Getting close to The Estuary - Thames Estuary...

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TALK of the THAMES Getting close to The Estuary Anniversary 40th Fishery Experiment TEP Annual Forum My Estuary Germaine Greer THE MAGAZINE OF THAMES ESTUARY PARTNERSHIP Winter 2012

Transcript of Getting close to The Estuary - Thames Estuary...

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TALK of the THAMES

Getting close to The Estuary

Anniversary 40th Fishery Experiment

TEP Annual Forum

My Estuary Germaine Greer

THE MAGAZINE OF THAMES ESTUARY PARTNERSHIP Winter 2012

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The UK has one of the world’s richest marine environments and is home to a huge variety of animals and plants, ranging from whales and dolphins to sponges and sea anemones. However, pressures from commercial and leisure activities have caused a decline in the number of species and damaged some of our most important marine habitats.

To play a part in halting this decline the Government plans to designate Marine Conservation Zones next year to contribute to a network of marine protected areas. As part of the process, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will shortly be launching a public consultation outlining the proposed sites.

Many years of overfishing have reduced some of our fish stocks and some of these have now reached critically low levels. The numbers of certain species such as the European eel and the spiny lobster for example have declined significantly. Our UK waters are also home to the short and long snouted seahorses which are unique in the animal kingdom in that it is the male seahorse that carries the developing young. These species may be sensitive to damage done by boat anchor chains dragging through the sea grass. The proposed Marine Conservation Zones will help to ensure that these and many other

important species don’t become extinct, reduced to small populations or reduced to isolated areas.

Protecting wildlife and habitats in the seas is just as important as those on land. Currently only a small number of our

UK waters are protected for marine conservation but we need

to do more. Establishing Marine Conservation Zones will ensure that

our amazingly varied marine life will be preserved for future generations. A real effort to strengthen the scientific evidence base for the proposed Marine Conservation Zone sites has been made to ensure that this is as robust as possible. England’s first Marine Conservation Zone, Lundy Island, which is situated off the north Devon coast in the Bristol Channel, has clearly shown that putting a key area of the sea under special protection can have many great benefits. The waters around Lundy Island now have a thriving lobster and grey seal population and it is the only place in the UK where five cup corals exist together.

As an island nation responsible for a sea area which is three times larger than its land surface a healthy and wildlife-rich marine environment which can be enjoyed by everyone is important. Our plans for Marine Conservation Zones will be a key element to achieving this.

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Marine Conservation Zones – Have your say

You will shortly be able to take part in the public consultation and provide any further evidence by visiting the Defra website at

www.defra.gov.uk/consult

KEY bEnEFiTS oF MArinE ConSErvATion ZonES:a MCZs will contribute to providing nursery fish stocks a MCZs will help us to protect a wide range of representative and rare wildlife and habitats in our waters a MCZs will contribute to better catches for fishermen in surrounding waters

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INTHiSEDITION

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nEWSMCZ Consultation . . . . . . . . . . . . .2TEP News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Estuary News . . . . . . . . . . . . .4/5/6Thames Learning Group . . . . . . . . .7City Bridge Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12TE2100 Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13TEP Annual Forum . . . . . . . .22/23Wallasea Island . . . . . . . . . . .28/29Dredging Liaison Group . . . . . . 34Southend Silt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35SuDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38/39

FEATurESHouseboat Gardens . . . . . . . . . . 19River Crossings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Deptford Dockyard . . . . . . . . . . . 31Isle of Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36/37Southend Oysters . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

SPECiAL FEATurESMy Estuary – Germaine Greer . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/9 1953 North Sea Storm . . . . .20/2140th Fishery Experiment . . .32/33

rEGuLArSView from the Bridge . . . . . . . . . 10

View from the Engine Room . . 11

Paul Gilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Coastal Partnership Network . . 30

ProJECTS Nature Improvement Area . .14/15

Your Tidal Thames (WFD) . 16/17

Archaeology MOLA. . . . . . . . . . 18

Open House. . . . . . . . . . . . 40/41

EvEnTSWhere’s Jill? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

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35TEP ConTACTS

Jill GoddardChief [email protected]

Susan HarringtonOffice Manager [email protected]

Adam GuySpecial ProjectsEditor Talk of the [email protected]

Amy PryorProject Coordinator,Your Tidal Thames [email protected]

Jo rocheProject Officer, Greater Thames MarshesBiodiversity Officer, City Bridge [email protected]

Working with you for the sustainable future of our Estuary

Thames Estuary Partnership UCL Environment Institute, G13Pearson Building, Gower StreetLondon WC1E 6BTt. 020 7679 0540e. [email protected]. www.thamesweb.com

become a Friend of TEP! See the form with this magazine or apply online at www.thamesweb.com

The Thames Estuary Partnership receives core funding and support from:

Other support comes via project grants, through event sponsorship, and from Friends of TEP.

The Thames Estuary Partnership is a registered charity no. 1083199 and a company limited by guarantee no. 3807387.

Talk of the Thames is published twice a year in May and November. We welcome your editorial comments and contributions. If you have a suggestion for an article, please contact the Editor. Offers of sponsorship also welcome.

Design and print: DG3 Group on paper from sustainable sources.

© Thames Estuary Partnership

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ESTUARYnEWS

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Welcome!From Jill Goddard, Executive Director, Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP)

Welcome to the Winter 2012 edition of Talk of the Thames – a time of reflection on a busy Olympic year for the Thames, including the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant in June; one of the largest and most complex event ever to be staged on the Thames . Our Annual Stakeholder Forum took place on Wednesday 14th November 2012 and the summary of the event Q& A sessions are included in this edition and on our website . This edition also carried details of all our sponsors whose financial support has enabled us to run the Forum and cover the costs of this winter ‘Forum’ edition of Talk of the Thames . If you are a much appreciated “Friend of TEP” you will have been offered a reduced conference rate, and many of you attended our Friends ‘Pimms on the Portico” event on 12th July which was very well attended .We at TEP also have much to celebrate with another new project in progress .

The City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity, have funded a new Biodiversity role .This will compliment the Greater Thames Marshes national pilot for landscape scale biodiversity improvement – the full article and the map of the area covered are detailed in this magazine . This new

project is designed to work well with other key policy drivers such as the Water Framework Directive and the Thames Estuary 2100 flood risk habitat planning .

The joint venture with Thames21 is nearing the end of Phase 1 – the Pilot year on “Your Tidal Thames” . We both want to work with others to do more with this approach in the future and will be having discussions through the winter .Finally, I want to thank our sponsors for their support and whose work you can learn more about in this magazine .

Jill Goddard, Executive Director, Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP)

In November 2012, the Environment Agency announced the formation of a working group to investigate concerns that Southend’s foreshore has been eroding .

The foreshore is an important commercial and leisure area and an internationally recognised feeding area for wading birds . Recently concerns have been raised that excessive erosion is occurring (See pp 34/35 this issue) whilst others report that this is normal periodic variation .

The Environment Agency carries out level measurements every 500m along the Southend frontage and transects of up to 1,400m across the foreshore . This information has been collected since 1992 . The Agency also monitors the extent of the sea-grass beds off Two Tree Island and at Leigh and Maplin Sands .

The working group comprises the Environment Agency, Southend Borough Council, Natural England and the Port of London Authority, and will consider the large amount of monitoring information from contributing bodies that has been collected over the years .

TEP News

Southend Erosion

Jo roCHEJo joined us in Spring 2012 as the Project Management Officer for the Greater Thames Marshes NIA Project . From this Winter she will also work on the Biodiversity Project .

Jo has a BSc in Zoology, an MSc in Marine Ecology and Environmental Management, and has worked on various projects at ZSL including elver monitoring and the Cetacean Stranding Investigation Programme .

ZAY SoEZay has been working with us as Finance Officer since the Summer of 2012 .

His focus is on ensuring that TEP financial systems and transactions are current and that the budget is always under control .

ToM HAnDLEYTom is fresh out of university having graduated from UCL this Summer with a Masters in Conservation .

He is helping with the ‘Your Tidal Thames’ Water Framework Directive Pilot Project .

“Reviewing past Thames Estuary management strategies has been a challenging but rewarding experience and hopefully my work will further the success of the project .”

Southend foreshore

Illustration Courtesy of:T

EP Photo

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NEWS - ESTuArYNEWS

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On the morning of Tuesday 30th October 2012 New Yorkers were surveying the damage in the wake of a record tidal surge caused by Hurricane Sandy and planners began to reconsider infrastructural investment in raised walls or storm surge barriers similar to those installed along the Thames in the 1980s .

In the US New York is second only to New Orleans for the number of people living less than four feet above high tide (200,000) and 11% of the population of eight million live in the flood risk zone .

With a 520 mile coast and a commercial centre only a few feet above sea level that relies on a massive underground infrastructure there are few large-scale publicly funded flood-defence structures .

Mayor Bloomberg has been exhaustive in commissioning both research and innovative wetland creation schemes but there has long been criticism that the city plans more ‘to be flooded’ than to defend . Projected waterfront development plans dismiss any notion of retreat from the shoreline since an additional million

residents are anticipated over the next few decades and land is at a premium .

La Guardia airport, built on reclaimed land, was closed . Subway tunnels filled with water, electrical substations exploded as salt water flooded switches, and fires destroyed whole neighbourhoods . Many residents who had resisted calls for evacuation were amazed at the speed of surge rise and had not understood the dangers of cold, fast moving, and debris-ridden water, exacerbated by very high winds and large-scale power outages .

Whilst international media attention was focussing on the financial centre in Manhattan, particularly hard-hit were partly reclaimed Staten Island, with its extensive low-rise poor quality housing, the neighbouring New Jersey port, and areas of large industrial waterfronts in Queens and Brooklyn . Five of New York’s wastewater treatment plants are in low-lying areas and cleaning up sewage, oil, debris and water-borne sludge will take months, if not years . Contracts awarded by the City already run to billions of dollars .

Other developments in USA to counter flooding include shoreline developments in San Francisco, permeable pavements in Chicago, and salt-marsh developments in Maryland . The NY Office for Long-Term Planning and Sustainability has stressed that ‘a million small changes need to happen .’

New York Flood

New York City flood zones

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Invasive SpeciesThe rate of invasion of the River Thames by non-native species is accelerating . Michelle Jackson and Jonathan Grey of Queen Mary University, London studied records since 1800 and compared these with population sizes and shipping volumes to conclude that the Thames catchment is among the most highly invaded freshwater systems in the world .

The authors identified ninety six freshwater species that had become established in the Thames catchment . Species were considered aquatic if they live within freshwater ecosystems for at least part of their life cycle, and established if they had maintained an active breeding population for more than one generation . Many of the invasive species are inconspicuous parasites or smaller species, but the

largest groups are fish and plants . Around 40% of non-indigenous species are native to North America .

53% of species had become established over only the last 50 years (since 1961), and 55% were intentionally introduced for agricultural, fishery, or ornamental reasons . The authors conclude that many invaders were probably released accidentally, often hitching a ride in ship ballast water . Since

these species comprise over 72% of the national freshwater total, the Thames might be the original source of many non-indigenous invaders in the UK .

Invasive species cost us £1 .7 billion a year and the rate of introduction appears to be rising despite recent legislation . The Water Framework Directive requires ‘good ecological status’ by 2015 and invasive species constitute a significant threat to meeting these targets .

Corbicula fulminea

Illustration Courtesy of: Florin Feneru - N

atural History M

useum

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Sixteen leading environmental organisations have criticised the government’s handling of water in a November 2012 report . They claim that it took the wettest summer on record to avoid serious drought this year and warned of

future problems . The group wants to see more use made of moors, marshes and plants to help store and clean rainwater .

The government responds that its draft Water Bill will build resilience in the UK water infrastructure . The draft bill aims to reduce red tape, make it easier for the water companies to work together, and create the conditions that encourage innovation and reduce water demand .

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Blueprint for water

Airport operators and airlines are clamouring for increased capacity . In November 2012, the government appointed former Financial Services Authority chair Sir Howard Davies to lead a commission investigating options for increased airport capacity in the London region . The commission aims to ensure that London retains its pre-

eminence as a European air transport hub . Opinion divides over creation of a new Estuary airport site, for which several options have been developed, versus expansion of runway capacity in existing airports .

Sir Howard Davies has promised an interim report at the end of 2013 and publication of the full results in May

2016, one month after the next general election . Criticism that this timing is a political delaying tactic is countered by Howard Davies who stresses his aims to produce a cutting-edge piece of research based on robust evidence that will result in consensus around the eventual solution . Aviation he says is vital to the UK economy .

Thames Hub Airport

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Airports Commission

The group outline a 10 step blueprint for water:1. Waste less water – reduce water consumption by 20%2. Keep our rivers flowing and wetlands wet – revisit water abstraction licences3. Price water fairly – household bills should match usage4. Make polluters pay – more

effective enforcement and penalties5. Stop pollutants contaminating our water – introduce targeted regulations6. Keep sewage out of homes and rivers, and off beaches – upgrade sewage systems7. Support water-friendly farming – help farmers through advice, training and payments

8. Clean-up drainage from roads and buildings – construct modern systems to intercept run-off9. Restore rivers from source to sea – regeneration in partnership with local communities10. Retain water on floodplains and wetlands – create habitats, and reduce flooding

The blueprint Coalition published its scorecard in november 2012 rating achievement since 2010: www.blueprintforwater.org.uk

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The Thames Learning Group exists to encourage schools and family learning on and around the River Thames. We all know how rich the range of opportuni-ties are including environment, history, inspiration and yet equally many of us have been frustrated over the years by the lack of awareness, particularly in schools, of the amazing possibilities that exist on the doorstep.

During the summer of 2012, Thames Water agreed to meet the costs of a redesign and re-launch of the Thames Learning Group website and this is now online and being populated by the members, who together have over a hundred sites from source to estuary. These include large and small charities and organisations including the RSPB, Historic Royal Palaces, Royal Museums Greenwich, Docklands Museum, River & Rowing Museum, Reading Museum, Westminster Boating Base, Thames Estuary Partnership, River Thames Boat Project and Thames Explorer Trust.

The Thames Learning Group is co-chaired by Jill Goddard, Chief Executive of TEP and Paul Mainds, Trustee & Chief Executive of the River & Rowing Museum. It has been supported since its inception by both the Port of London Authority and the Environment Agency. The first website was produced with funding from the Big Lottery and

experience gained through that has ensured that the new website will be of enormous benefit to teachers throughout the Thames catchment.

Cookie Scottorn at the River & Rowing Museum in Henley is coordinating the non-tidal members above Teddington and Sue Harrington at TEP is liaising with the tidal group. Any readers interested in exploring the work of the group are encouraged to contact either Cookie or Sue as there

is no limit on those organisations that may join as members. Equally there is currently no annual fee!

While the immediate priority of the website is targeted at teachers, during 2013 it is hoped that an increasing number of downloadable materials will be made available, initially for teachers and ultimately pupils and eventually more for family learning. TLG Website launch is planned for 14 January 2013.

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NEWS - THAMESLEARNINGGrouP

New TLG website launches soonNew website architecture will now make it even easier for teachers and others to find activities and information along the course of the entire River Thames.

• The site is designed as a portal which will enable teachers to search by location using a Google map system or by subject based on National Curriculum Key Stage and workshop names to identify the most suitable opportunities for their school visits.

• Members are invited to maintain their own core information pages through an easy to use content management system. The information is then displayed in a standardised format allowing teachers easy access.

• The overall look and feel has been a key element of the design to ensure not only its user friendliness but above all to reflect the inspiration that we all know the river can provide. Changing images, use of video and a thoroughly modern look are all benefits that we can appreciate in the design.

ConTACT DETAiLS:Above Teddington Lock: Cookie Scottorn - [email protected] Thames Contact: Sue Harrington - [email protected]

The new TLG website

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My concern, as President of Buglife, which exists to support the 97% of earthly species that are invertebrates, is to protect and enhance the biodiversity of all habitats, including the very special environments that together constitute the Thames Estuary. Since 1985 I have been an Essex girl, and my concern is particularly for those least glamorous parts of the estuary that are Essex. The two come together in that Buglife first came to my notice as champions of the struggle to prevent development of an abandoned industrial site on Canvey Island, that was home to as many species as would be found in a rainforest.

Since 2005 Buglife, a member of the Thames Estuary

Partnership, has been running its ‘All of a buzz in the Thames gateway’ project which seeks to alert more and more people to the threats to the vast range of creatures that live and thrive in the kinds of brownfield sites that are the first to be targeted for development. Buglife fought for years to save the West Thurrock Marshes from being turned into a mail sorting centre and lorry park, and ultimately lost, apparently because British conservation legislation is too weak to be effective. Since then the open mosaic habitat created by the power station fly ash lagoons has remained undisturbed, probably because the developers have decided to wait for an improvement in the economy. The threat remains. If you care what happens to the Brown-banded Carder Bee and the Distinguished Jumping Spider, join us.

After I was asked to take part in a project for the Antwerp Book Fair and chose the topic ‘Brown’, I devoted a few wintry weekends to walking the brownfield sites from Beckton to Southend and fell in love with the mudscapes of Mucking and Holehaven. Among the wild life that flourished amid the ruins of dead industry were the kids on their trail bikes who risked life and limb to try their skills far from the eyes of parents and the law. I wondered if we could recruit them to guard the orchids and the bats of Canvey Wick.

This is my Thames. My Thames is the brown intertidal zone. My Thames is mud. Though mud is a Biodiversity Action Plan priority habitat, it is everywhere under threat.

Buyers of costly housing in the new riverside developments along the Thames can hardly want to look out over the hectares of stinking mud that are laid bare twice a day by the receding tides, but mud is what is needed for a truly healthy estuary. Once upon a time Londoners loved their mud; they came downriver to bury themselves in it, convinced that it was good for them. These days you pay a fortune to be daubed with mud in a spa; in the old days you hopped on a coach to Sarf End and got the same thing free. The mudscape is dynamic, different at every hour of the day, every week of the year. Birds from thousands of miles away come to Thames mud as a rich larder that will help replenish their fat stores for the long migration.

Though soft sediments are the least studied of marine environments, they are among the most important. Eelgrasses need soft sediment to grow in, as well as high light levels and reduced wave action. A wasting disease virtually wiped out the Thames estuary eelgrass beds in the 1930s; they have since partially recovered and could recover further, if people who used the estuary realised how important they were. During summer, in shallow water easily warmed by the sun, eel grass flourishes, and with it a whole suite of animals that rely on it, from single-celled diatoms to stalked jellyfish and anemones; in a year an acre of shallows can produce twice as much vegetation as an acre of ploughland. As the water grows colder with the

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My Thames is mudNot everyone will know that Professor Germaine Greer has had a long

involvement with the Thames in Essex, including a passionate advocacy of protection for invertebrates. She tells TOTT why.

Germaine Greer was born in Melbourne and educated in Australia and at Cambridge University. Her first book, The Female Eunuch (1969), took the world by storm and remains one of the most influential texts of the feminist

movement. Germaine Greer has had a distinguished academic career in Britain and the USA. She makes regular appearances in print and other media as a

broadcaster, journalist, columnist and reviewer. Since 1988 she has been Director (and financier) of Stump Cross Books, a publishing house specialising in lesser-known

works by early women writers.

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SPECiALFEATURES - MYESTUARY

change of seasons the marine vegetation dies and sinks to the bottom where it becomes mud. At the lower level, in the black mud where there is no oxygen, bacteria work on the organic matter, converting it to smelly gases, hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, methane and hydrogen. As these products seep upwards other bacteria convert them to energy. The 17 billion bacteria in every square centimetre of the oxygenated surface layer are food for dedicated nematode worm species, up to five million animals per square metre, and as many as fifty species in a single spadeful of mud.

Sand fleas, copepods, isopods, tiny crabs and shrimps use their hairy mouthparts to comb worms and ciliates out of the tidewater. These creatures feed a vast range of other species from lobsters to whales. Winkles and other sea snails feed on the biofilm that forms on the surface of mud, as well as on marine algae (about which we know next to nothing). Winkles shed capsules containing as many as 100,000 fertilised eggs that hatch into free-swimming larvae, providing another rich food source for other species. Since prehistoric times human beings have eaten vast quantities of sea-snails but if today’s Londoners use winkles at all it’s probably for bait perhaps because for generations the Thames was so heavily polluted that the estuary shellfish were not fit for human consumption. In the estuary these days hand-picking of winkles is the only kind of harvest permitted, and then only in months with an R in them. Concern for their long-term survival does not extend to cockles. Cockles are taken from the sands of the estuary by dredging, which cannot leave immature animals undisturbed. Here again we have reason to be grateful to the mud. Cockles that colonise mud have a chance to come to maturity and to spawn.

Mussels and oysters feed on the micro-organisms nurtured in the mud, as do baby fish. When a fisherman called Outing discovered in 1700 that the waters off Southend were an ideal breeding ground for oysters, it was because of the richness of the invertebrate population. Native oysters were a staple food for even the poorest people for two hundred years, together with the tons of

whitebait, sprats, prawns and shrimps brought ashore by the bawleys. The seafront from Southend to Leigh-on-Sea was dotted with sheds where a few pence would buy shellfish collected that day and freshly boiled. If we manage the estuary properly this happy state of affairs might return, but the omens are not good.

Fishermen on the lower reaches of the Thames are puzzled by what seem to be falling fish populations in the cleaner river. They notice more species, but species that used to be plentiful have all but disappeared. I would be pleased by the evidence of increasing biodiversity represented by finds of species like the Greater Weever in 2008, but a general decline in fish numbers would suggest that further down the food chain something is going wrong. The cleaner river, it seems, contains too little food to support once teeming fish populations. Before we panic about this, we might consider whether or not a new balance is being established in the clearer water. What is obvious is that the situation needs monitoring; we need to know whether faster river flow, that is, a higher energy level in the cleaner estuary, might not be removing habitat. It was widely believed that whitebait were common from Greenwich to Westcliff-on-Sea because of the sewage in the river; the annual whitebait feasts held in September all along the Essex shore of the estuary collapsed in the 1930s when whitebait became scarce because of industrial pollution. Whitebait is once more on the menu at Westcliff-on-Sea, but it’s caught in the Black Sea or the Baltic, not in the Thames Estuary.

Mudflats are easily damaged, even when they are not deliberately eliminated by landfill, misleadingly called ‘reclamation’, and the building of sea walls, docks and marinas. Without their neighbours, the eroding cliffs and salt marshes that absorb the energy of the tides, mudflats will eventually disappear and with them will go most of the biodiversity of the Thames Estuary, biodiversity that we are pledged to protect.

www.buglife.org.uk

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Sustainably modernising national infrastructure – an opportunity for engineering policyOur attitude to infrastructure is largely habitual . But can we change habits by good design asks Professor Brian Collins of the UCL Centre for Engineering Policy .

10 TALK of the THAMES

In the UK we increasingly need good infrastructure such as energy, transport, water supply, and waste management, shared at a national and regional scale, but of sufficient quality to support and sustain our developed society. This infrastructure must also be resilient to shock, well managed and should attract continuous investment.

Concerted UK infrastructure development started around 150 years ago and was mostly completed before 1950. Since then, with a few exceptions, there has been little major nation wide investment. There has also been unregulated growth in interdependency, and much of our infrastructure provision has been privatised. There is now little central governance of infrastructure as a single system.

The most critical interdependencies are ICT and energy, particularly electricity, but those between water, waste and transport are nearly as important. Where there are linkages these are largely unregulated and are often a matter of bilateral contracts. There is almost no system of overall analysis or management.

Drivers and trends in infrastructural changeChange in society’s habits is hampered by considerable resistance, by weak social norms, by ephemeral fashions and unhelpful social obligations, and by the facts that institutional support is at an early stage, and that information is often not widely available.

‘I won’t reduce my water use until London Water repairs all the leaks.’

Modernising national infrastructure (MNI) is about design, engineering, implementation and operation for a sustainable future. Policy has to date been about analysis, economics, and politics. If modernisation is to be successful then engineering policy must complement traditional policies, otherwise our implementation will not be acceptable, or sustainable, or may not even work at all.

We need to research behaviour. This is the dominant effect when compared to physical intervention. We need multi-disciplinary research to guide engineering policy. We need to build systems which learn, and maybe even question, our choices and behaviour.

UCL and the future of UK infrastructureAt the UCL Centre for Engineering Policy research is underway to identify factors that contribute to new behaviour and the role of engineering in innovation policy. We aim to use some of our findings to drive pilots that will investigate where infrastructural management can be improved by better data management, improved resilience evaluation and

whole life cycle evaluation, better procurement, and better opportunities for regulatory coherence.

We aim to develop a roadmap for maintenance of all components of infrastructure and skills investment and development. Naturally the Thames Estuary does and will play host to many proposals, projects and infrastructure developments. For example flood defence improvements, debates around airport capacity, new river crossings, improved waste management facilities, and programmes that ensure water quality, will both inform and be informed by our work in the Centre for Engineering Policy.

In a recent example homes in part of London were without gas for

days after supplies were damaged by a burst water main. While gas

engineers attempted reconnection in time for Christmas Day electrical heating and cooking devices were distributed as a replacement. The resulting overload on the local

electricity network led to temporary failure of these supplies as well.

Brian Collins is Professor of Engineering Policy at UCL. Between 2006 and 2011 he was the Department for Transport’s Chief Scientific Adviser. Until 2012 he chaired the Engineering and Interdependency Expert Group for

Infrastructure UK in Her Majesty’s Treasury.

A built environment for the 22nd Century will most probably:• Be designed as an integrated and organic system• Be high density, mixed use, and ‘walkable’• Use district-level thermal and electrical energy from waste and renewables• Have a de-carbonised electricity grid, with distributed energy storage• Involve water recycling and re-use; local high-intensity horticulture• Include local, hyper-automated manufacture of consumables, including food• Have service provision in place of capital consumer goods• Show adapted dietary habits and food requirements• Have a reduced population, with pervasive behaviour change• Exhibit new work styles enabled by ultra-high bandwidth ICT

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May – December 2012

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Estuary biodiversityThe Greater Thames Marshes Nature Improvement Area (GTM NIA) project started on April 2nd 2012, will run for three years, and is making good progress . The City Bridge Trust award of a 3 year grant to fund a Biodiversity officer will provide additional support for linking the GLA Rivers and Streams Group, the NIA, the WFD and the TE2100 habitat work to the outer estuary . The new post is expected to start in November 2012 .

Estuary PlanningTEP and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) met again at the Coastal Partnerships Network Annual meeting . TEP and the Severn Estuary Partnership have led the collation and editing of information submitted by all Coastal Partnerships in England . The aim is to show MMO where partnerships already exist and what they deliver to help marine planning as it covers the English coast .

Estuary Water Framework Directive (WFD)TEP and Thames21 are jointly hosting the Pilot Catchment Project for the Tidal Thames in 2012 . We are now collating the information gained from all the stakeholders and river strategy groups we have spoken to . A wider strategic group will advise on the report format and content, and then the revised text will be submitted to Defra and to the EA consultation by the December 22nd 2012 deadline .

Estuary Archaeology: Thames Discovery ProgrammeThe Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and TEP agreed the legal transfer of HLF assets to MOLA on July 9th 2012 . The Thames Learning Group will use some of the educational materials to spread the understanding further and support on-going interest for MOLA to engage with in the future .

Estuary EventsLeigh-on-Sea Fishing Festival, The Thames Festival and the 40th City of London Thames Fishery Experiment were all attended by TEP . Our Shipshape poster was very popular with teachers and families .

Estuary EducationTo facilitate the Thames Learning Group (TLG), a new TLG dedicated website has been sponsored by Thames Water . The build is nearly complete and a launch date is set to occur at London’s Living Room, at the GLA on January 14th 2013 .

Estuary Dredging LiaisonTEP has circulated dredging applications and notices and run three Dredging Liaison Group meetings which support the Port of London Authority engagement with stakeholders . The potential to pump dredged material ashore, its re-use, estuary sediment movements and levels of contamination are some of the useful topics raised for further research .

Estuary FisheriesTEP hosted a Balanced Seas project staff member and project meetings for the Marine Conservation Zone project until July 2012 . A Greater Thames Fisheries Group meeting will be held at Southend Town Hall in January 2013 . The date is being finalised .

Thames researchTEP is working with UCL and the Environment Institute to give practical lectures to students on how the Thames is managed and monitored . A Biodiversity seminar linking all UCL departments is planned by the UCL Environment Institute and an MSc graduate is summarising TEP and other data for the WFD Pilot Project .

Thames WaterTEP raises awareness of the Tideway Tunnel Consultation and attended a meeting with Philadelphia USA engineers . They met Tideway Tunnel staff the next day and notes of that meeting are on our website .

Thames FreightTEP is the neutral chair of a group monitoring the impact of river transport through a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) at Holehaven Creek . Winter 2012/13 is on course to provide useful monitoring data on the level of disturbance caused .

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NEWS - CiTYBRIDGETruST

New Biodiversity Post for Thames Estuary Partnership

12 TALK of the THAMES

Why do we need this role?The tidal Thames has one of the highest profiles of any river in the world. It is affected by the most densely populated urban area in Europe, subject to a wide range of environmental pressures, and has an equally wide range of users. The Thames has been heavily modified resulting in a tidal range as large as 7 metres in some places and with strong tides and currents. It can provide an inhospitable environment for wildlife living in or by the river, or using it as a route from the North Sea to the water-courses of the Thames River Basin. It has a mixture of salt, brackish and fresh water in different locations, changing hourly and seasonally.

While water quality has in general improved significantly since the 1960s, challenges still to be addressed include increasingly frequent overflows of raw sewage pollution into the river from an over-stretched combined sewage system.

There is a highly varied and intensive use of the Tidal Thames, from shipping operators of tugs, dredgers or ferries, recreational rowers, kayakers and sailors, house boat owners, walkers and joggers, tourists, riverside residents and spectators, and also navigation for commercial purposes.

