Don, Dearne and Rother Network

Catchment partnership vision

Our vision is to see healthy, resilient rivers for nature and people. Our rivers will provide good habitat and species will thrive in improving water quality. Our rivers will continue to claim back natural processes. Our rivers will be resilient. Land and asset management will actively contribute to the functioning and quality of our rivers. We will work towards a catchment scale programme of natural flood management. Our rivers will be assets to communities. They will contribute to a sense of place and improved health and wellbeing.

Related websites

Find out more about the activities and ambitions of this catchment partnership and how you can get involved to help improve the water environment in the catchment.

Catchment challenges

Current challenges identified by partnership

  • Physical modifications

    Fish passage restricted by past industrial structures and fragmented habitats prevent fish reaching spawning grounds

  • Pollution from waste water

    Increased frequency and severity of storm events cause an increase in combined sewer outfall discharges

  • Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

    Agricultural practices lead to chemical and nutrient run off and soil erosion in upper reaches

Wider water environment challenges identified by partnership

  • Support Nature Recovery Network and Local Nature Recovery Strategy

    It is important to support Local Nature Recovery Networks at a catchment scale to encourage a truly joined-up approach

  • Protect and restore healthy soils and nutrient balance

    Working towards more sustainable land management by supporting the agricultural sector is important, particularly to protect and improve soil health

  • Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents

    Working more collaboratively with utility companies and industry going forwards will be important to help tackle issues around storm overflows

  • Connecting communities with nature

    Helping to connect our communities to our river corridors can have multiple benefits for health and wellbeing, particularly in urban areas

  • Removing plastics/litter from the water environment

    Frequent occurrences of littering and fly-tipping in rivers is ongoing, which impacts both water quality and flood risk, we must work to tackle this

  • Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change

    Working with natural processes to build resilience and adaption to climate change is increasingly important and provides cost effective solutions

Future challenges predicted by partnership

  • Physical modifications

    Making improvements to the catchment to recover from our industrial past will still be important in the future, we will continue to look for opportunities to enhance our rivers

  • Pollution from waste water

    We must continue to work with the relevant partners going forwards to make improvements and reduce wastewater pollution occurrences

  • Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

    The agricultural and rural land management sector is changing and will face additional climate pressures, collaborative working will be important in the future

Future challenges predicted by Environment Agency

Future challenges in 2050

  • Invasive Non-native Species
  • Pollution from Towns Cities and Transport
  • Pollution from waste water

Emerging challenges

  • Changes to the Natural Flow and Water Levels
  • Pollution from Towns Cities and Transport
  • Pollution from Agriculture and Rural Areas

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

Successes since 2016 include:

  • river habitats have improved and absent species are now regularly found in the catchment: Atlantic Salmon and Otters have been sighted in urban areas
  • invasive non-native species are being managed at a more strategic level
  • major barriers to fish migration have been tackled
  • 16 fish passage solutions have been installed on weirs on the main Don, allowing migration to first available spawning grounds
  • weirs have been removed or passed on tributaries
  • re-meandering has taken place on sections of river, along with washland creation and de-culverting
  • land management projects have reconnected floodplains and engaged landowners to improve practice
  • several multi benefit projects have taken place on farm land in upper catchments
  • the largest retro-fit sustainable drainage system (SUDs) scheme has taken place in Sheffield, with commitments from local authorities to make SUDs a key part of the planning process
  • natural flood management is now an important strand of work, localised flash flooding has been dealt with in upper catchments using leaky dams, woody debris and gulley stuffing
  • in the Upper Rother catchment work has been informed by Integrated Catchment Solutions Project (iCASP) opportunity mapping
  • community engagement has been a key area of growth across the catchment
  • across all priorities volunteer involvement in the catchment has increased - more land owners have been engaged, including farmers and land holding organisations
  • increased engagement with the agricultural sector, leading to the formation of a faming cluster in the Dearne Valley area.

Ben Gillespie (Yorkshire Water)

Partnership development plans

We will strengthen engagement with the Catchment Based Approach and expand the number and type of partners contributing to our catchment partnership. The network will develop catchment scale projects, completed by partnerships. We will attract and diversify funding income to the catchment partnership itself. We will promote a more public facing role for the catchment partnership, by creating key messaging about catchment issues that communities and members of the public can contribute to.

Partnership priority actions and measures for 2022 to 2027

  • Confident

    Enhancement/no deterioration measures in 2020-2025 Water Industry National Environment Programme

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage point source discharges
    Delivery mechanism
    Confirmed water industry national environment programme 2020-2025
    Location
    Don and Rother

  • Confident

    Rotherham Rivers 3 - mitigating impacts of physical modification in lower Rother heavily modified for flood protection

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Location
    Rother, Doe Lea to Don

  • Confident

    Source to Sea - catchment wide nature based solutions to reduce flood risk, diffuse pollution and improve habitats

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Location
    Don and Rother

  • Confident

    Poolsbrok Flood Reservoir decommission - river restoration, weir removal and wetland habitat creation

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA asset capital investment
    Location
    Doe Lea from Source to Hawke Brook

  • Confident

    Dearne Valley Green Heart - ongoing multi partnership project improving river habitats and reducing diffuse pollution

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Dearne

  • Less certain

    Houghton River Restoration - mitigate physical modification for flood protection and fish passage at major weir

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Large external funding contribution required
    Location
    Dearne from Lundwood to River Dove

  • Less certain

    Putting the Sheaf back in to Sheffield - opening of Sheaf culvert creating public space for urban regeneration

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Large external funding contribution required
    Location
    Sheaf from Source to River Don

  • Less certain

    River Don phase 2 Fish Highway - extending range and resilience for return of Salmon to River Don

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Partner capacity and external funding
    Location
    Don Upper

  • Less certain

    Blackburn Brook Restoration - river habitat project in heavily modified urban waterbody

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Landowner agreements
    Location
    Blackburn Brook from Source to River Don

  • Less certain

    Sheaf and Porter Restoration - river habitat project in heavily modified urban waterbody

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Barriers to delivery
    Landowner/developer agreements
    Location
    Porter from Source to River Sheaf Sheaf from Source to River Don

  • Less certain

    Barnsley Gauge Fish Passage - fish passage on River Dearne enabling return of Salmon

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    EA asset capital investment
    Barriers to delivery
    Securing funding and technical issues on constrained site
    Location
    Dearne from Cawthorne Dyke to Lundwood STW

  • Wider water environment

    Little Don Highways natural flood management; soil aeration and river buffer protection to reduce soil poaching

    Reason for measure
    Protect and restore healthy soils and nutrient balance
    Delivery mechanism
    Highways England Programme
    Location
    Don Upper

  • Wider water environment

    All hands on the Don; improve access to rivers and celebrating heritage, to help connect communities with nature

    Reason for measure
    Connecting communities with nature
    Delivery mechanism
    Heritage Lottery Fund
    Location
    Don Lower

  • Wider water environment

    Friends of the Don Valley way; a regular litter picking and river clean up volunteer group

    Reason for measure
    Removing plastics/litter from the water environment
    Delivery mechanism
    Other philanthropic/charitable/trust funds
    Location
    Don Middle

Catchment Partnership contributors

Partners involved in the creation of this page and the actions of the partnership: