Wear Catchment Partnership

Catchment partnership vision

A robust, healthy and biodiverse catchment and coastal waters that are valued, enjoyed, contribute to the economic and social wellbeing of local communities, and are supported by sustainable land management. Our focus is to:

  • Improve water awareness and wellbeing; reconnect communities to their environment; share information; improve communication; support volunteering and engagement.
  • Manage water together; work with statutory organisations, local authorities, water companies, land managers, businesses and communities; promote the enhancement of natural capital; promote and deliver natural solutions to support climate resilience and adaptation.
  • Improve water quality; use local knowledge to understand the causes of poor water quality and take action; raise awareness with local communities and businesses.
  • wildlife and natural environment; improved wildlife habitats connectivity to strengthen resilience mitigating the ecological emergency; promote increased abundance and diversity of species.

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

    Poor channel morphology fragments habitats negatively affects flow patterns, invertebrates, fish and wider biodiversity

  • Invasive Non-native Species

    Displaces native species, creates erosion, reduces water quality, biodiversity and public access with wider economic impacts

  • Changes to the natural flow and water levels

    High intensity rainfall and hard urban landscapes demand extensive natural flood management and urban drainage systems

Wider water environment challenges identified by partnership

  • Support Nature Recovery Network and Local Nature Recovery Strategy

    The protection and reinstatement of nature networks in the wider landscape, beyond designated protected areas, is essential to biodiversity recovery

  • Protect and restore healthy soils and nutrient balance

    Soils management is the single most important factor in carbon and water storage, whilst providing a further range of ecosystem services

  • Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents

    The provision of sustainable drainage systems will create habitat whilst reducing the pressure on combined fresh and foul water sewers

  • Removing plastics/litter from the water environment

    Unkempt landscapes encourage continued poor behaviour, the issue of microplastics, biodiversity and the food chain is becoming better understood

  • Achieving Net Zero including supporting a move to a low carbon economy

    Low carbon transition is key to mitigation of the climate change crisis and protection of society, itself dependent on a biodiverse environment

  • Connecting communities with nature

    Sustainable biodiversity recovery needs communities to understand, appreciate and value their own and the wider environment

Future challenges predicted by partnership

  • Pollution from agriculture and rural areas

    The fragmented nature of the agricultural sector and ineffective enforcement makes large scale mitigation more difficult than pollution from the highly regulated water industry

  • Pollution from towns, cities and transport

    Hardening of the urban landscape, direct drainage to watercourses, without intercepts, from buildings and highways and a failure to adequately address misconnections

  • Physical modifications

    The cost of removing or mitigating channel modifications, particularly in the urban context with the complexity of contaminated land and buried utilities creates barriers

Future challenges predicted by Environment Agency

Future challenges in 2050

  • Invasive Non-native Species
  • Physical Modifications
  • Pollution from Towns Cities and Transport

Emerging challenges

  • Physical Modifications
  • Pollution from Agriculture and Rural Areas
  • Pollution from waste water

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

The Wear Catchment Partnership continues to build its core Steering Group membership, now numbering 16 organisations, with links through networks to a wider range of other partnerships, organisations and community groups. The Steering Group is co-ordinated by the Wear Rivers Trust and independently chaired, previously by the Durham Heritage Coast Partnership and currently by Sunderland City Council. Success highlights include landowner engagement dealing with rural diffuse pollution in the Gaunless and Browney catchments, Coastal streams, and through a landscape-scale Natural Flood Management Pilot in Weardale. Partners have been involved with enhancing and restoring extensive areas of peatland, riparian, riverine and coastal habitat. Improvements to the urban environment have been made, including community SuDS initiatives in Stanley. The legacy of abandoned metal mines is being managed through large scale interventions in the Upper Wear. Volunteers have been involved in many of these projects, providing evidence through Riverfly and other citizen science initiatives, and in practical management works including restoring banks and planting trees. Educational outreach to a range of age groups included primary and secondary school children and Youth groups. Project activity has attracted a range of funding including Environment Agency, Local Authority, water company, national and EU grant opportunities. The partnership provided development support to the large scale seascapes: Tyne to Tees, Shore and Seas and Link Together National Heritage Lottery Fund projects, and for exciting restoration initiatives in the mid-Wear and the Durham World Heritage Site.

