Latest Newsletter

Closed – Booking now open for Climate Change on the North West Coast conference 29 & 30th March 2023

We are pleased to announce that booking is now open.   The North West Coastal Forum is working with the North West and North Wales Coastal Group and Our Future Coast to deliver a conference on climate change exploring the challenges facing the North West’s coastal communities and working with nature to adapt to coastal

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Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative

Defra has published a policy paper setting out its ambitions and a series of actions to reduce and, where possible, eliminate accidental capture and entanglement of sensitive marine species in fishing gear in UK waters. Sensitive marine species include seabirds, cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), and sharks, skates and rays. Bycatch monitoring programmes in the

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Closed – consultation on pilot sites for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs)

Closes 28th September 2022 Defra has launched a consultation on proposals to designate pilot Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs), including a candidate site of Allonby Bay, Cumbria.  In 2019 the UK Government commissioned an independent review, the Benyon Review, to explore the concept of HPMAs. The Review concluded that they are an essential component of

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Draft Flood Risk Management Plans: 2021 to 2027 – Summary of Responses

The Environment Agency has published a summary of responses received to the consultation on the draft Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) 2021 to 2027. FRMPs are statutory plans that set out how to manage flood risk in nationally identified flood risk areas and the consultation ran from October 2021  to January 2022. For more information

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Coastal Access Update – Late Spring 2022

Natural England have produced their latest update on progress on the England Coast Path in the North West. Currently 132km of the path are open in the North West, with a further 117 km from Cleveleys to Pier Head in Liverpool approved in full but not yet open and the remaining 322 km approved in

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Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership: Key Challenges and Emerging Issues Publication

MCCIP has published a suite of outputs on ‘responding to key challenges in UK marine climate change’, building on the evidence presented in the latest MCCIP report card (2020) and providing a snapshot of the key issues facing the UK marine climate change community and guidance on how to address them. The outputs are designed

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Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme Policy Paper published

Defra has published a policy paper setting out the  Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA). This is a science innovation and transformation programme, spanning land and water environments, including marine. It has been set up to collect data on the extent, condition and change over time of England’s ecosystems and natural capital, and the benefits

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Environment Agency publishes storm overflow Event Duration Monitoring data for 2021

Storm overflows are designed to release excess storm water from the sewerage system into rivers or the sea during prolonged, heavy rainfall, to ensure they are not overwhelmed. Water companies should only do this under strictly permitted conditions. Nearly nine in ten storm overflows now have monitoring devices providing vital information about their use to

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Exploring the Benefits of a Regional Approach to Coastal Coordination in North West England – Summary Report Available

The North West Coastal Forum has been leading a Regional Demonstration Project to explore the benefits of a regional approach to coastal coordination in North West England. This is one of a series of Regional Demonstration Projects taking place across England as part of the ‘A National Framework Championing Coastal Coordination’ project led by Coastal

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Survey: Salt Marshes in North West England

This survey is part of a research project being carried out by the University of Liverpool. The researchers are carrying out this research to gain a better understanding of people’s attitudes towards salt marshes in North West England. The research will feed into the Ecological Coastal Buffer Strips (Eco-CoBS) project on coastal resilience, being led

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