The overall aim of the TEP Biodiversity role is to harness the knowledge and skills of our partners who in the past have attended the Tidal Thames Biodiversity Group. These partners and new ones need now to help us make the most of the Greater Thames Marshes NIA (See pp 14/15 this issue) but there is clearly a wider role to connect with the work by others on the river as it runs upstream into London, and this role will support these links.

The City Bridge Trust grant has been awarded to provide the costs and cover the overheads of employing a 3 day per week post. This will support both the work of the Nature Improvement Area but will also work with the Greater London Authority Rivers and Streams Group.

The Greater Thames Marshes Nature Improvement Area project already has a 2 day per week post in place to help the project management of the delivery. This post was used as match funding in this application and will extend to create this wider role.

The contract has now been signed and the start date was November 12th 2012 for Jo Roche who will be the new post holder.

What will Jo aim to do?• Connect River and Streams GLA Group with the biodiversity work on the estuary• Connect this work with the GTM NIA and raise awareness of overlaps and opportunities• Assist with awareness and mapping of any work enhancing habitats along and within the Thames edges• Shape opportunities for joint working and multiple benefits for WFD and Flood risk habitat improvement• Connect the GTM NIA and the Marine Conservation Zones Consultations• Host/attend relevant landscape scale biodiversity meetings to further the above• Provide communication on progress on above• Provide website reports, new grant proposals and be an advocate of the Estuary Edges report, ensuring that partners still support its recommendations.

This year we have been lucky enough to have received £86,000 over the next three years from the City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charity.

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We will provide an Annual Progress report on the TEP website, in Talk of the Thames and handed out at events to keep you informed.

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The TE2100 Flood Risk Management Plan is now available

TALK of the THAMES 13

The Thames estuary is a successful compromise of a thriving man-made landscape coexisting with a rich and diverse estuarine environment. Communities living along the Estuary benefit from world-class flood defences but increasing pressures, including climate change, mean that flood risk is increasing.

We can’t manage future flood risk alone and will be working with partners and communities. We need to find the best way to fund the future demands for flood risk management on the Thames estuary. We are currently looking at the most cost-effective way to implement the recommendations in the TE2100 Plan and starting with the first 10 years. This will include maintenance, operation and essential improvements to the existing flood defence system. This will be delivered through the Environment Agency’s day to day flood risk management works and through partnership opportunities.

What does this Plan contain?The TE2100 Plan sets out the recommendations and actions that are needed to manage flood risk through this century. In developing this Plan we have investigated and understood flood risk in the Estuary today, how it might change in the future and the many ways we can manage and adapt to those changes. In the Plan we describe:• The future shape of flood risk management and the range of options which can manage a change in water levels through this century. • How we have decided on the Plan through the assessment, appraisal and selection of what actions are needed and the range of options to achieve this. • What local actions are needed in the short, medium and long term. The plan is based on current climate

change guidance, but is adaptable to changes in predictions for sea-level rise and climate change over the century.

What does the Plan do?• It directs our future work on flood warning, flood plain management and expenditure needed to maintain and replace the 330 km of walls, embankments, flood barrier and gates. • It informs the work and expenditure of our partners who are responsible for flood planning and recovery such as local authorities, resilience planning forums and the ‘blue light’ services.• It recommends key information and actions for local government to inform their spatial plans and help them make decisions on new and regenerated developments across the floodplain.• It raises awareness and improves the knowledge of tidal flooding for people living and working in the floodplain, as well as those building new homes and businesses and those involved in insurance and conveyancing of properties.

TE2100 and climate changeTE2100 is the first major flood risk management project in the UK to have put climate change adaptation at

its core. We commissioned scientific research with the Met Office and others to improve our understanding. Our investigations have helped reduce the uncertainty in what the future might bring.

Our approach and studies have been used to inform other climate change projects such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Stern Review. The results of this work also informed the part of the UK Climate Projections 2009 Report. The science behind the TE2100 Plan has also been used by many other cities all over the world, including Venice and New York, as a good practice case study.

Public Consultation and how it shaped the planIt’s been a long journey since we started to develop the TE2100 plan in 2002. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our public consultations, which added to the wealth of information we already had on the Estuary. Your information and views helped us develop our Plan so that all partners can make the right flood management decisions for people and the environment on the Thames estuary.

The Environment Agency are pleased to present their Thames Estuary 2100 (TE2100) Plan, which sets out how we will continue to protect 1.25 million people and £200 billion worth of property from increasing tidal flood risk through to the end of the century and beyond.

The flood wall and the Lobster Smack at Canvey Island

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NEWS - TE2100PLAN

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PROJECTS - nATurEIMPROVEMENTArEA

14 TALK of the THAMES

The Greater Thames Marshes Nature Improvement Area (GTM NIA) The Greater Thames Marshes is set to be a

cutting-edge example of how to deliver more for wildlife while promoting economic growth and enabling local communities to access nature. Initially the scheme will run between April 2012 and March 2015.

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PartnersOver the past six months, the NIA partners have been working hard to get the initial phase of this exciting project moving forward. Since signing the contract with funding body Natural England in April, we have established the principles of the partnership and are holding team meetings to plan delivery. An immediate result has been the inclusion of the ‘Essex Islands’ (Wallasea, Potton and Foulness) within the NIA boundary.

The Thames Estuary Partnership is providing the neutral lead with core delivery partners Essex County Council, RSPB, and Medway Council’s ‘Greening the Gateway, Kent and Medway’ who are also acting as the Accountable Body. Supporting partners include the Environment Agency, Natural England, Thurrock Council, GLA and many others.

Laying the ground workThe GTM NIA Business Plan has an ambitious activity programme and we are delighted that Jo Roche has joined TEP as a Project Management Officer to help us to fulfil these objectives. In addition, a successful interview process recruited Emma Sheard as NIA Farm Conservation Adviser to lead our work with farmers and land owners/managers.

A guiding principle for all Nature Improvement Areas is that our actions aim to deliver the maximum benefit across a whole landscape. Developing a baseline for monitoring changes is essential and we have started mapping and collating available data (including biodiversity records, land-use mapping and climate change projections) to better support decision making for future actions.

A catalyst for wider engagementThe Advisory Group (AG), crucial to maximum productivity, held a well-attended initial meeting at University College London (UCL) in September 2012. Key AG stakeholders will meet three times a year, in London, Essex and North Kent, providing recommendations on effective delivery on the ground between 2012 and 2015. They will also develop potential projects and fundraising for work beyond 2015.

The same afternoon saw the first meeting of the Local Nature Partnership (LNP). Championed by Sir Terry Farrell, the LNP made the connection with the GTM NIA and the local authority partners involved, building further links on cross-estuary opportunities, such as ecosystem services and

the National Planning Policy Framework.Our joint Tidal Thames Catchment pilot with Thames21

(See pp 16/17 this issue) is designed to help the GTM NIA actions contribute where possible to improved water quality and habitats on the Thames estuary by sharing knowledge and understanding.

Joining up the dotsWe are focussed on delivering more, bigger, better and joined habitats in both agricultural marsh and urban settings. Our vision is for a living and vibrant estuary landscape which will create and enhance grazing marsh, salt marsh and mudflat habitats.

Semi-natural Thames Terrace grassland occurs in the East Thames Corridor notably at Thurrock and Havering. These sites contain a mosaic of habitats including flower-rich grassland and bare, sparsely vegetated ground of great importance to many rare and scarce invertebrates. Very little of this valuable habitat remains and many of the associated invertebrate species now rely on open mosaic in brownfield sites within the NIA boundaries. By working with Buglife (The Invertebrate Conservation Trust) and the University of East London we will restore and enhance habitat for rare Thames Terrace Invertebrates (TTI) such as the Shrill and Brown-banded carder bees.

A biodiversity offsetting project led by Essex CC and The Environment Bank will trial a new system proposed by Defra for maximising biodiversity gain and delivering truly sustainable development. This project will run a test offset to evaluate the systems potential for creating new habitats with long term protection. The University of East London and Buglife are developing a proposal for a research programme which would investigate best practice for the creation and sustainable management of Thames Terrace Invertebrates and open mosaic habitat.

The RSPB are leading on developing communications to promote access and engagement with nature, as well as developing a range of events for stakeholders to learn about best practice in the GTM NIA.

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PROJECTS - nATurEIMPROVEMENTArEA

More information about this project as it moves forward will be on a dedicated GTM niA website: www.greaterthamesmarshes.com

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PROJECTS - YourTIDALTHAMES

The first phase of Your Tidal Thames, a joint pilot project between the Thames Estuary Partnership, and environmental charity Thames21, marks a step towards compliance with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). This legislation states that all rivers and other bodies of water across the Union should achieve ‘good’ ecological status by 2027. The tidal Thames is classed as a Heavily Modified Water Body and as such can only achieve ‘good ecological potential’. Presently, it has been classified as ‘moderate’.

The intention is not only to improve the health of the river for wildlife, but also to enhance economic opportunities and enjoyment for people in a sustainable yet equitable way. The project team have been talking to as many people as possible ranging from individuals on the ground to Local Authorities, members of industry, and other tideway charities. We have discovered what are perceived as the most important aspects of the river, key issues, and thoughts about solutions.

With such a complex area, and wide range and large number of people with a legitimate interest in the river, the project team had to devise ways of collecting a good cross section of ideas and opinions. That this was the only WFD pilot (of 25 across the UK) set in an estuary added to the challenge.

To tackle this, the project team considered the tidal Thames as a ‘social catchment’. The true Thames catchment area stretches from source to sea, encompassing all rivers that drain into the estuary, including the lost rivers of London. Each of these tributaries will need a management plan of its own, and where there is a pilot already we worked with those project teams to keep up to date on issues within their areas.

To kick-start the engagement process, we devised a draft

Catchment Plan Template. This working document introduced the project by asking four simple questions designed to be answered by anyone, regardless of their expertise. The Template was emailed to 5,000 members of the extensive TEP and Thames21 databases. Responses were added to a master document and collated into themes. Each month these were published on both charities’ websites, and sent to anyone who had registered for project updates.

We then set about meeting as many people as possible. Thames21 hold events throughout the year bringing communities to the river to take part in cleaning up their local stretch and provide practical training so that these communities can become self sufficient. Holding ‘pop-up workshops’ at these gatherings provided an ideal opportunity to talk about the Your Tidal Thames project and hear views

on how the river could be improved. We also held one-to-one meetings with Local Authorities,

NGO’s, community groups and industry in order to discover issues facing the Thames from regulatory, conservation and commercial points of view. Through these meetings we found out what projects were currently happening, or planned for the future, that might help deliver improved water quality, habitat or public access.

The main focus of the pilot has been upon the riparian boroughs, those that border the river. However, at events such as the Mayor’s Thames Festival, it became clear that people living outside these boroughs are also interested in the river and often have yet to think about the effects of their water use and waste. This has given us ideas about how to further education about river processes and WFD

16 TALK of the THAMES

Getting out to the Thames communityLaunched by Defra, in January 2012, a year-long pilot project sought the views of the tidal Thames community on what they wanted from and for the river.

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within schools across London, and the importance in connecting people to the river and their green spaces.

In parallel we set up a Strategy Group made up of key tidal Thames stakeholders. Included were representatives of regulatory bodies, e.g. the Port of London Authority, the Environment Agency and the Greater London Authority, recreational groups such as anglers and The Royal Yachting Association, Non-governmental Organisations including RSPB and the London Wildlife Trust, and other Thames groups, e.g. the Thames River Society. A full list can be found on our websites.

This group first met in June 2012 and voiced concerns about the size of task and level of consultation needed. They also highlighted the wealth of information that already exists for the River Thames following more than 15 years of consultation for a multitude of different management strategies and plans. The group recommended that the project use this information and not ‘re-invent the wheel’. This has proved to be very wise advice and an exhaustive review has been completed of all past management strategies, city wide policies and borough policies to provide a context for this project, to identify where policies have been implemented successfully, and to highlight where the gaps are.

The Final Report and Working Catchment Plan, submitted to Defra on 21st December 2012, bring together themes that arose from the public engagement and the literature review. The Final Report also includes ideas for practical projects to extend beyond the pilot. We are working in collaboration with other Thames organisations to fund raise for their development and implementation.

One of the most important aspects to emerge from the pilot is that a network of organisations with strong links into their communities, and forward thinking ideas, already exists along the tidal Thames. Thames Landscape Strategies Hampton to Kew and Kew to Chelsea, The Cross River Partnership, TEP and Thames21 are prime examples of this. Consultation is undertaken on a regular basis through these ‘gateway’ organisations and they should be the starting point for any large scale engagement needed on the river. Through coordination, collaboration and financial

support real landscape-scale improvement can be achieved with the full backing of the local communities that already engagethrough these types of organisation.

PROJECTS - YourTIDALTHAMES

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reviewing Thames Estuary Management GuidanceA vast wealth of consultation literature already exists so the aim has not been to duplicate the work of others, but to review contributions from the past fifteen years in order to identify where progress is lagging and where future resources should be allocated.

Using the baseline Management Guidance for the Thames Estuary (1999) twelve objectives to conserve the estuary’s biodiversity, natural and built heritage, and economic prosperity are defined. These were linked to detailed ‘principles for action’ which highlight that the estuary is a valuable resource for the built environment. Six subsequent documents were published and by reviewing iterations of guidance issued in these documents it is possible to identify what has changed and where progress has been made.

Policies in the Mayor’s biodiversity Strategy (2002) and The London Plan (2011) were reviewed

to see how these align with previous Thames management guidance. The former introduces the idea that biodiversity planning interacts with other strategies and cross-cuts other themes. Green roofs, for example, enhance biodiversity but also improve the thermal performance of a building thus reducing energy use allowing businesses to shave money off the bottom line, and also support sustainable urban drainage schemes (SuDS). Safeguarding the biodiversity of the Thames and adjacent land therefore addresses accompanying principles for action, such as addressing the effects of climate change.

Such local strategy documents as the Thames Landscape Strategy (2012) provide a geographic context and show how principles for action and planning policies can lead to practical ideas that allow individuals and organisations to take direct responsibility for their reach of the river.

Material collated by Tom Handley is available as a component of the Your Tidal Thames Final report.

Amy Pryor, Your Tidal Thames Project Co-ordinator for the Thames Estuary Partnership.

www.thamewsweb.com/your_tidal_thameswww.thames21.org.uk/www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33362.aspx

Stakeholder consultation

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PROJECTS - ArCHAEoLoGYMOLA

TDP in its New HomeThe Thames Discovery Programme (TDP) recently relocated to Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) . James Luckhurst met its chief executive Taryn Nixon for TOTT and they talked about the move, its relevance, and the archaeology of the Thames in general .

How important is the Thames as an archaeological site?It’s so important. It’s impossible, in my view, to understand London without understanding the role of the Thames. As the famous quote from John Burns puts it: “The Thames is liquid history.” It has been a transportation hub, a source of food, a resource of leisure, a means of defence, a barrier, a means of communication, and the list goes on… It’s the longest archaeological site I know, and, personally, it’s the first place I take any first-time visitor to London. It sets the scene and context for the entire development and geography of the capital. And the magic of it is that it’s ever-changing, full of drama and emotion.

