(Open to all)
Minutes:
Environment Agency
Helen Dix, Environment Agency informed the Board that technical staff had been involved in reviewing the early plans for the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme and particular interest for the Agency was around where the pipe would cross the rivers and mitigating for any flood risk for environmental impact to do with those river crossings.
It was also noted that there was a review of drought plans, including those from United Utilities and the Water Resources staff, and will be reviewing the water bank at Stocks Reservoir, that is released at a constant rate throughout. However, it is understood that there is a review as to whether there is a better way to discharge that water according to conditions.
Primrose Lodge is a project that the Ribble Rivers Trust has been leading on and the Environment Agency have been involved also and contributed funding towards the project, particularly towards a fish pass which has been constructed there, which will enable fish to pass beyond Primrose Lodge.
North Yorkshire Council
Hugh Clear Hill, North Yorkshire Council updated the Committee that County Councillor Richard Welch, had died earlier in the year sadly, and that a by-election was due to take place on 7 May 2021 and following that, a representative will be appointed to the Forest of Bowland Joint Advisory Committee (JAC).
Also, discussions on the Local Government Reorganisation were still ongoing. The formal consultation ended on 19 April 2021, with two basic proposals, North Yorkshire as a Unitary and the City of York and the other model proposed by six Districts was an East/West split. The current timeframe from the Government is that an announcement will be made in July 2021 with potentially the new Unitary structures to be in place April 2023.
Natural England
Ginny Hinton, Natural England informed the members, that it was also feeding into the Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme as a regulator around conservation and protected sites.
A report was also presented on the Farm and Conservation Agri-Environment agreements in Bowland from last year. As a summary, work was carried out with landowners on three higher tier agreements covering 263 hectares of uplands, five hectares of grassland and 25 hectares of breeding wader habitat, as well as 5000 metres of boundary work which has a landscape impact and educational access. There was also an extension of 14 higher level stewardship agreements, which covers 2677 hectares and detailed condition assessments have been carried out in eight SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) meadow units and rapid assessments on a further 18 units, mainly in the uplands/fells area. There are also 24 higher tier applications for this year across Chester and Lancashire which will include locations in the Bowland area which will be progressed.
Wyre Borough Council
Alison Boden, Wyre Borough Council outlined that following some of the lockdown restrictions being eased, some face to face activities had taken place, mainly in the urban and coastal areas with health walks and rides with around 4-6 customers attending however, as the lockdown restrictions returned in the winter, again they ceased to operate. Again they recommenced in April with face to face activities with the rule of six set out by the Government and from April, the following will take place:
· Whimbrel watch
· Lapwing and hares walk
· Scorton health walk
Ways of working will be shared with the Festival Bowland Team on health and safety at the events that have taken place during Covid and it is hoped that as lockdown restrictions are eased, the number of activities can also be increased as well as attendance.
Due to the huge impact of a difficult winter due to the pandemic, a meeting took place with organisers of the Garstang Walking Festival and it was agreed that it should be moved from May to August bank holiday weekend. There will be some trial runs of Friends of Garstang Walking Festival taking place prior to the bank holiday.
The Committee were informed that no literature on the Wyre Great Outdoors has been produced this year, again due to the pandemic, however there is a monthly poster produced which will be shared with the Festival Bowland Team to be included in the Visit Bowland information.
Volunteers have been doing activities with the Ranger Team throughout the pandemic and these were very minimal and in-line with Government guidelines and mainly in a lone way. More volunteers are now doing activities in the rule of six (which includes staff) and experiences from this will be shared with the Forest of Bowland Team. As a result, recommencement of work has started on upgrading and repairing the Scorton Millennium Way, which is a permissive route on flood embankments that enable people to walk in from Garstang to Scorton.
Work on the Abbeystead Estate has continued and the way marking of the Wyre Way on how improvements can be made with the help of surveying from volunteers. An asset check is also be carried out on the Wyre Way which links people on recreational routes into the Forest of Bowland from the estuary and the coast.
Rural farmers, residents and businesses have been struggling with regards to the impact of Covid as well as staycation behaviour and unfortunately in public places there has been lots of litter found and damage done particularly fires either caused accidently or deliberately. Work is ongoing with partners in Lancashire to get the right messages out to help encourage the correct behaviours of people visiting the countryside sites as well as the coastal areas.
United Utilities
Matt Upton, United Utilities updated the Committee on the Water Industry National Environment Programme which the team are heavily involved with currently in Bowland. Support is continuing with an ongoing University research project at York University to continue to look at restoration of blanket bog for bio-diversity reasons as well as carbon and raw water regulations. Alongside that, there is also an extensive programme of moorland restoration works on the United Utilities estates in Bowland. Survey work has commenced across the tenanted farms and will hopefully be completed in the next three months, where data will then be analysed as to where funding should be directed to address areas such as peat degradation, vegetation management improvement and generally improving the moorland around Bowland.
In addition, across all estates, and particularly the Bowland estate, there are tree planting opportunities to meet United Utilities commitments and carbon off-setting targets with a lot more investment in terms of planting and to meet wider initiatives and targets, reaching out to partners to help to deliver that.
Recreation has also proved to be a huge challenge in terms of anti-social behaviour which has put a lot of pressure on United Utilities around managing land holdings on the Estate, especially footpaths, fly-tipping, littering, moorland fires and it was of concern that this would only increase as further lockdown restrictions are lifted. An exercise on managing wildfires has recently been carried out at Longridge Fell with Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service in dealing with moorland fires and links continue to be strengthened with the Service and partners to ensure preparedness in case of an incident.
The Board were informed that the RSPB reported that it appeared to be a further good season for hen harriers on the Bowland Estate and that several breeding pairs that had been seen in the area already.