Consultation closes: 14 May 2025 The Environment Agency is seeking your feedback an approach of working together to review and update the river basin management plans in 2027. The river basin management plans are updated at the end of a 6 year planning cycle, where the next update is due 2027. In order to understand […]
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 […]
Closes 11:45 p.m. 12th May 2022 Defra is seeking views on new government targets to tackle the issue of sewage discharges to eliminate ecological and public healthhttps://consult.defra.gov.uk/water-industry/storm-overflows-discharge-reduction-plan/ harm arising from storm-related sewage overflows. There are around 15,000 storm overflows in England, and in 2020 there were over 400,000 sewage discharges, totalling over 3 million hours. […]
Consultation closes 11:45 p.m., 11th May 2022 Defra is seeking views on proposed new environmental targets under the Environment Act 2021. The Act requires that at least one target in each of four priority areas is set in: air, water, biodiversity, and resource efficiency and waste reduction. It also requires targets to be set for […]
Defra has published statistics summarising the statistics on English coastal and inland bathing waters in 2021 and their compliance with the 2013 Bathing Water Regulations. In summary, out of the 417 bathing waters measured in England: 413 (99%) met at least the minimum standard under the Regulations with 295 of these classified as ‘excellent’, 100 classified as […]
Consultation closed 22nd April 2022 The Environment Agency is consulting on updating the river basin management plans that fall entirely within England along with those for the Severn and Northumbria which lie partly in Wales and Scotland. The EA will use the information provided in producing updates to the current river basin management plans which […]
This survey is now closed. The Irish Sea Maritime Forum, supported by the University of Liverpool, is conducting an Irish-sea wide survey to look to the future and the changing context of the Irish Sea in the 2020s. The aim is to develop a comprehensive picture of the future for the Irish Sea and […]
The 2018 bathing water results are out and classifications for the North West’s 30 designated bathing waters (including 4 inland) are given below. A new classification for bathing water quality was brought in 4 years ago. The new classifications are much tougher than the previous system of classification but 97.9% of bathing waters in England […]
New statistics released by DEFRA on the quality of bathing water around England have shown that swimming waters are the cleanest since records began. 413 beaches and lakes were tested around the country of which 98.5% of those passed standards with 93.2% of those being rated ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, an increase of over 5% since […]
The Environment Agency, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Wales have published the updated River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) following the 2014-15 consultation. These set out priorities for protection and improvement of the water environment to achieve good ecological status in accordance with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Links to the plans […]