The ACA Forum

Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Some important relevant consultations that are live at the moment  :

1.    The South Devon AONB Planning Guidance Consultation is now open until Tuesday 16th August 2016. For full details, please visit www.southdevonaonb.org.uk/our-work/responding-to-planning/south-devon-aonb-planning-guidance-consultation

We are also presently preparing a guide to preparing a ‘Construction Environmental Management Plan’ – essentially an audit of all the potential environmental impacts of a development, from inception to post build use, and how each impact will be mitigated to safeguard the setting and ‘downstream’ habitats of the development.

2.   The Devon and Severn Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Authority has formally advertised the proposed Netting Permit Byelaw 2016 yesterday and the period of public consultation on the Byelaw has started.

The proposed Byelaw will provide the Authority with the ability to balance the needs of persons netting with the requirements to secure a sustainable marine eco-system and local socio-economic environment for the benefit of all sea users.  Any person that uses a net, other than of a type specified in the byelaw, to fish in the Authority’s District is required to do so in accordance with a permit issued by the Authority.  Under this byelaw the Authority will have the ability, among other things, to restrict the number of nets that can be used, where the nets can be used and introduce a daily catch limit.  The permit conditions contain all the Authority’s management restrictions that apply to netting activity in the District.  The permit conditions will be reviewed when necessary on the basis of best available evidence and within a time period not exceeding three years.

A full text of the above Byelaw, the permit conditions and the associated Impact Assessment can be inspected at, or obtained from Devon & Severn IFCA, Brixham Laboratory, Freshwater Quarry, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 8BA. Tel: 01803 854648; Email: office@devonandsevernifca.gov.uk or viewed on www.devonandsevernifca.gov.uk

Any person wishing to comment, support or object to the confirmation of the above Byelaw must do so in writing to:

Marine Conservation and Enforcement Team, Marine Management Organisation, Lancaster House, Hampshire Court, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 7YH (or IFCAbyelaws@marinemanagement.org.uk) by 22nd September 2016 and must send a copy to the Chief Officer at Devon & Severn IFCA, Brixham Laboratory, Freshwater Quarry, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 8BA (or office@devonandsevernifca.gov.uk  ).

The Authority intends to hold a series of events between 15th and 26th August 2016 around the district to publicise the Byelaw consultation and to provide you with an opportunity to discuss the proposals with the Authority’s officers.  Some venues are yet to be confirmed so please visit our website or contact the office after 29th July 2016 to find out when and where the events will be held.

The ACA supports the SAS campaign to clean our seas and estuaries of sewage-related materials.  The following message was received from SAS on 23rd May 2016:-

Today, we’re taking your support for the Sewage Free Seas campaign to Westminster with us to be presented to the Environment Agency at our All Party Parliamentary Group. Your support joins 13,000 fellow ocean enthusiasts, surfers, water users and environmentalists calling for Sewage Free Seas. This huge response, in just six weeks, shows just how concerned coastal communities are about sewage pollution at our beaches.
We will make the case for Sewage Free Seas on behalf of you and all our supporters, calling for the Environment Agency and water companies to stop sewage pollution ruining some of the nation’s best beaches.
The meeting will bring together Members of Parliament to hear evidence from speakers from the European Centre for the Environment & Human Health, surf industry leaders, Surfing GB, the shellfish industry, the Marine Conservation Society and Leah.  Leah is a young surfer who fell seriously ill after surfing at her favourite spot whilst a sewer overflow, hidden upstream, discharged untreated human sewage into the sea.
We rely on the support of our members to enable us to campaign for Sewage Free Seas at the highest level.  Supporting Surfers Against Sewage with a regular donation is the best way you can help us achieve our long term vision of a clean, safe and protected ocean environment.  Please join us today, for just £2 a month.
We’ll email you again after the All Party Parliamentary Group to let you know the outcomes and what that means for protecting your health and our special beaches.
Thanks again for your support
Team SAS

Water releases from the Avon dam have been negotiated by the Devon Avon Group during dry spells of weather in order to facilitate, for example, the migration of salmon smolt.   Full details are available in Notes from the DAG meetings, elsewhere on this website.

Currently (10th May) the river water level at the Loddiswell gauging station is 0.28m – at the low end of the normal range of 0.25m-1.80m.   Therefore, the Environment Agency has triggered, with the close collaboration of SWW, the release of an extra 65ML per day of water from the dam between 3.00pm on Friday 6th May and Monday 9th May.   Most of the benefit will be in the upper reaches of the river, which for many years have run very low during dry weather.

The South Hams Society’s AGM on 25^th April will be followed by a talk by David Pinder on Operation Neptune , the survey and appeal which have enabled the National Trust to become easily the largest coastal landowner in the country. It owns – and permanently protects – almost 800 miles of coast. We have particular cause to be thankful for that here in South Devon.

Click on the link below for more details:-

neptunetalk[1]

The notes from the most recent meeting of the Devon Avon (Water Quality) Group or DAG have been added to the appropriate page in the ECOLOGY section.  Amongst other things, it will be seen that SWW’s programme of water releases from the Avon dam, for fisheries purposes, will be continuing during 2016 along with some electro-fishing and gravel augmentation work (also funded by SWW) as an experiment to promote fish spawning in the upper reaches of the river.