Delivering a plan to improve an area the size of the River Tyne catchment was no small task. Doing it in under a year was a very big challenge!
It wasn’t possible, in the short time given to the Tyne Catchment pilot project, to develop a comprehensive plan to tackle all the issues within the Tyne catchment. But we did the best we could to address the big issues – the ones that affect people and the environment the most, and the ones people told us concern them the most.
The key elements of the project are set out below; click on the links to the left to see more information about them.
- May / June 2012 – catchment-wide surveying of environmental organisations, key local stakeholders, community groups and the public
- July / August 2012 – gathering information about current projects going on in the Tyne area
- September / October 2012 – identifying goals and projects for the Tyne Catchment Plan with the people and organisations who are able to deliver improvements
- October / November 2012 – writing and consulting on the draft Plan
- December 2012 – amending and publishing the final Plan
- January 2012 to April 2013 – starting to implement the Plan.
Although the project was led by Tyne Rivers Trust, the Strategy Group guided the development of the Plan at key stages through the project.
The project is funded until April 2013. At the moment it is unclear whether funding will be made available by Defra to continue the project into a full delivery phase, though this is what the Strategy Group would like and is pushing for. It would be a shame if all the hard work which went into producing the Tyne Catchment Plan did not bear fruit in terms of real improvements for our rivers.