To what extent would you describe TDP’s home within MOLA as a ‘good fit’?It’s a brilliant fit. You may know that in the 1990s we were involved in research into the archaeology of the river through the Thames Archaeological Survey, which was one of the building blocks for the TDP. And, of course, MOLA and our predecessor organisations have been exploring and understanding London’s development with some major waterfront excavations, ever since the early ‘70s. Our commitment to understanding London and sharing that information with the widest possible audience is as strong now as it ever was and TDP is a great example of really doing that well. It’s hugely exciting for us to take on something as dynamic as TDP.

What aspect of TDP’s work has inspired you the most?TDP is a flagship project that represents the very best of community engagement. To have assembled more than 300 dedicated volunteers and maintained the momentum around that is really inspiring. All credit to Gustav Milne and Nathalie Cohen and the full team on the project and, of course, the Thames Estuary Partnership and Thames Explorer Trust for all they have done. The other inspiring thing must be the sheer quality and volume of what the

project has recorded. So much of the archaeological resource is under threat, and the volunteers have done a stunning job of surveying and documenting it and creating a lasting record that is now accessible through the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC).

What are the particular strengths of the TDP and the way it is organised?I’d probably single out its inclusivity. It has been a project that has involved so many different groups and individuals. Right at the beginning of its life as a Heritage Lottery Fund project, a steering group was brought together to represent a range of perspectives. To have so many individuals, institutions and agencies working together to champion and celebrate the river’s extraordinary past was a really staggering achievement.

What are the secrets for success when it comes to taking on (and relying on) a large cohort of volunteers?There’s rarely a simple formula that works across every type of project, but a common pillar that has to prop up everything in this space is outstanding communication. Add to that, commitment and ‘cause’. Given all the social media platforms we have access to today, that communication job is, in some ways, easier than it used to be, but the speed and transparency of those platforms means expectations are higher on all sides too. There is no doubt about the commitment of all those who have contributed to the discovery programme around the Thames, or that recording and celebrating the Thames’s archaeology is a valued cause. Unlocking the heritage stories and understanding how that insight can help shape our future is something everyone who has been involved in TDP understands.

To what extent can the TDP be a blueprint for other projects across the UK?I think there is plenty more to develop here in London as part of the TDP project over the coming months and years, but, absolutely, there is no reason why this model could not be adopted all across the country. It’s certainly part of our thinking and we are developing plans already!

Taryn Nixon

Recent work at Rotherhithe

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TALK of the THAMES 19

There are seven garden barges; they form the infrastructure of the moorings. These are so-called ancient moorings, meaning they’ve been here since time beyond mind, certainly since the first half of the 19th century, most likely far earlier.

The gardens were devised by the architect Nick Lacey, and work began in the mid-1990s with the garden on the barge Silo. The idea was to extend the planting onto other barges to form the open-ended square that characterizes the layout today.

The soil on the gardens is a mix of 50% farmyard manure and 50% top soil in a long steel trench that has been individually modified for each barge. Each boat has a series of drainage channels to allow water to run through into the Thames.

All barges feature some degree of Vinca major (Periwinkle), Vinca minor (Dwarf Periwinkle), and ivy groundcover, as well as repeat plants for continuity such as Choisya ternata (Mexican orange blossom), Hebe (Shrubby veronica) and Nepata (Catnip).

As well as plenty of nectar producing flowers, the gardens are managed organically to have as much interest for wildlife as possible. Some spots are left to grow wild and there are other devices to encourage wildlife such as small piles of logs and branches for insects and clumps of nettles for butterflies to lay their eggs. No chemicals are used.

On board you’ll spot quince, medlar, and variegated plum

trees. The other structure trees are Robinia pseudoacacia ‘frisia’ or False Acacia. There are also birch, copper beech and evergreen oak trees.

Substructure shrubs include the already mentioned Choisya, which does very well. It’s lovely in the Spring with a wonderful smell. Also there is weeping pear and Forsythia. Then there are a lot of bulbs and self sown annuals such as poppies, marigolds and nasturtiums are encouraged.

The fauna is very interesting: we get Rattus rattus, the aristocrat black rat. Nesting bird species include ducks, geese (Canada and Greylag) and coots. And we get some wonderful butterflies, bees and dragonflies. Then, at low tide, Mr Fox is a regular visitor.

As for the people at Downings Roads Moorings? They are largely a mix of professionals, many from the creative industries, but also a brain surgeon, architects, photographers, a high-class hairdresser, and a joiner/carpenter. The total is more than 100 currently.

James Luckhurst interviewed Nick Lacey of London’s floating gardens for TOTT .

FEATURES - HouSEboATGARDENS

10 Things you may not have known about the Downings Roads Moorings.

The garden barge Surbed with quince and false acacia trees

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The gardens are on the South Bank, downstream of Tower Bridge, near the mouth of St. Saviour’s Dock.

They are open three days a year to the public. For details: www.towerbridgemoorings.org [email protected]

020 7231 5154

Nick Lacey and Downings Roads Moorings gardener Corinne Chater A medlar fruit

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SPECIALFEATurES - 1953norTHSEASTorM

20 TALK of the THAMES

The 1953 North Sea StormOn the night of January 31st and February 1st 1953 the worst natural disaster of the British 20th Century left more than 300 dead along the East Coast . The 60th Anniversary of this event is in 2013 and Adam Guy went to meet Councillor Ray Howard in the worst affected UK location, Canvey Island .

The Flood in Canvey IslandEssex County Councillor for Canvey Island West, Ray Howard was 11 years old when the 1953 North Sea Storm struck his home. A combination of low pressure, high spring tides, and winds of record-breaking velocity caused a massive tidal surge to travel southwards along the East Coast. Many of the communications systems that we take for-granted were not in place then and few coastal residents were aware of the magnitude of the storm coming their way.

Though Canvey Island had been the fastest growing seaside community in the UK between 1911 and 1950 Ray points out that the nearest main police station was in Brentwood, there were rudimentary telephone and telegraph connections, and the population of about 13,000 people mostly lived in poorly constructed buildings. The island had regularly flooded before 17thC reclamation by Cornelius Vermuyden, after whom one of the local Canvey schools is named. In 1953 the sea-walls were still effectively those built of clay, chalk and Kentish Ragstone by the Dutchman over 300 years earlier and were not more than a metre or so taller than mean high water.

That night over 1,600 km of Eastern coastline were to be devastated but it was on Canvey that the largest single loss of life occurred. Breaching of the sea walls began in the north at Sunken Marsh at around 1 am on February 1st when the 4.6m high surge arrived. Of the 58 people who died on Canvey that night 53 died here as water rushed in so fast that few had time to escape while their single-storey pre-fabs either filled to the ceiling or were smashed by the rush of debris-laden water.

The whole of Canvey is on average 1-2m below high water and almost everywhere was flooded before the authorities even knew that anything was wrong. The next day though the response was rapid and major, involving many acts of individual bravery, and the entire island was evacuated. Ray spent the next six weeks at King John School at Thundersley which had been due to open on the Monday.

The Flood in the NetherlandsAcross the North Sea the situation was far worse. The path of the storm led directly towards Zeeland and the surge of 5.6m was even higher in some of the south-western estuaries. Following a 1928 surge a national flood warning scheme had been introduced but few of the local ‘Water Boards’ subscribed to the telegrams, and the radio had been

off air for hours when the surge struck at 3am. As in Canvey, many of the effects of the storm were exacerbated by its arrival in the middle of the night on a weekend.

Nearly 2,000 people died that night, most in just two villages, but the extent of flooding was massive. Recent studies have revealed a combination of local indecision, poor understanding of the nature of a breach, and dykes that were in an appalling state after WWII. There were tales of heroism however, and one mayor ordered a barge driven into a dyke breach, preventing a flood that might have affected over 3 million people.

As in the UK, the Dutch disaster was due mainly to poor local preparedness, a lack of co-ordinated national planning for such inevitabilities, and poor quality post-war house building and sea-wall maintenance.

After The FloodAll around the North Sea coast there was a race to make immediate repairs before the February 1953 spring tides. Large numbers of national and international soldiers were

Councillor Ray Howard

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SPECIALFEATurES - 1953norTHSEASTorM

TALK of the THAMES 21

joined by huge numbers of volunteers as people took trains to affected areas to help with the clean up. Rapidly the biggest problems became logistics and fresh water supply.

In both the Netherlands and the UK, the consequences were significant and governments pledged that such a disaster would never be allowed to happen again.

The Dutch centralised control over the water boards, freed up national funds, and began a massive project to string barrages across the mouths of the southern estuaries, the Delta Project, completed in the 1980s.

Defences throughout the Thames Estuary were upgraded.

The 18.5 km2 of Canvey is now ringed by 24km of 4.66m high concrete walls, is protected by barriers in Benfleet and East Haven, and has an extensive system of internal drainage with 14 pump houses to remove accumulating ground water.

Once shipping had moved from the Docklands to Tilbury, the Thames Barrier was constructed at Woolwich to protect Central London. Few realise that it is entirely due to this system that London is viable as a capital city. In 1953, the Thames had lapped only millimetres below the tops of the river walls. Without the barrier, huge swathes of central London would have flooded many times since.

Canvey Island since 1953From 1975 to 1983, Councillor Howard sat on the panel responsible for upgrading the sea defences from the river Mar Dyke to Leigh-on-Sea. With a budget of £104 million, they led the tendering and completed on time and to budget, the Canvey works costing £34 million. In 2003 Ray visited Holland to mark the 50th Anniversary and is actively

organising next year’s 60th commemoration. On Canvey the 1953 flood is not forgotten. Ray

introduced me to local MP for Castle Point, Rebecca Harris, who recounted a recent Canvey school visit when children happily told her of the warning signs of a flood (water coming out of toilets and up through manholes) and used a model house to show her how to escape from rising water.

The Environment Agency (See p13 This Issue) stresses that with an annual sea-level rise between 2-3 mm a year the current defences should still viable until 2070, given adequate

maintenance. However, the scale of risk on the Thames flood-plain has increased. For example in Canvey the population is three times more than in 1953.

Councillor Ray Howard admits that he would love to see Canvey covered again in the fields of his youth but he knows that realistically expansion will always occur. To end our trip Ray took me to the Ove Arup designed

Labworth Café and then for a glass of wine in the Island Yacht Club. Both lie outside the flood defences, and both have had to fight for their continued existence, a fight that Ray has assisted.

Ray points out that the people of Canvey are not keen on managed realignment. His sentiments remind us that on both sides of the North Sea local people are often loathe surrendering hard-won land, for whatever reason.

www.canveyisland.orgwww.thamesweb.com/1953

www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floodswww.deltawerken.com

Repairing the breached sea-walls, Canvey Island 1953

Illustration Courtesy of: D

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22 TALK of the THAMES

L.I.F.E. Landscape, Industry and Infrastructure, Flood Protection and EnvironmentThis year the Thames Estuary Partnership Annual Forum took place in Glaziers Hall, on the bank of the river, beside London Bridge . Besides many other things the discussions turned to elephants and mice .

NEWS - AnnuALFORUM

TEP President Chris baines welcomed everyone to the day by reminding us that we have just experienced the wettest drought on record and by highlighting the challenges that this brings for managing climate change and the

estuary. Working together to gain an understanding of these issues is a key task and he was pleased to see a turn out of 205 and a good mix of estuary stakeholders networking and enjoying the day.

Keynote speaker was Dan osgood, Deputy Director, Floods, Coastal Erosion & Cbrn recovery, DEFrA who announced the government ratification of the TE2100 Flood risk Management Plan.

Constraints on space mean that the Q&A highlights have been abridged by TEP but with the aim of retaining the sense. The full text is available at www.thamesweb.com under Annual Forum 2012 Report.

To Dan osgood, DEFrA

Q. (David Cartlidge) “i don’t live up a hill. is the government approval for the TE2100 Plan ‘general election proof’?”

A. (Dan osgood, DEFrA) “The textbook answer to this is that every government is free to take its own decisions. However there is a hugely strong economic case to continue to protect London and the Estuary from tidal flooding to the best of our ability and with the funding available.”

A. (Howard Davidson, Environment Agency) “Part of the TE2100 plan is monitoring the response of

planning, the work of the Environment Agency, and what is happening in the environment. I reflect that to government – whether we need to accelerate or de-accelerate changes in response to what is actually happening out there on the river.”

Q&A Session Highlights

Q. (roger Lankaster, Tollesbury Mud Club) “When the elephants go on the rampage it is the mice that get trampled! The Thames Estuary Forum was set up so that all stakeholders, both mice and elephants, got a

say in what goes on. Will yachtsmen get a chance to talk when decisions on a Marine Conservation Zone in the Thames is made?”

A. (Tanya Houston, Port of London Authority)“The PLA has been a part of the MCZ

[Marine Conservation Zone] discussions through the Balanced Seas process and we’ll continue to be apart of discussions with agencies like Defra, TEP, Natural England and all other bodies through that process. We are a port, but a port for recreation as well as trade.”

Q. (Chris Livett, bennett’s barges) inland waterway transport industry needs training for the job in a safe manner; the other need is

for shipyards and repairs. Do DEFrA think they can assist industry in this and what are their plans?”

A. (Jim Trimmer, PLA) “In relation to boatyards we have set up a workshop with the GLA to directly address this. There are a number of problems we are going to have to tackle, and clearly this is the benefit of working together, to actually understand what we need, where we need it, and how to do it.”

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TALK of the THAMES 23

NEWS - AnnuALFORUM

Q. (Paul rayner, royal Yachting Association) “Are we going to get enough information, early enough, on what is going to be happening with TE2100 and WFD management on the Thames to enable those involved to get

their heads together in order to create a good plan?”

A. (Howard Davidson) “The TE2100 plan will be on our website. We are in a much better place to explain and comment on flood risk management than we are on the Water Framework Directive and some of the challenges on the ecological quality of the water.”

A. (Dan osgood) “DEFRA are starting to think about how on our water bodies we can reduce the number of plans and how to have them joined up in a better way.”

Q. (rose Ades, Estuary Stakeholder) “Do you monitor the changing water quality and river flows of the Thames with the different projects that you do? Major fish kills, one in the river Crane in West London resulted from treatment works pollution.”

A. (Martin baggs) “There are upgrades to five major treatment works, spending about £600 million pounds, and we monitor discharges into smaller tributaries. Wider monitoring needs to be done in conjunction with the Environment Agency.”

Q. (Dido berkeley, Thamesbank) “Will the Environment Agency push for integrated water management, which is central to all development in the Thames Estuary? is the Environment Agency going to bring this coordinated

approach so that Thames Water has an incentive to reduce water use?”

A. (Howard Davidson EA) “I work with most aspects of water management and the existing legislation to bring that together. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) and River Basin plans look at water quality, not just for society but for the environment.”

A. (Martin baggs, Thames Water) “Water efficiency is a big part of what we do. We are very much incentivised to save water – I’m pleased to report that last year we significantly outperformed our water efficiency targets.”

