Thanks to everyone who got involved with the Tamar Catchment Partnership meeting, held at the Tamar Valley Centre at the end of July.
The meeting was attended by a great number of our partners, representing a variety of interests – including DEFRA groups, Dartmoor National Park Authority, South West Water, Parish, City and County Councils, environmental charities, farmers, ramblers, businesses and research centres!
The meeting aimed to share successes, promote ongoing activities and opportunities, and discuss future priorities. After a summary of progress against the partnerships key aspirations, our new Environment Agency Catchment Coordinator introduced himself, and presented the EA’s perspective on priorities, aspirations and opportunities. We then had a number of interesting talks from a few of our partners:
- Derriford Community Park Project – Chris Avent, Plymouth City Council
- A project working on linking up two nature reserves and a farm located in Plymouth to create the largest greenspace in Plymouth. This includes increasing public access, building a visitor education centre, and developing volunteer groups and community enterprises to ensure the sustainability of the site. See a video about the scheme here.
- Tamara Landscape Partnership (HLF bid) – Corinna Woodall, Tamar Valley AONB
- A project working at the landscape scale with a focus on the character and distinctiveness of the Tamar Valley landscape. An integrated program of sub-projects has been developed including heritage, education and training, local food and much more. If successful, the project will secure £2.2million of HLF funding and will enter a two-year development stage, before commencing in full. Read more about the project on the Tamar Valley website.
- WAMM project – Craig Smith, Coal Authority
- The Water and Abandoned Metal Mines Program is a government funded scheme working across England. The project identifies metal-impacted surface waters which are failing WFD, then investigates the feasibility and mechanisms for implementing solutions (eg. water treatment works). The program aims to be collaborative to gain the greatest benefits from the work.
We’re now asking all our partners to fill in a feedback form so as a partnership we can better better understand our partners’ interests, concerns, projects and aspirations. Please complete this form, or answer the questions in an email, and return to rosie@wrt.org.uk!
Click to read the notes from the meeting, and the presentations from our speakers.