Partnership development plans

The Catchment Partnership evaluated its Ways of Working during 2021, concentrating on active multi-partner project development and delivery, with oversight maintained through a Catchment Action Plan. The Action Plan currently comprises 17 individual projects, each with a designated partner lead. The Steering Group will continue to expand its membership, acting as a forum for ideas, with project delivery through each lead partner, designated through the Action Plan. The development of the North East Catchment hub, established through the Rivers Trust-Northumbrian Water Strategic Partnership, where Nature Based Solutions are identified to inform the NW submission of its 2025-30 investment plan to OFWAT, is potentially a game changer. If the Strategic Partnership and the Catchment Hub are successful, significant green investment from NW to improve water quality, could act as match to lever in broader funding, to be delivered by partners through the Catchment Action Plan.

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
    Wear

  • Confident

    Seascapes: £2.9M suite of habitat enhancement and engagement measures

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    Heritage Lottery Fund
    Location
    Seaham Peterlee Coast

  • Confident

    Peatland restoration programme including regional projects (Carbon Connects and other initiatives)

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    EU funding
    Location
    Wear Upper

  • Confident

    Wear Estuary Partnership, £200K suite of projects including Wild Oyster Re-introduction

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Wear Lower and Estuary

  • Confident

    Agricultural infrastructure and land management, reducing flood risk, benefiting biodiversity, soil health, carbon, water and nutrient retention

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

  • Confident

    Weardale Abandoned Metal Mines: containment of sediments rich in heavy metals

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    Coal Authority Mines Programmes
    Location
    Wear Upper

  • Less certain

    Link Together focuses on habitat improvement generating public health benefits across 13 greenspaces in the Sunderland Coalfield

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    Heritage Lottery Fund
    Barriers to delivery
    Successful completion of Development Stage 1 will enable Delivery Stage 2
    Location
    Lumley Park Burn from Herrington Burn to R Wear Lumley Park Burn from Source to Herrington Burn Herrington Burn from Source to Lumley Park Burn

  • Less certain

    North East Catchments Hub Inclusion of integrated catchment & nature based solutions to the Northumbrian Water 2025-30 environmental investment plan

    Reason for measure
    Feasibility study to build commitment to deliver
    Delivery mechanism
    Potential future water industry programme
    Barriers to delivery
    Successful specification of Nature Based Solutions to NW submission to OFWAT
    Location
    Wear

  • Less certain

    Wear Peninsular riverbanks restoration: Durham World Heritage Site

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    Other local funding
    Barriers to delivery
    Develop a local partnership and local plan to identify priorities and funding opportunities
    Location
    Old Durham Beck from Chapman Beck to Wear Old Durham Beck from Source to Pittington Beck Pittington Beck from Coalford to Old Durham Beck Wear from Croxdale Beck to Lumley Park Burn

  • Less certain

    Wear Invasive Non Native Species (WINNS) management: Priority catchment areas identified linked to the North East regional strategy

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage invasive non-native species
    Delivery mechanism
    Grant giving trusts and businesses
    Barriers to delivery
    Successful funding applications, engage volunteers and businesses, identify priority locations
    Location
    Wear

  • Less certain

    Cool Waters: Riparian tree planting programme channel erosion, agricultural run-off, flood risk and habitat creation

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    Grant giving trusts and businesses
    Barriers to delivery
    Successful funding applications, engage volunteers and businesses, identify priority locations
    Location
    Wear

  • Less certain

    Cong Burn Channel Re-naturalisation: Break out concrete channel below Chester le Street culvert

    Reason for measure
    Manage modified habitats
    Delivery mechanism
    Grant giving trusts and businesses
    Barriers to delivery
    EA funding support to a suite of large scale construction funding applications
    Location
    Cong Burn from Twizell Burn to Wear

  • Wider water environment

    The County Durham Partnership Ecological Emergency Board is developing, and will maintain, a Local Nature Recovery Strategy

    Reason for measure
    Support Nature Recovery Network and Local Nature Recovery Strategy
    Delivery mechanism
    Nature Recovery Network
    Location
    Wear

  • Wider water environment

    Soils management, catchment partners are supporting farmers with practical measures to improve soil health creating economic and environmental value

    Reason for measure
    Protect and restore healthy soils and nutrient balance
    Delivery mechanism
    Potential future water industry programme
    Location
    Wear

  • Wider water environment

    Plastic Free Wear, a whole catchment suite of projects involving all catchment partners and wider stakeholder community groups from Source to Sea

    Reason for measure
    Removing plastics/litter from the water environment
    Delivery mechanism
    Other local funding
    Location
    Wear

Catchment Partnership contributors

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