Q. (Gill Moore, Friends of north Kent Marshes) “Given that the Thames Estuary is important for its natural and cultural heritage, and that a new airport would destroy ramsar sites, SPA’s, SSSi’s, and the nature improvement

Area, what are the panels views on the new estuary airport?”

A. (Martin Hall, Greening the Gateway Kent and Medway) “The Mayor of London dictating outside his GLA remit is unwelcome to Local Authorities and Kent County Council. The history of airport proposals has meant many local projects are blighted by the uncertainty and that prevents or delays taking positive work forward.”

Q. (Peter Finch, river Thames Society) “The construction industry are not used to using water transport. is there any way for TEP, Martin, and other groups to engage with them and learn from them why the river cannot be used

much more in the future?”

A. (Martin baggs, Thames Water) “I am pleased to see that we have representatives from the construction industry in the audience, and I am sure they would be interested in hearing some of these views. If TEP would like me to facilitate a wider discussion I would be happy to do that.”

Peter Bye, Chair of the Thames Estuary Partnership finished the day with special mention of Dave Wardle who retires from his current post at the Environment Agency next year, and thanked him for his long-term support of the river com-munity. Peter closed with reference to

the many glasses upon the walls of Glaziers Hall by drawing attention to the motto ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ as an apt paraphrasing of the community’s shared work but also reminded us all that this work does not “come for free”.See www.thamesweb.com/annual_forum

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Laing O’Rourke, the UK’s largest privately owned construction company, is currently delivering over £1billion of work along the Thames Estuary shaping some of the capital’s key infrastructure and building projects. Over the next year Tamesis, a joint venture between Laing O’Rourke and Imtech Process, will extend the treatment capacity and improve the discharge quality standard of the existing sewage treatment works for Thames Water’s Beckton and Crossness Sewage Treatment Works.

In Essex, Laing O’Rourke is working for DP World delivering London Gateway Port, to create Europe’s largest deep water container terminal. Moving along the Estuary the company is currently delivering Farringdon Station for Thameslink and Crossrail with work just starting at Liverpool Street and Tottenham Court Road. In the City one of the UK’s most iconic skyscrapers, British Land and Oxford Properties’ The Leadenhall Building is rapidly taking shape. www.laingorourke.com

AnnuALFORUMSPonSorS

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TALK of the THAMES 25

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26 TALK of the THAMES

‘The Complete Angler’ by Izaak Walton has all the knots and excitement that a man needed then and still does today. The thrill of casting a line or net is many a man’s dream and many marriages have failed because of that thrill.

After fishing for more than 40 years that thrill is still there and I can remember catching my first fish, a flounder, when I was about 5 years old. My father was working on the nets while the boat was on the mooring. He gave me a piece of twine about 12 feet long, a shackle as a weight, and an old hook that he had caught in his nets. He baited it with a hermit crab body that was left on the deck from the previous day’s catch and I was fitted out.

I was instructed to hold the line between thumb and forefinger. I was told not to make a sound and to concentrate on the line. Little did I know this was just to keep me occupied while he was repairing his nets! I can still feel that first tug and my scream of excitement as a fish took a bite on that small bait. Father was soon at my side. He felt the line and he instructed me to wait for a double pull and then gently lift the line off the bottom. If it kept pulling we had it, if not, I was to lower it then do the same again. I lifted it and it kept pulling but it was not only the fish that was hooked. So was I.

What I do remember is that Dad stopped what he was doing and stayed fishing with me, he also had that thrill.

That thrill is still there every time with out fail when the cod end comes over the rail waiting to be emptied. I wonder what is in there. It is not just the fish. Pots, bottles, bones and much human waste comes aboard, some more welcome than others.

This summer I have had two deadly catches, a beautiful Greater Weaver fish and my thirteenth mine; both with a certain charm about them. The colours of the fish with its black and gold tipped spines and the silver and green of the mine, despite being 70 years old looking brand new. The weaver can give you a very painful sting but can be cured by placing the sting in some very hot water or as hot as you can stand. The mine on the other hand is still deadly and the

odds on something going wrong must now for me be shortening. I did look this fine piece of German engineering up on the net, to learn that the mine would still go off if the battery was not flat. I found that less than reassuring.

There are still some worrying things happening in our river. The water has been very clear indicating the shortage of plankton, fish numbers have dropped dramatically within the inner estuary, and there is very fast erosion along the foreshore at Southend and Leigh. None of these events can be explained yet.

It is clear to the few fishermen left that another decrease next year will finish them off as well. Two West Mersea boats are bound for Brixham and two boats from Whitstable have gone to Plymouth reducing the numbers of fishermen dramatically. I am looking at moving away as things have changed so much. Three years ago every thing looked so good with increasing numbers of all species of fish, now starvation and failure beckons.

Fortunately it is only here. Further around the coast there is evidence of the still increasing fish stocks so all is not lost. What does concern me is the lack of interest or recognition by many authorities. Why?

On the brighter side I am 99% sure I saw a Basking Shark this summer and porpoise have been a common sight often coming well inshore. One gang has been seen several times in the River Roach up as far as Paglesham and I saw one off Canvey Island.

Winter approaches and four Brent Geese were seen on the 5th of September. Let us hope things change for the better with the change of season. I do hope so as my next article may well be written from Bideford in Devon.

REGULARS - PAuLGILSON

ShadesofGreyI have thought long and hard about what is the male version of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and I have found it . It was written many years ago in 1653 .

Greater Weaver fish Unexploded mine

Illustration Courtesy of: Paul G

ilson

Illustration Courtesy of: Paul G

ilson

Paul’s book, Sole Searching, Tales of a Thames Fisherman, is the perfect Christmas gift. TOTT readers can get

an exclusive 33% discount price of £9.99 by using the code TEP12 at: www.estuarypublishing.co.uk

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The River Thames allowed London to develop as a great trading city, and its docks formed the lynchpin of the economy of east London. At the same time, it has acted as a barrier to travel between north and south within the city, particularly downstream of London Bridge. Following the closure of the Thames-side docks and a period of decline in the latter half of the 20th century, much of the former Docklands has been transformed beyond recognition since the 1980s with tens of thousands of new jobs and homes in the area, major visitor attractions including the O2 Arena on the Greenwich Peninsula, and an international conference centre (ExCeL) on the Royal Victoria Dock. Most recently, the Olympic Park at Stratford lies slightly to the

north of the Docklands area but is closely linked to it by road, river and rail links.

The population of the area has been growing fast. In the 2011 census Newham and Tower Hamlets were the only local authorities in the country to grow by more than 20% over the last decade. Much of this growth has been facilitated by new public transport infrastructure. The Docklands Light Railway opened in the 1980s and has been extended several times in the years since, the Jubilee Line was extended through Docklands in 1999, and there is even a cable car, the Emirates Air Line, since summer 2012. Crossrail will also pass through the area from 2018, with a new tunnel taking trains from

Abbey Wood under the Thames at Woolwich to link with Canary Wharf, central London and Heathrow Airport.

While there have been significant improvements in cross-river public transport provision, there has been no corresponding increase in highway crossings since the 1960s, although the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge just outside London’s boundaries at Dartford opened in 1991.

The existing road crossings within London are beginning to show their age; the northbound Blackwall tunnel is Victorian and is unsuitable for use by larger vehicles, and the current incarnation of the Woolwich ferry is almost 50 years old, and will be due for replacement in the coming years. As an area with a great deal of potential growth and a reservoir of brownfield land still available for development, Transport for London is working on plans for new crossings, to meet the demands on the existing crossings and to cater for the growing population in the area.

Proposals for new crossingsOne proposal is for a new road tunnel between the Greenwich Peninsula and Silvertown, close to the Blackwall tunnel, which would have two lanes in each direction and provide a route for large vehicles, improving reliability at the Blackwall tunnel. Another proposal is for a new vehicle ferry at Gallions Reach, between Thamesmead and Beckton, possibly as a replacement for the Woolwich ferry. Another option raised in the consultation is whether a bridge or a tunnel across the river at Gallions Reach would be better than a ferry, or could come later. Finally the consultation raises the question of how improvements would be funded, and asks for views on tolling at the crossings.

River crossings in East LondonTransport for London is seeking views on new crossings to help support growth in the Thames Gateway writes Tony Wilson of TfL .

FEATURES - rivErCROSSINGS

TALK of the THAMES 27

TfL’s consultation is open until 1 February 2013. For more details and a questionnaire so you can have your say,

see tfl.gov.uk/rivercrossings

The current Woolwich ferry in action

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NEWS - WALLASEAISLAND

The largest new wetland in EuropeWallasea Island now lies in the Greater Thames Marshes Nature Improvement Area and the TEP team went to investigate . Hilary Hunter of the RSPB showed us around and Steve Colclough took the ‘long view’ of local projects .

In the ‘70s the reclaimed land of Wallasea Island, a four by two mile stretch of Essex coast that lies between the rivers Roach and Crouch, was bulldozed into prairie-like expanses and became profitable agricultural territory.

During the 1953 North Sea Storm the entire island had flooded and in the following years massive sea defences were built. In common with many other reclaimed marshes Wallasea is now farmed-out and has become less profitable. The land has shrunk below the surrounding sea, there is a one in five risk of flooding each year, and the cost of continued defence is increasingly prohibitive.

In 2006 sections of the sea wall were breached, handing some of the ‘borrowed land’ back to the sea. A much larger scheme will eventually change the nature of the entire island.

The tides come and go for WallaseaAlmost all of Wallasea is reclaimed land, a process that probably started with the Romans. By the 13th

Century there were three large islands of high and low saltmarsh, separated and penetrated by tidal creeks and mudflats, and with small patches of transitional grassland only washed by the higher spring tides.

Only borrow dykes and drainage ditches remain between the rectilinear arable fields. Hares are common, as are birds of prey and other creatures. The sea walls are blanketed in self-sown flowers and the area has many regular visitors.

We drove past the largest haystack we had ever seen to a lonely patch of original saltmarsh at the far western end of the island. Saltmarsh forms in areas protected from large waves, and will only grow in a narrow inter-tidal zone. Steve Colclough explained that lateral channelling visible from the sea wall might indicate that this marginal marsh is already under stress.

An annual sea-level rise of 1-2mm, exacerbated by a further 2mm a year in the south east (from isostatic rebound) is increasingly ‘squeezing’ saltmarsh against the sea walls and up to 2% a year is being lost. In

unmodified environments the marsh can easily grow vertically by up to 2cm a year, and move horizontally inshore ahead of rising tides, but when there is nowhere left to retreat to it becomes stressed, cliffs form and the marsh is eventually washed away after erosion by waves. This process can be accelerated by the invasion of such non-natives as the Chinese mitten crab which honeycombs the creek banks with its burrows. The Wallasea Island Wetland Creation SchemeCurrent legislation (EU Directives) requires that designated habitat lost to development or sea-level rise must be replaced. Initial attempts simply allowed the sea back on to reclaimed land but where the surface level has shrunk tides cover the land for too many hours a day. The result is that new mudflat and saltmarsh may not develop.

We took a boat to get a closer look at the 2006 breaches which, together with a set-back sea wall, were part of a Defra investigation into managed realignment. The project, now known as Wallasea 1 or Allfleet’s Marshes, was managed by environmental consultants ABPmer.

The project team stressed that consultation and stakeholder engagement are a primary concern. There had been local resistance to three previous sites proposed as compensation for habitat lost to expansion of the port of Harwich. The sea wall breaching was widely reported with diggers allowing the tide to flood dramatically into the three resulting habitats.

Wallasea I supplemented the learning from nearby Essex Wildlife Trust’s Abbotts Hall Farm realignment

28 TALK of the THAMES

Wallasea IslandPre-land Claim

Circa 1200

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ScaleProjection OSGB 1936

© ABPmer, All rights reserved, 2010

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.80.1km

Red HillsDendritic CreeksMudflatLow SaltmarshMid SaltmarshUpper SaltmarshTransitional GrasslandSurrounding landboundary (present day)

Produced by ABPmer Ltd

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Figure 1

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Wallasea before reclamationIllus

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in showed that grading land before opening the sea wall allows typical salt marsh colonists to develop.

Wallasea Wild CoastThe reason that the TEP team came to Wallasea lies more in the future than the past. Beyond the public path along the northern sea wall is a long slipway, and from our boat we saw a large aggregate transporter moored to a new pier.

Over the next ten years 6 million tonnes of material removed from Crossrail tunnelling in Central London, and barged from Northfleet on the Thames, will be used to raise the sunken land of Wallasea by around 2m. Clays and gravels from London will allow engineers and landscape architects to create a complex mosaic of habitats once the tides return through six additional breaches. The project also allows room for marsh retreat in response to uncertain climate-change driven sea-level rise. The RSPB Wallasea Wild Coast project

is the largest recreation of coastal marshes that Europe has yet seen. The resulting mudflats, saltmarshes, saline lagoons and grazing marshes were planned for humans and fish, as well as for birds. There will be more than 15km of new access routes, for walkers and cyclists as well as for bird watchers, and a range of visitor facilities is planned. Entry from the water by kayakers or other vessels has also been considered. Naturally the project is expected to stimulate the local economy and create many jobs, including, it is hoped, those based on expanding sustainable local aquaculture.

Crucial to the process has been to get the locals ‘on side’ explains Hilary Hunter, RSPB Public Engagement Manager, based full-time on Wallasea.

How much marsh is enough?Projects such as Wallasea Wild Coast aim to ensure the future of our habitats and their diversity. Recent

work from the University of East Anglia (UEA) raises new questions. Over 5 years Dr Hannah Mossman and her colleagues compared the flora of 18 realigned marshes with 17 created following accidental permanent sea wall breaches, some over a hundred years old, and with 34 natural saltmarshes as a reference.

The results show that even a century later most new marshes are not as diverse as the marshes that we have lost, or those that we are still losing, and worse, created marshes do not meet the requirements of the EU Habitats Directive.

With more than 50% of worldwide saltmarsh already degraded, the UEA team stress that created marshes are better than none, and that they are currently developing techniques for enhancing biodiversity.

“Saltmarshes provide a range of functions important to humans and the environment called ‘ecosystem services’. As well as flood defences and bird habitat they provide key nurseries for bass and other fish, strip nutrients from the water, and sequester carbon. Our task is to evaluate these services. Future designs can then optimise use and will attract supplementary funding streams from sources, such as the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), because of the benefits that they provide.”Steve Colclough, SC2 - Colclough & Coates Aquatic Consultants

Lessons from WallaseaFour hundred years ago there were 30,000 hectares of tidal salt marsh along the Essex coast. Today just 2,500 ha remain. Wallasea is a living textbook of integrated coastal management. NGOs, ecologists, engineers, academics, policy-makers, local businesses, and the public will be following developments at the edge of the North Sea over the coming years. The TEP team cannot wait to return.

