Trout in the Town Project Minutes

7:30pm Tuesday 15th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Minutes Project Meeting 09.04.08 Present: Paul West, Andy Pritchard, Graham Counsel, Barry Smith, Richard Benson (late due to making an information leaflet for the project) (CWAC) Jerry Stanford, Graham Firth (Friends of Ball Grove) Lee Preston (Environment Agency), David Penney (Chair Pendle LSP Env Group), David Rose (Millennium Green), Martin Foster and Jim Hartley (Mitre AC).

Apologies: Robin Varley (CWAC) and Eric Parsons (Fly Tiers Guild) The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. It was good to see new faces coming along and in particular David Rose (Millennium Green), David Penney and Martin Foster and Jim Hartley of Mitre AC. Prior to the meeting commencing three gentlemen asked what the project was about and gave the Chair their phone numbers and said they would come along on any clean ups being held.

AP apologised to the group for him being disorganised; he had only just finished a photo shoot with The President on the river down at the Millennium Green. Charles would use this shoot on Saturday at the WTT open day in Alwick; this would raise the profile of the project further.

AP to send thanks to Charles Jardine for going out of his way to come and carry out this work.

(Action AP) The meeting opened with the Chair asking if the minutes of the last meeting (which had been circulated) were a true and accurate record of the last meeting held 26.03.08. These minutes were accepted.

Matters arising: JS raised an action on LP regarding the funding available from the EA, LP explained that this was still with the EA Legal Team, but the funds were indeed secured and it was just how these would be signed for by the Project and for CWAC. LP will come back to the group on this. AP and CWAC would be more than happy to sign for these regarding proper usage and accounting.

(LP to liaise with AP when Legal are ready to go ahead).

AP read out comments from Denise Ashton of the WTT as below to the meeting.

Re: it was hoped that as part of the educational function in the future that local schools could grow on Trout from our own river' You may already be aware of a number of Trout in the Classroom' initiatives. The team on the Wandle has done this very successfully. I was talking to Theo Pike earlier today and he mentioned that Alistair Maltby of the Association of Rivers Trusts (Director in the North - he lives in Cumbria) is taking the material they developed on the Wandle, along with some other stuff, and pulling it together as something that can be reused with little effort. The hard part is catching the brood fish and raising eggs from broodstock.

As and when you get to a point of wanting to do something in this area, I would recommend Alistair as the best source of help. Be wary of anyone selling you stuff you can get for free!

Re: whilst on the clean up day they had been turning stones and the fly life was tremendous, perhaps some monitoring of invertebrates could be carried out in the future' Again, you may already be aware of this, but Riverfly Partnership (WTT are partners in this, along with the S&TA) run an Anglers Monitoring Initiative and they will come and train you for a day. This is a really worthwhile thing to join. It is very interesting, and it really helps you keep track of the water quality and alerts you to pollution incidents.

Here is the link which tells you all about it : http://www.riverflies.org/index/riverfly_monit.html re: It was agreed that the whole of the river system needs to be reviewed and a list of priority works need to be identified' There are two sources of wider information at a catchment level that would be useful here as background. One is the EA - ask Lee or Andy Brown if there are catchment level plans you should be aware of.

The other is the Ribble Catchment Conservation Trust (part of the Association of Rivers Trusts). They are a one man band (Stephen Hatton) at the moment, but they may well have done some work at a catchment level already. I had a quick chat to Stephen last year, and he is aware that you were planning a project and I am sure he will share the information he has with you. This is their website. His contact details are on there. .

http://www.ribbletrust.org.uk/ (Actions on AP to investigate and also contact Stephen Hatton) Discussion: A short discussion regarding Charity Status was held and both DR and DP gave advise on this, DR was going to forward AP comments on this, AP would forward these to RB for him to peruse.

(Action DR / AP) Completed 10.04.08 Thank you David. RB could possibly report back on this at the next meeting.

AP gave the group an overview on the work that the WTT is aiming to help with in the project and explained that the new Programme Manager was appointed to post. AP was not sure when the post became active but would hopefully meet up on Saturday at WTT open day at Alnwick, to which anyone from the group or Angling Clubs would be most welcome. The ambitions of the project are to improve the whole of the river and the eco systems surrounding the river valley.

Various issues had been identified on the river to erosion and in particular the way that the river was hitting the bank alongside Mr Drivers field, below the top wooden bridge. JS raised issues of erosion alongside Carriers Row and the way that the water was getting under the concrete and gabions in the river. LP stated that he was hoping that an EA Hydrologist would be available to visit the river; this would help in the understanding of in-river works and the best way to approach parts of the Project. It is hoped that the WTT Programme Manager can meet up with the Hydrologist and members of the Project team to discuss the issues on the river.

Action AP / LP Next Action: It was thought that another river clean up day should be organised in the near future, this should be held at the Millennium Green site, as this would put the emphasis into the Town. It was thought that some column inches could be sought in the Colne Times, AP will approach this to publicise the event.

(Action AP).

The clean up day has been set for SUNDAY 27th April 2008 0900 hrs at Bridge Street Colne; please circulate this date, to all. JS is contacting Pendle Borough Council to organise skips and explore the possibility of work gloves and other items. It is hoped that the skips could be placed strategically to ensure that as much as possible could go straight into them.

JS said that from previous experience it is best to assign people tasks and that by doing this you can actually get more done in the time. DP mentioned the taping off with security tape around the skips to aid health and safety concerns.

RB had made enquiries on the CWAC Insurance policy and that there was adequate cover for all. A register of names would be taken on the day and any none CWAC members would become honorary members for the working party. There is also adequate public liability insurance to cover any misgivings.

GC had been making enquiries of Mr Whitford of CWAC about river survey work; Mr Whitford had supplied very useful information on this. GC and AP were looking further into carrying out fly sampling the river and opening up a database on these findings. This backs up into Denise Ashton's comments above. It is hoped that correct training in this could be available in the future. Mr Whitford is making further enquiries into how the project could secure further funding. This work is ongoing and JS agreed to contact Myerscough College regarding a training day. (Done, reply awaited.) (Thanks to Mr Whitford) LP shared a document with the committee that he had written, this laid out the objectives and also setting out of basic benchmarking over three years. LP also gave a form for in river works authority to the project, it is hoped that these permissions could pass through the EA with minimum fuss. AP asked if LP could send this over in electronic form.

(Action LP) LP also raised the future management of the works done, as the EA could not be responsible for the works if severe damage was done in times of spate. There was a general discussion on this with no real outcome, this issue will need to be addressed at future meetings.

(Action on all) Date, Time and Venue of next meeting: 14 May 2008, 20:00hrs Please come along and become involved in what will turn into a fantastic regeneration project, it's a great pint in the pub too.

Admiral Lord Rodney Public House, Mill Green, Waterside, Colne, Lancashire, BB8 0TA.