Yorkshire Coastal Partnership

Catchment partnership vision

The Yorkshire Coast Catchment Partnership supports partners in meeting their statutory duties towards coastal water quality and will:

  • improve understanding of the inshore environment, including issues impacting water quality status, habitat connectivity, natural sedimentation transport processes and the impact of ‘hard engineered’ man-made structures on the coast
  • seek opportunities for habitat restoration and creation to support the wider marine environment, explore options for increased monitoring and research, and develop our knowledge of future risks such as climate change
  • work collaboratively to share resources, support cross-boundary initiatives and encourage more people to care for the region’s natural heritage.

Heather Davison-Smith

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

    Numerous artificial infrastructures have been built on the coast, creating a heavily modified coastline, limiting intertidal habitats and species

  • Pollution from waste water

    Pollution from waste water, towns, rural areas and agriculture are all a concern, impacting water quality, ecosystems and species

  • Invasive Non-native Species

    Invasive non-native species threaten our native species and habitats

Wider water environment challenges identified by partnership

  • Nature Recovery, designated areas for nature and biodiversity

    Catchment includes unique species, diverse and designated habitats including SSSIs and marine conservation zones

  • Nature Recovery, protect and enhance rare habitats including chalk streams

    Catchment includes unique species, diverse and designated habitats including SSSIs and marine conservation zones

  • Reduce storm overflows and drainage system incidents

    Combined sewer overflows and waste water impact water quality through the catchment, impacting on marine habitat and recreation

  • Build environmental resilience and adaptation to climate change

    The Yorkshire coast has some of the fastest eroding coastline in Europe, climate change and sea level rise will increase coastal risk

  • Improved bathing waters (including inland)

    Yorkshire coast has several designated bathing waters, improving water quality will support this

  • Improved shellfish waters

    Catchment has important shellfish and marine habitats, vulnerable to climate change, pollution and invasive species

Future challenges predicted by partnership

  • Physical modifications

    Numerous artificial infrastructures have been constructed over the years, creating a heavily modified coastline and reducing the availability of intertidal habitats

  • Pollution from waste water

    Pollution from waste water, towns, rural areas and agriculture are all a concern, not enough monitoring data is available to understand these issues on an ecosystem scale

  • Invasive Non-native Species

    Increasing sea surface temperatures will likely bring more marine invasive non-native species to our coastline, impacting our native species and habitats

Future challenges predicted by Environment Agency

Future challenges in 2050

  • Invasive Non-native Species
  • Changes to the natural flow and water levels
  • Pollution from waste water

Emerging challenges

  • Changes to the natural flow and water levels
  • Pollution from waste water
  • Pollution from towns, cities and transport

Partnership success highlights 2016 to 2021

Established in 2021 the Yorkshire Coast Catchment Partnership (YCCP) works with partners with specific inshore water expertise to manage and improve the inshore water quality and habitats across the Yorkshire Coast. Working closely with a wide variety of partners, the YCCP provides the resources, skills and knowledge to understand, monitor and improve ecological water quality along the Yorkshire coast. Sitting parallel to the Yorkshire Moors National Park, the catchment partnership links with wider marine management actions and terrestrial water quality initiatives; advocating for water quality and enabling more collaboration and coordination. The partnership are working collaboratively to deliver the pioneering Concrete Coast project. The project will explore options for improving the ecological value of artificial structures along our coastline. In the long-term, this will increase biodiversity and provide more opportunities for coastal wildlife

Partnership development plans

The partnership requires core funding from CaBA to continue its work. We would like to see commitment from CaBA and government to fund this partnership now and into the future. This core funding will help the partnership to ensure that our river basin planning coastal waterbodies and inshore waters are clean and free to function as naturally as possible, producing benefits for the environment, communities, tourism and coastal industries.

Partnership priority actions and measures for 2022 to 2027

  • Confident

    Concrete Coast

    Reason for measure
    Mitigate the impacts on ecology from physical modifications in modified waters
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    Yorkshire South Yorkshire North

  • Less certain

    BEACH Bridlington

    Reason for measure
    Control or manage rural diffuse pollution
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Barriers to delivery
    Funding needs to be secured
    Location
    Yorkshire South Yorkshire North

  • Wider water environment

    Concrete Coast

    Reason for measure
    Nature Recovery, designated areas for nature and biodiversity
    Delivery mechanism
    WEIF Water Environment Improvement Fund
    Location
    ESK (E) Yorkshire South

  • Wider water environment

    Concrete Coast

    Reason for measure
    Nature Recovery, protect and enhance rare habitats including chalk streams
    Delivery mechanism
    None identified
    Location
    Yorkshire South Yorkshire North

Catchment Partnership contributors

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

  • Visit the Yorkshire Marine Nature Partnership website to see who we collaborate with