TALK of the THAMES 29

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1.86 - 2.25 / Low Saltmarsh

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2.71 - 2.9 / Upper Saltmarsh

2.91 - 3.25 / Transitional Saltmarsh

3.26 - 4.99 / SLR Adaptation Zone

5 - 6 / Wall & Platforms

3 - 2.5 / Saline Lagoon

Footpath

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Dog Walking Area

Events Field

Existing Borrow Dyke

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Saline Lagoon

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Grapnells FarmRoadsBuildingsUrban AreaCaravan ParkDrainageEmbankmentMudflatSaltmarshMid SaltmarshUpper Saltmarsh

Arable FarmlandPeasRapeWheatSurrounding landboundary (present day)

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NEWS - WALLASEAISLAND

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REGULARS - CoASTALPARTNERSHIPnETWorK

30 TALK of the THAMES

Developing Partnership Working at the Coast - A Coastal Partnerships report for the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).Jill Goddard outlines recent progress in coastal planning .TEP is one of 46 Coastal Partnerships (CPs) in England. The Marine Scotland planning process is providing funding for the Scottish Coastal Partnerships during a transition period. In Wales, the role of Coastal Partnerships is being considered and the Severn Estuary Partnership straddles the England/Wales boundary.

Many CPs are the legacy of the 1992 Natural England ‘Estuaries Initiative’ which recognised the conflict of uses at the coast and funded a project to develop joint working by providing staff costs for each area.

Time has passed, some CPs have developed and flourished, others have struggled, changed structure, or disappeared. Staff in the CPs have frequently tackled identical issues around the country. Mutual support and sharing of experiences is known as Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).

By 2005, this seemed a sensible group of people to engage with and when The Coastal Partnerships Working Group was duly formed, I attended their first meeting in Bristol. This has now grown into the Coastal Partnerships Network (CPN).

The Crown Estate kindly provided funding for the creation of a new website in the name of the CPN. Defra, who were invited to our first Annual Meeting, provided financial support to help cover the meeting cost. Meetings have continued annually and we all appreciate the financial support that has helped us stage them.

The CPN recognised the impact that the Marine Planning Bill would have on local communities and partners. Supportive stakeholder engagement with a trusted network and communications route through themselves, or through working with other partners in their area, is something which all Coastal Partnerships offer.

We wanted to be a useful part of

the Marine Planning process and the MMO were equally interested in what we did. The CPN submitted a proposal to MMO in late 2011 to produce a report detailing the activities of the CPs, by geographical area, by Marine Plan area boundaries, and by a breakdown of which activities we all carried out, and which were only covered by some of us.

This proposal was accepted by the MMO in February, TEP acted as the contractual lead due to its Company status, and work started in March 2012. At 141 pages, the final draft of the report now with the MMO, was far larger than we, or the MMO, had ever anticipated. Through a questionnaire to all CPs, a paid post-graduate student in Severn Estuary Partnership to nag and collate the results and with wider network officer time in kind, we were impressed at how much information there was to include.

A sneak preview of the results is given with the permission of Martyn Youell, the MMO Senior Planner.

The results show a wide range of stakeholder work on the coast. From providing forums, events, websites and magazines, to the mix of partners and the geographical areas covered, plus financial structure and the staffing models. As the MMO move towards the South Coast these maps show that there is someone there waiting to help and that contact details and information on activities covered, are waiting too.

CP officers enjoyed a fascinating visit to the Alkborough Flats, Humber Estuary flood alignment scheme, with site manager Anna Moody as our guide.

A CPN Coordinator possibly combined with the European Marine Sites coordinator role was discussed and agreed to be useful to develop a funding bid for.

Alkborough

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TALK of the THAMES 31

The Lenox – The first ship to be built in Deptford Dockyard for 150 yearsPlans to develop one of the most high-profile riverside sites in south east London are currently being formulated, and a project led by local residents could see ship-building return to the former King’s Yard. Julian Kingston tells TOTT about the project.

Next year it will be 500 years since Deptford dockyard received its Royal Charter from King Henry VIII and became the navy’s premier ship-building yard. Although it was not the largest of the navy’s yards, Deptford remained the most important until ships became so big that launching so far up-river started to become problematic.

Evidence of boat-building on this site dates back to the Romans, but from 1513 onwards more than 400 naval ships were built here until the yard was closed in the 1860s.

Keen to secure his sovereignty Charles II persuaded Parliament to finance the construction of 30 radical new warships, the first of which was Lenox. Named after Charles II’s illegitimate son, the boat was designed and built by master shipwright John Shish, and presided over by Samuel Pepys.

The skills, technology, and industry that were required to build these ships mean that by today’s standards, the best comparison to 17th Century Deptford would be Cape Canaveral.

For many years, this hidden-away 43 acre site has been idle while planners, developers, and others have argued over densities and profit margins. However, beneath the surface of the site, the monumental structures of the entire Royal Dockyard are still in place. As well as the foundations of the dockyard’s Tudor storehouse, substantial remains of the double dry dock, numerous slipways, mast-ponds, and the Great Basin have been unearthed. Above ground at the centre of the site is the listed Olympia boatbuilding shed and just outside the limits of the development is the spectacular Master Shipwright’s House, where John Shish lived.

The Lenox Project was founded two years ago, largely as a result of the community’s desire to see more than just luxury housing on the site. This fantastic scheme, which aims to build and launch a full-size replica of the Lenox, is based on more than 20 years of research by historian Richard Endsor.

Endsor’s book, The Restoration Warship, catalogues the history and construction of Lenox in minute detail. Using this

information, which is drawn directly from records kept by John Shish at the time Lenox was built, it will be possible to construct an exact replica. This will be the first Navy vessel of this period to be built using contemporary records.

The potential benefits this project can offer to Deptford, its neighbouring World Heritage site Greenwich, and the developer are enormous. The site’s owner and developer Hutchison Whampoa acknowledged this by formally including the project on their latest master plan being put together by Terry Farrell & Partners.

The Lenox Project will be situated within easy walking distance of maritime Greenwich, enabling the scheme to radically enhance the experience for tourists visiting this part of the Thames. With known visitor figures, the scheme has the potential to be self-financing within two years of the keel being laid.

Similar projects in Europe such as L’Hermione at Rochefort in western France have already proved the success of the concept and have provided employment and training in both traditional and modern transferrable skills. Moreover, in the case of L’Hermione, this has triggered the rejuvenation of the whole town developing hospitality, catering, and the arts as well as other marine enterprises.

The Lenox team, many of whose members live in Deptford, has spent the last year steadily researching, campaigning and seeking support. Interest and confidence in the project is growing, with the project gaining its first patron in local MP Dame Joan Ruddock; more recently, the historian and broadcaster Dan Snow has also agreed to act as patron for the cause.

The team is actively fund-raising and intends the first tangible manifestation of the project to be the construction of a sizeable scale model as well as a scheme to digitise the plans of the ship. The intention is to involve local trainees and unemployed people right from the early stages onwards.

The Lenox at sea

Launching of the Lenox

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FEATURES - DEPTForDDOCKYARD

Build the Lenox: www.buildthelenox.org

Julian Kingston is leader of the Lenox Project.

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32 TALK of the THAMES

FEATURES - 40thFISHERYEXPEriMEnT

The City of London Thames Fishery Research Experiment - 40 yearsThe first Thames Fishery Experiment took place in February 1966 and was organised by the Thames Angling Preservation Society (TAPS) .There were over 500 participants and over 578 fish were caught . This year was the 40th anniversary event and Jill Goddard was invited .

The Thames Angling Preservation Society had been created in 1838 on the instruction of the Lord Mayor of London, Lord Plummer, who wanted a group to look after the river Thames.

Dick Hodges, currently the TAPS Secretary, and in the old days was entitled to carry a truncheon and use a dog to encourage the lawful behaviour of others. He has been

Chairman and Secretary of the London Anglers Association for 20 years, then President, a title he holds today.

Reg Butcher was President of the Kingfisher Angling Club and joined the Thames Angling Preservation Society (TAPS) on meeting Dick. Reg had worked on tugs on the river and fished at night...

”...to avoid the jibes that I would never catch anything in that dirty river.”

He caught a 15lb cod in 1966 from Gravesend Promenade. Reg got Gravesham Council involved through the Mayor,

Ivor McMillan, a river pilot by training. The 1966 experiment was repeated in 1970 and the City of

London Corporation became interested in 1971, producing the first distinctive commemorative enamel badge for 1972. In 1973, the first jointly arranged experiment took place with a bar being attached to the badge bearing the year 1973 to mark the occasion. The event is now an annual event in its 40th year.

The City of London Thames Fishery Research Experiment encourages sustainability and conservation through the rules which require young and undersize fish to be returned immediately to the river once recorded. Eels are also put back.

Prizes are awarded and judging is based, since the early 1970s, on the greatest variety of fish caught, as measured with a scoring system devised by Doctor Wheeler of the Natural History Museum. His system rates fish according to scarcity and significance in the context of a cleaner river.

The objective of the experiment is to demonstrate the reduced level of pollution in the Thames and the

environmental condition by determining the number and size of fish and to award points related to the scarcity of the fish species caught and their weight. The data is provided for the Environment Agency, Thames Angling Preservation Society and the river community.

The event is run by the City of London Corporation through the Port Health and Environmental Services Committee in collaboration with the Thames Angling Preservation Society and the Environment Agency with financial contribution from the Fishmonger’s Company and the PLA through the School’s trophy.

It is currently held near Denton, Gravesend.

Reg Butcher and Dick Hodges

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THE TEAMS City of London School for Girls, City of London School for Boys, Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, Charles Stanley Angling Team, City of London Corporation Invitation Team, Port Health and Environmental Services Committee Team, Essex County Angling Team, PLA Angling Team , Kent Angling Team, Thamesiders Angling Team, and the Public Services Angling Team.

5 species were caught and a total of 550 fish; 1 cod, 2 pouting, 3 dab, 24 flounder, and 520 Whiting.

The Lady Howard TrophyTo the team with the highest pointsThe Public Services team, collected by Josh Sawyer and presented by Lady Valery Howard.

Fishmongers’ cupThe largest or best fish caught during the competitionRick Hodson of the PLA team for 9lb Cod, presented by Dr Peter Mathews.

biodiversity awardThe catch which most demonstrates continuing healthiness and improvement of the River ThamesPhil Baxter of the PLA Team, presented by Dr Peter Mathews.

PLA Schools TrophyThe School with the highest number of points awardedGravesend Grammar School for Girls, presented by Dr Peter Mathews.

The best independent Catch by an Adult TeamRick Hodson of the PLA Team, presented by Nigel Pullman, Sheriff.

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TALK of the THAMES 33

FEATURES - 40thFISHERYEXPEriMEnT

The best independent Catch by a School TeamMathew Perry, Gravesend Grammar school for Boys, presented by Gregory Evans, Sheriff.

The Chairman of the Port Health and Environment al Services Committee, John Tomlinson presented new badges to those attending the experiment for the first time this year.(In the early days 2 Essex lads walked from Stanford-le-Hope to take part.)

Lunch for all in the early days was a packet of sandwiches and a can of beer and the weather descriptions read like a shipping forecast:

Warm Sunny Bright, Bright Gusty, Warm Dull, Cold Windy Overcast, Cold Windy, Mild Cloudy Showers, Warm Sunny, Warm Sunny Periods, and Cold Rain Windy varying to Cold Heavy Rain Windy.

Previous Experiment ResultsEssex County Angling Team won in 1989 and in 1996 in warm sunny periods. The Charles Stanley Team did well in cold heavy rain and windy conditions in 1998 but also on a warm sunny day in an ealier year.

In 1989 136 Flounder were caught; an 11lb 15oz Sole was caught in 1990; a Nilsson’s Pipe Fish was caught in 1994; and 100 eels were caught in 1997. From 2000 onwards the number of Bass caught went into double figures but the number of Flounder caught has declined since 1989. Eels have dropped to single figures in the last 3 years consistently.

The highest fish count for any species in this stretch of the river is the Whiting with 772 being caught in 2005.The first time the overall fish count at the experiment went over 800 was in the same year with 881 recorded.

Gravesend Grammar school for Girls and 2 City Sheriffs

Dr Peter Mathews and school team member

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Rick Hodson and winning Cod

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Mick and rita Merrick volunteer helpers for London School for Girls for 19 years.

Dean newham, Teacher Gravesend Grammar for Boys“... The mix of boys teaching each other to fish is great …”

rick Hodson, PLA Team“40 years and delighted to have caught the biggest cod for him.”

Tom Cousins EA“This data is useful to the EA and has informed the assessment of the impact of the Tilbury Power station improvements.”

Sir David Howard, former Lord Mayor of the City of London whose father, also a Lord Mayor, was instrumental in establishing the event“My father was keen to catch a Salmon. Not yet fulfilled but the excellent cod caught today is very encouraging news...”

John TomlinsonChairman, Port Health and Environment Services Committee “...the joint co-operative effort between the City of London and TAPS since 1973 has been a great achievement. 1973 also saw another cooperative agreement-the entry of GB into the European Union. I cannot help but say that our success rate has been rather better than theirs...”

Steve Colclough, SC2“40 glorious years of science, sport and friendship-led throughout by Dick Hodges and Reg Butcher of TAPS with the City of London Corporation. Marvellous stuff, long may it continue...”

Mick Sharpe, “The Olympic year in 2012 has told us all to inspire a generation. This experiment has inspired many generations. Dick and Reg have been instrumental in introducing the Bye laws we take for granted today.”

Deputy Mayor Gravesham-Cllr Derek Sales“The health of the river is very important to Gravesham Council. This event has the full support of the Council and I am delighted to see these results today. Gravesham is proud to host this event and to work with the City of London Corporation. I look forward to another successful 40 years of running this and long may it continue.”

Dr Peter MathewsMaster of the Water Conservators July 2012-2013. “...I knew Dr Wheeler who provided the scoring system for the species caught and who was a charming man. I am very proud to facilitate and to present the Biodiversity award as it reflects the original spirit of the 1966 initiative and the resurrection of it in 1973...”

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NEWS - DrEDGinGLIAISONGrouP

34 TALK of the THAMES

Dredging Liaison Group Update (DLG)Jill Goddard and Mervyn Littlewood report back on recent topics .

The DLG last met on 20th September 2012 and the PLA informed the group of the dredging activity since the last meeting. Good discussions and presentations on several topics of relevance followed.

John Spencer, GPS Marine Ltd is concerned that there were a very limited number of sites on the Thames where pumping ashore of dredged material can be achieved. He felt that more sites are needed with wider commercial agreements for use which would benefit all dredging companies and could provide valuable habitat by raising or contouring an agreed wildlife site.

Water injection dredging (WID) and water agitation dredging (WAD) are the dominant methods of dredging (90%) in use in the Thames estuary with the arisings being dispersed within the river. The remaining 10% of operations are primarily used when there is contamination or a disturbance issue with the arisings being removed by mechanical methods and disposed of at sea or ashore.

The Port of London Authority (PLA) manages the environmental licencing of this and checks sample material results. The PLA are currently working with Queen Mary College, London and the British Geological Society to support their work.

All felt that a more holistic view of sediment movement within the estuary would be beneficial and pooling of information from all sources would enable a better understanding of how it worked.

As the PLA project work above progresses, the DLG offered their help to develop this approach, potentially with an annual presentation of estuary processes.

