A quieter week

Goldbridge, a gauging weir on the river Ouse

After the very hectic first week this week seemed a return to normality.

Monday and Tuesday consisted contained a quarterly feedback session with Head Office on the Adur and Ouse pilot and how we are progressing. You may not know that the pilots are steered through a national programme board consisting of Defra and the Defra family. James Farrell (who leads the pilots nationally) and I discussed the national pilot picture, it seems that as a collective we are beginning to diversify and capture different learning and also how our Environment Management colleagues have been targeting their regulatory work to the pilot catchment. Very exciting stuff and I am pleased to report that the Adur and Ouse is viewed at national as leading the way in many areas.

The middle of the week was spent spreading the pilot learning through our new catchment co-ordinators in Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (as I mentioned in the first blog, this is critical if we are to ensure that the pilots are used as a springboard for what can be done better). The training specifically focussed on  stakeholder engagement, evidence sharing and also how Environment Agency fisheries and biodiversity teams.

Friday was spent planning with colleagues about how we can best reach catchment solutions to our gauging needs. We have many assets in our rivers for flood defence and flow gauging and many of these assets fall within our Morph project (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/catchments) so we need to find a long term solution to how we can approach this. Having made a few phone calls to my national colleagues, it appears we are not alone in this position so I hope once again the Adur and Ouse can be seen as a leading light.