The Cotswold Water Park WILD Project (Water with Integrated Local Delivery) is a three year project set within the Cotswold Water Park, it aims to improve water quality and biodiversity in order to meet the demands of EU legislation.

The Cotswold Water Park is within the Upper Thames River Catchment and covers an area of 40 square miles between Swindon and Cirencester. The park contains 150 lakes which are the result of gravel extraction; this has created a complex patchwork of agricultural land, working gravel quarries, nature reserves and leisure areas.

Under European legislation (the Water Framework Directive), it is required that EU member states bring all inland and coastal water bodies into good ecological status by 2015. Good ecological status requires a holistic view of the river ecosystem looking at the biodiversity, chemical and morphological features of the river.

The Upper Thames Catchment Management Plan shows that currently only 1/3 of surface rivers within the catchment are meeting the required standards, with areas of failure including:

• High phosphate levels.
• Poor fish populations, spawning grounds and habitats.
• High levels of phytobenothos (microscopic algae).
• High water pH.

These problems are caused by many factors including:

• Inappropriate placement of dams, weirs and sluice gates.
• Siltation, increasing flood risks and damaging fish spawning beds.
• Sewage discharges.
• Diffuse water pollution from agriculture.

The aim of the WILD project is to address these issues across the entire catchment, connecting up the landscape like a jigsaw and delivering the following benefits to landowners and local communities:

• Improved riparian biodiversity and habitat management.
• Improved management of SSSIs.
• Reduced diffuse pollution from agriculture.
• Reduced point source pollution.
• Assistance in the provision of clean drinking water e.g. reducing pesticides such as metaldehyde.
• Increased sustainable productive land management.
• Increased cross compliance.
• Increased flood and drought mitigation.

The Integrated Local Delivery approach being used by FWAG SouthWest will ensure that the project is farmer led.

Project Officers will be visiting all farms, small holdings and relevant landowners over the course of the project, complementing Natural England’s Catchment Sensitive Farming project.
Jenny Phelps of Gloucestershire FWAG is the Project Manager and will be providing advice to farmers and landowners alongside a Project Officer from Cotswold Water Park Trust and Helen Richards of the Gloucestershire Rural Community Council will be working at a community level.

Phase 1 of the project was completed in March 2016 with 280 farm visits, 16 parishes engaged, 300km of ditches surveyed and 5 km of river enhancement works completed alongside grants secured totaling £242,000.

The aim of Phase 2 is to ensure that this excellent progress is not lost and to expand the WILD area into carefully selected water bodies that have an impact in the Phase 1 area.  This will help deliver Good Ecological Status in all water bodies in the Phase 2 project area, in the medium (2021) and long (2027) term, through partnership working.  Phase 2 will also embed water issues within local governance to ensure long term sustainability of the water environment.

To download a copy of the WILD Overview click here. If you would like the full version with appendices please email us (note this version is 11mb so we will send to you via WeTransfer).

Download the presentation by Jenny Phelps MBE by clicking here.

 

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Ecosystems Knowledge Webinar

Opportunities for involving local communities in managing their environment and place-making. Recorded July 2018.

As revised planning policy emerges, and preparations are made in England for the 2019 Year of Green Action, we need to put local communities more at the centre of decisions about their environment. Helping communities to understand their local assets and make the most of these is central to the challenge of forming more places where people want to live, work and spend time.

This webinar, will feature two examples of work to build the capacity of local communities to manage places - and the wider environment - in ways that make them resilient, healthy and prosperous. We will hear from Jenny Phelps of Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group about how the Integrated Local Delivery approach uses the detailed knowledge of farmers and local residents to identify environmental concerns and find joined-up ways of meeting multiple objectives. We will also hear from Paul Cobbing of the National Flood Forum on the work that local flood groups are doing to develop natural flood management methods in partnership with flood authorities and local landowners.

The webinar aims to stimulate discussion of opportunities for the public, private and third sector to play their part in connecting people, place and environment in 2019 and beyond. We'll explore how local community action can be a catalyst for mobilising resources to deliver environmental and social benefits in the context of the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan.

You can listen to the webinar by clicking here.

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A glimpse into WILD (Water & Integrated Local Delivery)
An edit for the EU Pegasus project

The methodology devised during the Water with Integrated Local Delivery is now being used as part of an Environmental Land Management Trial on behalf of DEFRA. To find out more, visit their Hub Pages by clicking here.