Marcus Pearson updated the group on the progress of the new port at London Gateway.

Arial photographs showed the new jetties and the quay wall now clearly in place. The arrival of three new cranes in 2013 will mark the run down to opening time for the first wharf to host the new larger ships.

Contamination from any on site drainage during the construction process is being remediated and monitored. Mucking Creek remained unpolluted and the first of two inter-tidal compensation sites - Stanford Wharf Nature Reserve - has already shown beneficial fish use.

Concerns on the loss of foreshore sediment at Southend were expressed and the effectiveness of the monitoring put in place by DP World discussed. Marcus listed the monitoring programme, which all present were already aware of, through the planning and licence agreements agreed after the Planning Enquiry in 2008.

An independent team had taken aerial surveys and land measurements of the sediment levels from Mucking Flats to Maplin Sands and along the North Kent coast.

Steve Bewers noted the requirement on DP World to monitor the area described above and that these results were passed quarterly to the Environment Agency, Natural England and the PLA, amongst others, to assess. Where agreed limits of sediment concentration in the water column within the designated control area were reached DP World’s dredging contractor had to stop operations in the impacted area, whatever the cause of that change, be it natural or man-made.

He illustrated this with two incidents in May and July 2012 where the dissolved oxygen level off Mucking Flats fell below the agreed limit. This was caused by sewer overflows in London and the bad weather but the dredging by DP World London Gateway stopped in this area because the monitors picked up that the dissolved oxygen had fallen below the specified level.

Southend Foreshore. Steve noted that a technical group of the regulators had been set up and that he was grateful to DP World London Gateway for its assistance in allowing their data to be used by the group. DP World had seen no indication through their monitoring programme that their dredging activities were affecting the foreshore at Southend.

The EA shoreline management team have been tasked nationally to examine data elsewhere to see whether similar changes are evident in other parts of the country.

Finally, the meeting closed after noting the consultation period deadline for the Marine Management Organisation on dredging licensing. The PLA would submit their comments and provide a copy to the DLG members for information and transparency.

London Gateway Port

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TALK of the THAMES 35

NEWS - SouTHEnDSILT

What is happening on Southend Beach?Councillor Peter Wexham tells TOTT about recent changes on the Southend foreshore.I grew up along the foreshore between the pier at Southend and Leigh Old town during the 1950s. I started work white-baiting on the Bawley ‘Enterprise’ and then fishing for shrimps on the Dunkirk little ship ‘Endeavour.’ Going fishing you learn all about tidal flows and changes to the seabed as well as what goes on around you with the natural environment.

The Southend shores have been mudflats all my life with Cockleboats raking out Cockles and bait diggers looking for Ragworm, Lugworm, and Peeler crabs. Some of the mud was firm to walk on and in other places you could sink up to your knees. Southend was famous for MUD, MUD Glorious MUD.

A few months ago one of the local fishermen, Paul Gilson (well known to TOTT readers), said that something strange was going on along the foreshore. Timber workings were starting to show at the bottom of the beach at Chalkwell, and rills were opening up towards Leigh.

We met near the Crowstone, the old limit of the PLA, which has always been on hard ground, but all around

had been mud. Paul and I had never seen anything like this before, there were stony areas showing to the east towards Westcliff and southeast towards the Ray Channel.

Deep guts are opening up too. I can only assume that they had always been there but had been filled in with silt, and now this has gone leaving open channels, probably fed by springs of fresh water.

Notification of the authoritiesI contacted the Council Engineer in charge of the sea defences. The next morning at low tide we all had a good look around and found other timber posts and stakes that had not been showing the day before. It appeared as if several centimetres of silt was being washed away with each tide.

This Engineer contacted Environment Agency officer Steve Bewers, who is in charge of the monitoring of dredging for DP World and the new port at Shellhaven, and who arranged a meeting with specialists from HR Wallingford to talk

about the problem and try and find out what is going on.

Since then the area of stony ground has enlarged eastwards nearly as far as the Pier and now covers the foreshore from the beach and revetment off to the Ray, about three quarters of a mile from the high water line.

The stones are not like normal beach stones; they are smaller than a pea and not rounded like pebbles. There is only a thin layer as if they have been spread and under them is light grey clay.

Monitoring of the situationThe Environment Agency has taken pictures, and has now started surveying the whole foreshore. They are also arranging for aerial photos to check against the ones taken some years ago.

We do not know how long this erosion has been taking place. Whilst I estimate that as much as two foot of mud has been lost it was not until the timbers were exposed that this was obvious.

A strange thing is that when I was fishing the water that rushed out of the guts was very cloudy and dense, but now the water running though the guts and rills is as clear as gin. Something has changed that appears to have altered the sustainability of the mudflats.

TV recently showed a picture of the landscape of Mars and it does not look much different to what we now have on our shore.

The Crowstone

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Peter Wexham is a Councillor for Southend on Sea Borough Council.

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36 TALK of the THAMES

FEATURES - iSLEOFGrAin

Michael Dale introduces a remote community at the very edge of the Thames Estuary .

The single road to the Isle of Grain, takes you to the final end of the Hoo Peninsula. Its northern coast borders the River Thames, and its southern coast the Medway. Claimed to be one of the most remote settlements in the southern counties, it divides the two great rivers at their estuary to the North Sea.

Grain is an island in effective terms, the last three miles of the Hoo Peninsula crossing saturated wetland marsh which has no other road or footpath connecting to the Peninsula. A place few visitors come to, or even know about. Yet, in contrast to its remoteness, it has two stories to tell.

The industrial heights of GrainThe first sight at Grain Bridge that attracts the visitor’s eye is the collection of eight giant quay cranes of Thamesport, a harbour with deep water jetties for some of the giant container ships that travel the world. The road then continues on, through a spread of shining modern engineering structures, at the importation terminal for liquefied natural gas. The gas is offloaded here, having been

shipped in from afar. You will see some of the biggest storage tanks in the world, each large enough to enclose the Royal Albert Hall or St Paul’s Cathedral, and they contain one fifth of the entire country’s gas supply. This industry is accompanied by another importation terminal, for aviation fuels, to be stored in tanks and then pumped, mainly by pipeline, to the major airports in the southern half of the Country.

Next is another terminal, for granite, shipped here from Scotland, and where, 20-plus years ago, the concrete segments were cast to assemble the walls of the Channel Tunnel. There are also two sub-sea electricity cables, coming up from under the foreshore, to connect the British network, one with France, and the other with the Netherlands, to an interconnector station which converts the supply current to be suitable for our National Grid. Finally, there are three Power Stations and a peak load generator station.

There is no doubt that all of this, within a two-mile radius, means the island hosts one of the largest and most nationally important combinations of thriving global energy suppliers and international trade in the southern half of the country: a major intersection of gas, electricity, fuel and trading movements for onward dispatch, worldwide and countrywide. It is all here.

The expansive marshes of GrainBe that as it may, a contrasting story starts here. Most people who visit the island will see the industry first, turn away, and go back along the lonely road across the marsh. But we say, “Please drive on. For here, you will see another side, to reveal the true wonders of the Isle of Grain.”

Drive through this eerie mix of industries, and out the

Exploring the Island of Contrasts

Lees Marshes

Illustration Courtesy of: M

ichael Dale

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TALK of the THAMES 37

A rare but natural silence is only disturbed by the occasional whisper or grunt of a contented cow, or the sudden startling shriek of a wading bird. Out in the Thames, you might hear a passing ship, with the steady thump-thump of its engines, as it makes it way onwards to the Nore Light and to distant shores.

FEATURES - iSLEOFGrAin

The Cuckoo Path, Grain

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other side, and the road settles into a quiet avenue, through fields of rapeseed or corn, to the small parish of St James, a little retreat on higher ground. You will have found us; a small compact little community, with a church, a pub and several busy little shops, where the journey starts down onto the marsh.

When it is high tide, I could take you on a walk on the Isle of Grain, where in twenty minutes you would find yourself in the heart of the marsh, and where you will find a place you could not believe exists. Just 30 miles from the centre of London, watch as the full tide washes in at speed, carving steep banks of white cockleshells at the entrance to the Yantlet channel. It is here, the Island reveals its true self.

The village borders Lees Marshes, the North Level (marsh), and where the Yantlet divides the Island from the Peninsula. The mudflats here are a favourite resting place for seals. There is a solitary monument, ‘The London Stone’, at the entrance to the Yantlet. Cast an imaginary line across the Thames, from the London Stone to the Essex beach at Chalkwell, where the ‘Crow Stone’ can be found and this line demarks the historic end of the Port of London’s jurisdiction, and with it, the end of the River Thames.

When standing on the marsh at Yantlet, you’ll be forgiven for thinking how open and desolate it appears. But this is where its real and natural beauty is revealed. Now, as you stand removed from the clanging and bustle of the industry in the far distance, you feel an almost shouting silence. A rare but natural silence is only disturbed by the occasional whisper or grunt of a contented cow, or the sudden startling shriek of a wading bird. Out in the Thames, you might hear a passing ship, with the steady thump-thump of its engines, as it makes it way onwards to the Nore Light and to distant shores.

Visitors arrive in GrainSome people have discovered us, and travel miles to spend time here at our new Coastal Park, with its two mile foreshore walk, just past the church. From the shores of the Island, there is a view for miles, out across the Estuary, to the Isle of Sheppey and the town of Sheerness, at the Medway entrance. Look the other way towards the distant town of Southend.

The island’s shore is where Turner stood when he sketched the scene of The Fighting Temeraire as it was towed by paddle tug from Queenborough to Rotherhithe, and its final berth.

Watch the ships arrive from deep sea and guess which river they will turn into: the Thames or the Medway? Wander through the woodland paths amongst the ancient remains of old forts and concrete mats for the guns of war. See how they contrast with the clearings of open mown grassland meadows. If the tide is low, explore the shoreline rocks, or search for marsh samphire to cook at home.

And if you can, come to Grain in the darkness of New Years Eve. Stand still at our water’s edge, and listen. When Big Ben strikes midnight, you will hear the chorus of horns from the ships at rest on their moorings in the Estuary. Their crews salute each other to celebrate the dawn of the New Year. All of this out of sight at the start of the Thames, the lifeline that leads to London.

Michael Dale is a Councillor and sits on the Isle of Grain St James Parish Council.

If you’d like to visit Grain please contact Michael (01634270314, [email protected]) for a map of the Grain Coastal Park and the complex labyrinth of marsh footpaths.

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NEWS - SuDS

Sustainable drainage and the ‘Supersewer’: It’s not a choice. London needs both.Richard Aylard, Director of External Affairs and Sustainability at Thames Water, explains why the proposed Thames Tideway Tunnel and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) each have a vital role to play in tackling sewage discharges to the River Thames: The Sir Joseph Bazalgette memorial, tucked away on The Victoria Embankment at the bottom of Northumberland Avenue, rewards close inspection. Sadly overlooked by the majority of passers-by, it provides an intriguing insight into the debate about whether SuDS could provide an alternative to the Thames Tideway Tunnel. Although he is justly credited as the founder of London’s modern sewer network, the great man’s memorial, like his own drawings, actually refers to ‘London’s main drainage system’.

Sir Joseph’s enduring achievement was to mastermind a solution that accommodated the practical reality that, by the 1850s, the city’s natural drainage had effectively long been requisitioned as an early sewer system, to facilitate Georgian and Victorian London’s property explosion. The accompanying vast increase in both population and impermeable surfaces in the north of the city led to much higher combined flows, causing serious problems for drainage, public health and the cleanliness of the Thames. Bazalgette’s visionary yet pragmatic drainage plan dealt with those problems and had benefits south of the river too, where development had been held back by the low-lying, marshy landscape.

Just like the team planning the Thames Tideway Tunnel today, Bazalgette did not have the luxury of a blank piece of paper. He had to deal with the fact that the city’s drainage and sewage systems had been evolving together over many years to keep pace with

development. There was no practical way of reversing that situation. That is why he perpetuated the combined system, with Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) discharging to the river when volumes became too great. 150 years later, another six generations of development have made the situation even more intractable and the CSOs discharge ever more frequently.

The development of the Thames Tideway Tunnel will solve this problem. Many of the design team cut their professional teeth on successful schemes, combining tunnels and SuDS, which have been completed and provide models for

London to follow, such as those in Portland and Milwaukee. In Portland, SuDS, are a key component of the ‘Cornerstone Projects’ that complement improvements to treatment works and ‘storage and transfer’ tunnels to achieve control of damaging discharges to their rivers. Other cities, such as Philadelphia, have ambitious and well-publicised long-term plans for SuDS, but may yet also need to incorporate similar tunnels in order to achieve the required degree of control over discharges.

At Thames Water we are

enthusiastic about the potential of local or targeted SuDS, which is why they feature in our proposals to tackling sewer flooding to customers’ properties in the Counter’s Creek catchment in west London. We expect that SuDS will increasingly be a part of other retrofit schemes and will play a key role in ensuring that new developments do not add to existing problems. However, the idea that SuDS might, on their own, somehow provide a solution to the modern day scandal of sewage discharges to the River Thames is a very different matter, and one that literally doesn’t hold water in

modern London, any more than it did in the 1850s.

Nevertheless, the questions about whether London needs a tunnel at all require an answer. Surely, we are told, we should separate the sewage from the rainwater, or ensure they don’t mix in the first place, and then capture the rain water to meet growing demand for drinking water? Well, if a new city was being built, of course we would provide separate sewers and drainage. But we are dealing with a very old city and the opportunities for

Sir Joseph Bazalgette memorial

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NEWS - SuDS

water sensitive urban design on a large scale are strictly limited.

The principal problem is one of sheer scale, with immense volumes of heavily polluted rainwater needing to be managed. I was inside the Lee Tunnel recently. This is the same diameter as the proposed Thames Tideway Tunnel and will connect to it. I can tell you it is awe-inspiring; wide enough to accommodate three London buses side by side. When the tunnels are combined they will stretch for 20 miles, collect the discharges from 34 CSOs and have a storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes. What struck me most forcibly was the realization that this huge space would fill many times each year and from single storm events. How else could that immense volume be captured and managed in a densely developed city?

The capital self-evidently lacks sufficient areas of open land to capture such volumes of water. Even if that were not the case, the clay and saturated gravels that underlie much of London mean that any storage would take a very

long time to drain. And storage that is full from one rainstorm is no use when the next one arrives. That is why the tunnel has been designed to be emptied, and its contents treated, in less than 48 hours, ready to absorb the next storm.

Yet surely this volume of water would be a huge benefit to our thirsty city? Well, let’s look at that. In a typical year, 18 million tonnes of sewage – or heavily polluted rainwater, if you prefer - enters the river through the CSOs that the Thames Tideway Tunnel will intercept. Assuming we could instead somehow capture and collect all of this with a new network of pipes, it could be pumped underground to replenish the aquifers, but it would first need to be treated – even if it were not contaminated with sewage - to comply with groundwater legislation. If we could do all that, and then re-abstract it from the aquifer and then re-treat and put it into supply, all in the centre of London, the volume of drinking water would amount to just under 50 million litres per day.

