West Cumbria Catchment Partnership (Waver Wampool)

Catchment partnership vision

Our vision for West Cumbria is for healthy rivers, lakes and estuaries that support wildlife, are used sustainably to benefit people, and are valued by all. We will work collaboratively to plan, fund and deliver actions to:

  • improve water quality by reducing agricultural diffuse pollution and waste water inputs
  • increase resilience to climate change
  • reduce the impacts of floods, droughts and coastal erosion using sustainable methods
  • provide high quality, diverse and connected habitats to support a wide range of wildlife, and control invasive species
  • support farm businesses to adopt sustainable practices that provide diverse habitats, clean water and nature based solutions alongside food production
  • reduce watercourse modifications and ensure maintenance is sensitive to wildlife
  • ensure rivers, coastal areas and wetlands provide recreation opportunities, and local communities act to safeguard them.

WCRT

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

  • Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

    Point source and diffuse inputs of nutrients, sediment and faecal coliforms from agricultural land

  • Physical modifications

    Watercourses straightened for agricultural drainage, lack of in-stream habitat diversity and barriers to fish passage

  • Pollution from waste water

    Septic tank pollution, frequent combined sewer overflows in Wigton

Wider water environment challenges identified by partnership

  • Protect and restore healthy soils and nutrient balance

    Sustainable soil management is needed to improve productivity, water quality, resilience to floods and droughts and carbon sequestration

  • Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents

    Ageing combined sewer infrastructure systems with frequent overspills throughout the catchment

  • Improved shellfish waters

    Water quality issues from wastewater and agriculture are affecting shellfish waters, estuary and coastal areas

  • Nature Recovery, designated areas for nature and biodiversity

    Lack of connected networks of habitats between designated sites, including cover of woodlands, priority grassland and freshwater habitats

  • Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change

    Working with natural processes is essential to address coastal erosion and coastal flooding

  • Removing plastics/litter from the water environment

    High occurrence of agricultural and single use plastic found in watercourses and beaches

Future challenges predicted by partnership

  • Changes to the natural flow and water levels

    Modified channels throughout the catchment are susceptible to drought and spate events

  • Pollution from waste water

    Growing populations combined with more low flow events and storm events increasing incidents from combined sewer overflows

  • Physical modifications

    Highly modified channels and continued dredging activity reducing natural function and habitat provision

Future challenges predicted by Environment Agency

Future challenges in 2050

  • Pollution from Agriculture and Rural Areas
  • Invasive Non-native Species
  • Changes to the Natural Flow and Water Levels

Emerging challenges

  • Changes to the Natural Flow and Water Levels
  • Physical Modifications
  • Pollution from waste water

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

Since 2016 the condition of peat bogs within the South Solway Mosses and wetlands has been improved by the work of the Solway Wetlands Landscape Partnership (funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund 2011-2017) and Cumbrian BogLIFE project, focusing on Wedholme Flow (funded by EU LIFE 2014-2018). Natural England’s Catchment Sensitive Farming initiative has delivered interventions across the catchment to reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture. A 'facilitated farmer group' in the Bowness Peninsula was established in 2019 to share best practice. There has been substantial work to identify sources of agricultural diffuse pollution and target actions to improve water quality. In 2017-2019 the Environment Agency funded West Cumbria Rivers Trust to undertake 130km of walkover surveys and create an action plan of improvements. This was supplemented by drone surveys and additional chemical water quality sampling of Causewayhead Beck, Wiza Beck and Crummock Beck. The Agricultural Land Environmental Risk Tool (ALERT) is using remote sensing data to identify pollution hot spots, verified by drone footage or the walkover surveys. Numerous issues have been found, leading to follow up farm inspections to provide advice and address problems with farmers. There are many more farm visits left to do that will need resourcing. Natural England commissioned a ‘smelt restoration management plan’ which details the actions required to restore smelt populations in the Solway estuary.

Solway Wetlands Landscape Partnership Scheme

Partnership development plans

  • Development of a formalised Waver-Wampool sub-group of the West Cumbria Catchment Partnership to address issues unique to this area.
  • Improved integration between organisations and a joined up approach to freshwater, coastal and marine projects.
  • Employment of a Project Officer to focus specifically on farm advice for this area and encourage landowners into new Environmental Land Management Schemes.
  • Partnership delivery of landscape-scale projects, with greater involvement of local community in project development. The mechanisms of delivery will depend to some extent on whether a proposed Water Level Management Board is formed.
  • Utilise a broader range of funding sources including private investment in delivering landscape scale habitat improvement and make use of opportunities afforded by Biodiversity Net Gain and Nutrient Neutrality legislation.

Partnership priority actions and measures for 2022 to 2027

  • Confident

    Environment Agency to continue using remote sensing data and targeted water sampling to identify pollution sources

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Causewayhead (Wath) Beck Holme Dub Pow Beck (Wampool) Wiza Beck Crummock Beck u/s Holme Dub

  • Confident

    Wiza Beck riparian corridor project

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Wiza Beck

  • Less certain

    Trusted farm advisor to provide 1:1 soil and nutrient management advice to farmers for water quality benefits

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Barriers to delivery
    Uncertainty on advice and financial incentives in future Environmental Land Management Schemes
    Location
    Waver Causewayhead (Wath) Beck Holme Dub Pow Beck (Wampool) Wiza Beck Crummock Beck u/s Holme Dub

  • Less certain

    Establish more farming facilitation groups for sharing sustainable land management best practice

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    Environment Land Management Scheme (future full-scale roll-out)
    Barriers to delivery
    Securing funding - flexibility in funding to allow 1:many and 1:1 advice provision
    Location
    Waver-Wampool

  • Less certain

    Natural flood management for Wigton, work with farmers to enhance water quality, habitat diversity and reduce flood risk

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Funding and resource to develop projects, easier mechanism for funding natural flood management
    Location
    Wiza Beck

  • Less certain

    United Utilities to reduce point source sewage pollution from combined sewer overflows in Wigton

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage point source discharges
    Delivery mechanism
    Potential future water industry programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Increased legislative drivers to encourage investment in combined sewer outfall infrastructure
    Location
    Wiza Beck

  • Less certain

    Develop and demonstrate alternative sustainable water level and ditch management techniques to restore in-stream habitat

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    Environment Land Management Scheme (future full-scale roll-out)
    Barriers to delivery
    Uncertainty around role of Water Level Management Board & Environmental Land Management schemes
    Location
    Waver-Wampool

  • Less certain

    Measures from Natural England smelt restoration plan, fish surveys and feasibility studies on barriers to fish passage

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    Marine Habitat Restoration/Fisheries Fund
    Barriers to delivery
    Funding availability
    Location
    Waver-Wampool

  • Wider water environment

    Work with developers to increase use of sustainable urban drainage systems and nature-based solutions to reduce runoff into combined sewers

    Reason for measure
    Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents
    Delivery mechanism
    Potential future water industry programme
    Location
    Waver-Wampool

  • Wider water environment

    Work with natural processes to address coastal erosion and coastal flooding

    Reason for measure
    Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change
    Delivery mechanism
    EA Flood/coastal risk management programme
    Location
    Waver-Wampool

  • Wider water environment

    Reduce use of agricultural and single use plastic and continue beach clean activities

    Reason for measure
    Removing plastics/litter from the water environment
    Delivery mechanism
    Voluntary initiatives
    Location
    Waver-Wampool

Catchment Partnership contributors

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