The funding will enable the running of a project to develop new ways of improving river corridors and identify the best ways to co-ordinate the input of organisations with a stake in their future.

We have secured €1.5m from the European Interreg fund, which encourages co-operation between European Union countries on projects dealing with environmental and social improvements.

The money will be used to fund the Strategic Partnerships in River Corridors (SPARC) project, which has resulted from the Strategic River Corridors (SRC) Policy for the East Midlands Regional Planning Guidance, drawn up by ourselves and English Nature in 2002.

The SPARC Project will bring together Regional Assembly and Local Authority planners, as well as other agencies and voluntary groups such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, with an interest in river restoration and regeneration.

It will be used to finance three projects in the East Midlands:

The Beckingham Marshes project – to create a wetland habitat on the marshes at Gainsborough.

The ‘On-Trent’ project – to carry out specific restoration and improvement works at various locations on the River Trent.

River Nene Regional Park - to carry out a study of Green Infrastructure.

The funds we secured will help finance the three projects and will also pay for a manager to oversee them and advise those running them. The funds will also be used to pay for the production of guidance, seminars and conferences and dissemination of results.

A key component of the Interreg funding is that it creates a network of similar European projects involved in river restoration and regeneration; and wetland creation, with the objective of sharing ideas and results.

The projects the SPARC project will be ‘partnering’ are in Denmark, Holland, Norway, Germany and Sweden.

Councillor David Parsons, Chair of the East Midlands Regional Assembly says: ‘I see this as an excellent example of how partnership working in the region is actually helping to achieve real delivery/ implementation on the ground and is moving us towards a better quality of life for all in the East Midlands!’

More Information:

Interreg

Interreg is an EU-funded programme that helps Europe’s regions form partnerships to work together on common projects. By sharing knowledge and experience, these partnerships enable the regions involved to develop new solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges.

The seven countries around the North Sea are working together in the INTERREG North Sea Programme to solve shared problems related to spatial development such as protecting the environment, improving transport, creating new opportunities for rural areas, dealing with the risk of natural disasters.

The seven North Sea counties are Sweden, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, The Flemish Region of Belgium, UK and Norway. The North Sea Programme covers 58 projects in these areas. Project partnerships get EU money through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

SRC/SPARC

Moves to provide a vision for a co-ordinated approach to managing and promoting rivers within the East Midlands date back to June 2000. The SRC forms part of the Regional Planning Guidance issued by the Secretary of State in January 2002. The policy addresses two issues relevant to the East Midlands: first, that 20% of the region is within the Indicative Floodplain and second, the region has suffered the greatest loss in biodiversity compared to other UK Regions.

The Guidance has now been developed and updated in the draft revised regional planning guidance issued in April 2003 and states:

"Development Plans and other strategies of Local Authorities and other agencies should seek to protect and enhance the natural and cultural environment of the Region’s strategic river corridors of the Nene, Trent, Soar, Welland, Witham, Derwent and Dove, along with their tributaries.

"Actions of agencies and other bodies including those of adjoining Regions should be co-ordinated to maintain and enhance the multi-functional importance of strategic river corridors for wildlife, landscape and townscape, regeneration and economic diversification, education, recreation and managing flood risk."

The SRC aims to bring a holistic approach to the management and enhancement of the natural, cultural and historic environment of the region’s strategic river corridors through regeneration and economic development to the benefit of people, wildlife, landscape and townscape and managing flood risk.

It works to :

Highlight the environmental, social and economic benefits of river corridor restoration and regeneration with the community, local authority planners, developers, and other groups and agencies

Encourage, influence and co-ordinate groups who already have an interest in river corridor restoration & regeneration

Identify opportunities, co-ordinate potential partners for, and carry out where appropriate both urban and rural river corridor restoration and regeneration projects

It is intended that the three projects will result in:

new areas of bird breeding habitat at Beckingham marshes

green infrastructure study for River Nene Regional park

co-ordinated plan for "On-Trent" river improvements within the context of river basin management and practical delivery of several of these improvements

The project will also provide demonstration project which will assist the SRC’s work to influence future planning for rivers in the East Midlands. The group has already influenced the policies in the regional spatial planning strategy for the region, but successful demonstration projects will allow the production of case studies and reports which will back up these policies and add credibility to the integrated approach being promoted.