners and farmers in the area, as well as local and regional partners, to collate existing data and carry out  surveys and ground investigations across the North Somerset Levels and Moors. The data collected will be crucial to finding out more about peatlands and what can be done to protect the landscape.

Find out more about the project on the North Somerset Council website here.

 

 
The Severn Estuary Partnership are running their annual Spring Clean event in the Severn Estuary, and surrounding catchments, from the 15^th to the 24^th March. It aligns with the national events: Keep Wales Tidy and Keep Britain Tidy. The event is encouraging groups, individuals, and organisations to host their own litter picks over the course of the 2-3 weeks, and record their event on the Severn Estuary Partnership’s event map, so local volunteers can join in.

If you would like to set-up your own litter picking event, then please contact Havard-SmithK@cardiff.ac.uk with the following details: Where your beach clean is happening (please include Post Code if you have one), when it is happening (date and time), if you will be doing any promotion of the event (through social media, emails, newsletters, posters, local news etc.), and any support the Severn Estuary Partnership might be able to offer. 

A new £13m Centre of Excellence will be established at the University of Bath. The Centre will focus on water-based health monitoring, hosting state-of-the-art analytical capabilities, including a digital water-sensing platform, training base, and a public health surveillance system. The system will be able to detect outbreaks and diseases at a community level by testing water systems, which could prevent future pandemics and provide a better understanding of chronic, non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.

Plans for the Centre follow confirmation of a £8.4 million investment from Research England. It will be designed with input from Wessex Water, the UK Health Security Agency, Arup, Environment Agency, The London Data Company, AWS, Waters and The Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Trust, and Bath & North-East Somerset Council.

Five prize fellow positions and a doctoral training partnership will also be created through the project, increasing the skills and expertise base while diversifying talent.

To read more about the Centre, click here.

 

Bristol Avon Rivers Trust have been carrying out habitat restoration on the Little Avon, at Damery. The work has been funded by South Gloucestershire Council as part of their Climate and Nature Emergency Action Plan, and involves the creation of 16 wood berms along the river.

The creation of berms adds complexity and variation to rivers, and aids the restoration of natural processes by introducing flow variation, creating sediment traps, and making the river more resilient to climate change, as well as creating habitats and refuge for fish. The work is being carried out by Berkeley Estate Fishing Syndicate and local volunteers.

Read more about the project work on the BART website here.

‎

As part of a yearlong series on Radio 4 focused on the Bristol Avon, the following have featured in the last month:

Simon Hunter, BART CEO, featured in an interview with Philippa Forrester to talk about the issues surrounding rivers. The pair spoke alongside the River Chew in Keynsham, and discussed issues around agriculture, fish barriers, water companies, invasive species, and how our blue spaces are just as important as our green spaces, amongst more. To hear the interview, visit BBC Sounds here – Simon Hunter appears at the 13:55 mark.

Simon Hunter also featured in an interview with Emily Knight at Three Brooks Nature Reserve. He spoke about nature-based solutions to slow the flow of water in the head waters so the landscape can be used like a sponge to help prevent flooding. He specifically spoke about slowing the flow through ‘rewiggling’ using BART’s work on the Stoke Brook in the Three Brooks Nature Reserve as an example.

In the same episode Matt Wheeldon, Wessex Water Director of Infrastructure, spoke about the work Wessex Water are undertaking, such as installing attenuation tanks, to help reduce storm overflows. He also spoke about how Wessex Water deal with rainwater management such as soakaways and rain gardens, as well as the challenges of implementing these solutions. To hear these interviews, visit BBC Sounds here starting from just after the 1h 41min 30s mark.
 

The Bristol Avon Catchment Market are hosting a Conference in March at the National Trust Headquarters, Swindon. The event will provide in insight into the importance of markets, their achievements so far, and the future for catchment markets in the UK.

To register for the event, visit their website here.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Wider news

 

Vital Hedge and River Rules Vanish

Water Quality Monitoring Network Report