River and Burns Current and Proposed Actions

Rivers and streams are offered better protection than many natural habitats, through several pieces of legislation, both UK and European.  Gross pollution is nowadays largely under control and efforts are now turning towards the control of non-point sources such as road run-off, which have the potential to cause 'diffuse pollution'.  In parallel with this there is a growing recognition of the importance of river habitats both as the supporting physical structures for wildlife, and as key components conferring resilience of the system as a whole, for example enabling polluting materials to be processed and rendered harmless.  These latter areas of activity are not covered by current legislation and therefore demand a co-operative approach from all interested parties to achieve effective management.

Proposed actions

Policy and legislation

• Review water quality.  Set targets to improve poor to fair quality.  (SEPA)
• Develop policies to control alien plant species and favour establishment of appropriate native species adjacent to rivers and especially on Council owned land.  (SEPA, NLC)
• Establish links with LBAP topic groups from other council areas to ensure an integrated approach to habitat improvements in catchments crossing local authority boundaries.  (RCFMT, SEPA, NLC)
• Establish links with flood appraisal groups to avoid duplication of effort and encourage complementary objectives.  (SEPA, NLC)Site safeguard and management

Site safeguard and management

• Promote soft engineering of rivers and presumption against culverting.  (SEPA, NLC)
• Promote adoption of SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems) principles, such as swales, infiltration basins, detention or retention ponds, wetlands, redbeds) in new developments.  These have economic and environmental advantages and can build longer-term solutions into the infrastructure.  (SEPA, NLC)
• Promote clean-up campaigns, especially educate public to reduce sewage debris (e.g. sanitary towels), and flytipping.  (SW, SEPA)
• Ensure that existing nature reserves and SSSIs which include rivers are managed appropriately.  (RSPB, SNH, SWT, NLC)

Monitoring and research

• Carry out survey of angling clubs to establish what species of fish are present in the area.  The survey could also request information on other animal and plant species.  (SEPA, RCFMT, UCAPA)

Communications and publicity

• Establish communication with residents' groups, community councils, the farming community, local environmental groups, etc. to provide fora for discussion, to understand their wishes for the environment and to encourage their participation in delivering the objectives.  (SEPA, UCAPA, NFUS, SW)