We currently supply around 2,000 million litres to London every day, so

the benefit would be an increase of around 2.5 per cent. That is worth having, but achieving it would require sufficient space for collection, transfer, storage, treatment and pumping, distributed around London. That’s a lot of very expensive and disruptive new infrastructure. Replacing more Victorian water mains and retrofitting water efficient equipment would provide additional sustainable resource at a fraction of the cost.

London does not give his memorial due prominence, but our modern city owes Sir Joseph Bazalgette a huge debt. Without him it would not be the city it is today. Yet look back in the archives and you will see he was told his plans were unnecessary, not practical, too expensive and too disruptive. As his great-great-grandson, Sir Peter Bazalgette, observed recently, some things don’t change.

The problem of combined sewage discharges to the River Thames needs practical solutions that reflect London’s conditions, will achieve the required standards, and can be implemented quickly. The river and London as a whole urgently need the Thames Tideway Tunnel and also, over time, to implement SuDS to prevent the existing problems growing worse. The two approaches are complementary and we need to utilise both of them.

We are working hard to deliver the first half of the equation as fast as we can, with minimum cost and disruption. The SuDS dimension is more complex and will take longer. The Flood and Water Management Act was a big step forward. But subsequent progress has been slower than we would have liked, and the final pieces in the SuDS jigsaw of responsibilities are not yet in place. As soon as they are, we will work with Councils, businesses and individual Londoners to achieve the benefits of SuDS, as a complement to the proposed Thames Tideway Tunnel.

www.thamestunnelconsultation.co.ukThe Lee Tunnel under construction

A heron amongst a CSO discharge in Hammersmith

Central London intercept sewers

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40 TALK of the THAMES

Getting close to the Estuary – Investigating Thames infrastructure afloat and afootFor twenty years London Open House has promoted architecture, engineering and good design, offering an opportunity for the public to take a closer look at London’s buildings explains Adam Guy, Thames Estuary Partnership, Special Projects .

But what does this have to do with the Thames Estuary Partnership TOTT readers may ask?

The concept of a ‘building’ has grown to include many aspects of the built environment. With the theme this year of ‘The changing Face of London,’ and an accelerating investment in infrastructure by the government, Open House 2012 was of particular significance to the hard-hit engineering sector.

Currently co-hosting Water Framework Directive and Nature Improvement Area pilots, and with long involvement in flood risk management, TEP has always promoted awareness of the opportunities that infrastructural development on the tidal Thames can offer.

www.thamesweb.com/estuary_edges

With the Institution of Civil Engineers London Region, TEP offered two events, a walk past the River Darent confluence, and a Thames Clipper chartered to visit the Hoo Peninsula with an audience of 150 Open House visitors including civil engineers, architects, MPs with riverside constituencies, and London Assembly Members.

Such events offer a great excuse to get people from all over the metropolis, including locals, and those actively involved with the built environment and its future, out and engaging with the Estuary. We were able to tell stories of land use, habitat preservation and creation, ensuring and enhancing water quality, ports and airports, flood defence works, and improved recreational access; with examples in front of visitors’ eyes.

Walking the RiverLook at an AZ map where the River Darent meets the Thames near Erith, and you won’t see much. Because maps of the Estuary margins often don’t show much

people assume that there’s not much there to show. Potentially worse, they might begin to think of this land as wasteland; valueless or useless territory.

Not everyone thinks so. The Mayor’s London Plan and TfL nominate seven strategic walking routes and three of these converge on Erith and the Darent. The Thames Path finishes at Crayford Ness, and the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) and Green Chain walks set off from Erith.

TEP/ICE developed a walk to indicate aspects of the ‘deep history’ of these white patches on the map and the boat trip to Hoo allowed us to contextualise issues shared along the whole Estuary. Turning our Backs to the RiverErith, where the Open House walk started, was once important as the nearest deep water to London, the site of a major Tudor shipyard, and a place where East-Indiamen often discharged their crew before completing their long voyage home at upstream Blackwall Docks. Industrially successful because of its position Erith fed agricultural produce from Kent, via the Darent, to London along the Thames. Imported raw materials were also processed here, into for example armaments, milled and printed goods, and processed oils. The town even tried to re-invent itself as a Victorian resort, with the building of the Deep Water Pier.

However, after industrial decline and massive WWII bombing, this town turned its back on the river and embraced the car, with ‘60s town centre development replacing the waterfront community. This is a story echoed in other estuary communities, where inhabitants may be barely aware of the existence of the river ‘over the wall’.

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Managing Flood RiskFrom the boat Jean Venables, former TEP Chair and Past President of the ICE, explained the workings of the miles of Environment Agency managed sea wall, particularly evident around the Hoo Peninsula.

For walkers Halcrow Flood Risk Director, Roland Grzybek indicated the extent of the land that would be at risk from surge tides without the existing flood risk management system, and explained the plans to upgrade it to counter the uncertainty of climate-change related sea-level rise, through the Environment Agency’s ambitious TE2100 Plan. Roland said,

“Many people living and working in London have two favourite misconceptions. As the Thames Barrier is there we no longer need to worry about London flooding, and that this barrier alone protects them. However, there are over 300 kilometres of fixed flood defences in the estuary and many movable gates that supplement the Thames Barrier to protect the tributaries upstream and downstream, that the Environment Agency operate, maintain and manage, and have done reliably for years. TE2100 is about maintaining that reliability to the end of the century and beyond.” Saltings and MudflatsA wildflower-strewn path follows the tidal embankment around Crayford Marshes and we were able to contrast low-lying reclaimed marsh land with the unique Erith Saltings. Once covering large areas of the flood-plain littoral, even as far up-steam as Southwark, saltmarsh formerly typified the edges of estuaries. This habitat is extremely complex, extremely sensitive, and extremely threatened (See pp 28-29 this edition). Erith Saltings are a thousand year-old relict of these once ubiquitous marshlands, the last original patch remaining in the Estuary.

At low tide, a sunken forest is also visible here. The stumps of trees that grew in the Neolithic Age (c5,000 years ago), and were killed by rising sea-levels in the early Iron Age (c2,000 yrs ago), were only discovered in the 1990s after being exposed through erosion of the mudflats. The site illustrates the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the Estuary. Reclamation and ReturnCrayford Marshes were wrested from the sea in the 12th-13th Centuries. Unfortunately much of this the land has either been over-farmed, become dried and shrunken, or has

been contaminated by past industry and waste dumping, and was often virtually abandoned until the post-war building boom began. The expense of defending it against further sea-level rise is an open debate. Some of this ‘borrowed land’ could be, and is being, ‘given back’ to the river providing replacement habitat for that being lost to ‘coastal squeeze’ or large-scale infrastructural development.

It is becoming clear that the benefits of saltmarsh are greater than simply providing a habitat for plants and animals though. The marsh itself is a highly effective defence against storms and tides, it sequesters carbon at rates equivalent to rain forest, and it can act as a filter for water-borne pollutants. It is also commercially important to fisheries as feeding and spawning ground. Such ‘ecosystem services’ are being increasingly integrated into the multi-stakeholder, landscape-scale approach to land stewardship that TEP champions. Getting closer to the WaterSurprisingly few people visit the Thames outside central London, even if they live nearby. To take a boat to Hoo in the time available we had to charter a Thames Clipper. The territory can be challenging. Though the walk was gloriously sunny, the boat was turned back for London at Holehaven Creek, after meeting bad weather.

TEP feel that by getting close to the Thames people will better understand the complex story that we try to tell. Open House has shown that there is an appetite for this approach.

This year over 250,000 people attended more than 790 buildings and events. Typically, walks and guided trips such as ours were oversubscribed by a factor of 20 to 1, and our events were fully booked within 24 hours of advertisement. Whilst TEP have a strong record of leading people to the story, we would like to take more.

Are you interested in a TEP walk or boat [email protected]

See also:www.ice.org.uk/londonwww.thamesweb.com/city_to_seawww.thamesweb.com/thames_estuary_pathwww.londonopenhouse.orgwww.thamesclippers.comwww.walklondon.org.uk

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42 TALK of the THAMES

Henry and Ernest AbsalomThe development of the English seaside since the 1700s has been well documented. In the early years, it was only royalty and the upper classes who had the time and money to indulge themselves in this new fad for ‘taking the waters’. Having first offered an exclusive experience, and enjoyed royal patronage, Southend expanded as a resort to welcome ‘the

masses’ as trips to the seaside began to fall within their reach. Two entrepreneurs who spearheaded Southend’s development were Henry Absalom (1827-1904) and John Jaquest (1854-1939).

Henry Absalom lived and worked in Prittlewell, which in the 1820s was a small fishing village, with a few cottages on the shoreline. As the popularity of the seaside grew in the 1850s, so did the demand for public houses and Absalom first managed the Falcon on Marine Parade, which is still there today.

Undressing on the beach was against the law, and with so many ‘trippers’ queuing up for changing boxes on wheels, Henry quickly saw the opportunity. He purchased bathing machines to serve the needs of the growing numbers of visitors. With further wise investments in oyster beds and property on and behind the thriving Marine Parade the Absalom fortune grew.

Henry’s youngest child, Ernest, took the family empire to another level. Like his father, Ernest invested heavily in building around the town as the population grew and demand for housing increased. In 1903 he purchased the large floating bath, moored by the famous Southend pier, from the Ingram family. A converted barge, it offered swimmers four to five feet of water regardless of the tide, as well as the luxury of

changing rooms, all for 6d a go. These baths did a roaring trade up until the outbreak of World War I when Ernest Absalom was forced to remove his floating bath from its prime location.

At the end of the War in 1918 Ernest was keen to return the baths to their original site but his request was refused as the local council had by now built a permanent swimming pool on the seafront. This proved to be the end for the Absalom enterprise, and within a few years they were no longer a part of Southend’s seaside heritage.

John, Leonard and Albert JaquestJohn Jaquest and his family came to Southend from Marylebone, London in 1901. His skills as a builder were in demand as more and more estates were springing up behind the Kursaal pleasure dome, which occupied a large site on the seafront. Within a few months John had himself purchased a small fish shop and restaurant right next to the Kursaal.

This business served locals and visitors through World War I and in 1920 Jaquest opened the Beehive restaurant, a few doors along from his original business. His son Leonard later developed the restaurant’s potential by catering for Southend’s charabanc visitors. With parking opposite the restaurant and seating for up to 400 diners, this was a perfect arrangement for the trippers.

Leonard’s brother Albert opened a greengrocer’s shop on the same parade, as well as a café, the Sunflower. The Jaquests continued trading on the seafront until the outbreak of World War II. For Albert’s children and grandchildren this was just the beginning, as they opened cafés and coffee bars across Southend throughout the 1950s and ‘60s .

FEATURES - ESTuArYENTREPRENEURS

Businessmen that started Southend’s Seaside Success StoryCarol Edwards traces the history of two pioneering families who made their fortunes from day trippers to Southend-on-Sea .

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Carol Edwards’ book Seaside Entrepreneurs, tells the full story of the Absalom and Jaquest families. Available on Amazon, price £6.99 or direct from Carol Edwards (01702 332396, [email protected]) price £5.50

plus £1.30 postage.

Ernest Absalom’s bathing machine

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Dominic Bailey – Senior Scientific and Conservation Officer, Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority explains the dos and don’ts of shellfish collection .

NEWS - SouTHEnDOYSTERS

Harvesting of Pacific Oysters on the Southend foreshore

Kent & Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) was created under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and is a regulating body which enforces its own byelaws and orders as well as national and EU legislation relating to sea fisheries. The Authority is comprised of sitting councillors, industry and recreational representatives, scientists, marine experts, and environmental representatives who meet quarterly to discuss issues and reports presented to them by the regional officers. Meetings are open to the public with agenda items being announced and published on the Kent & Essex IFCA website prior to the meeting.

The Southend foreshore has long been important to both local fishermen and the public for its abundance of shellfish. Cockles and mussels have historically been collected in this part of the Thames Estuary. The collection of cockles in the Thames estuary is well known and is regulated by the Thames Estuary Cockle Fishery Order. A license issued by Kent & Essex IFCA is required to harvest cockles in this area. In addition to cockles, other shellfish species including clams and mussels are found on the Southend foreshore. One of the most noticeable species in the area in the intertidal

zone has been the native mussel. However, extensive areas of the Southend foreshore, which supported several mussel beds, have in recent years changed to being primarily comprised of Pacific Rock Oysters.

Pacific Rock Oysters were introduced to the UK in the 1960’s in order to support the demand for oysters which the existing Native Oyster stocks could not fulfil. At this time, it was thought that this species would not be able to reproduce in our colder waters. This has been shown not to be the case and Pacific Oysters are now a prominent feature around the coast.

Pacific Rock Oysters are an important economic species, vital to the economic stability of the oyster industry in the Kent & Essex IFCA district. However if left un-harvested they can form reefs which may then outcompete native species and in intertidal foreshore areas such as Southend become a hazard to human recreational activities due to the sharp shells within the reef.

In recent years, both members of the public and commercial fishermen have been seen hand gathering these oysters from the foreshore at Southend. There is no specific fisheries legislation in place for the collection of this species.

However there is environmental health legislation in place to ensure that any oysters harvested for commercial purposes are fit for human consumption. Any collection of shellfish by individuals other than commercial fishermen can only be for personal use and may not be sold or offered for sale and should be cooked before consumption.

Since individuals and commercial fishermen started collecting the oysters from the foreshore at Southend, it appears that native mussel stocks on the foreshore are starting to become re-established. Kent & Essex IFCA work closely with Natural England within the designated Special Protected Area (SPA) which includes Southend foreshore, and in the coming months are going to be carrying out intertidal surveys on these mixed beds of oysters and mussels to establish the size, extent and structure of these populations.

Further information regarding the work of Kent & Essex IFCA as well as information on local

byelaws and ways to stay informed can be found on the

Kent and Essex IFCA website at www.kentandessex-ifca.gov.uk

Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority

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2012 Festive Pub Walk December Saturday 8th: 2-4pmAlmost as much a tradition as Christmas itself, this wintry wander ‘cross the rascally heath will stir the seasonal senses and warm the yuletide cockles. There’ll be carousing in the Dog & Bell afterwards but please tether your reindeer outside.Meet outside blackheath rail Station

Habitat Work Session December Wednesday 12th: 10am-1pmExplore the reasons for management work on habitats, and then roll your sleeves up and get warm helping out.Meet at Chinbrook Meadows car park Amblecote road

Mince Pie Malaise Mitigation (A new Year Stroll) January Saturday 12th: 11am-1pmStart the year as you mean to go on by ignoring every resolution you’ve made and exclaiming: ‘Stuff the turkey, I’m going for a walk!’Meet outside Catford bridge Station at Adenmore road Exit

Habitat Work SessionJanuary Wednesday 23rd: 10am-1pmExplore the reasons for management work on habitats, and then roll your sleeves up and get warm helping out.Meet at Ladywell Fields by Café/rangers HutFor further details: 07870 736 793Email: [email protected]

More information: www.natureconservationlewisham.co.uk

Thames Discovery ProgrammeFind out more about Museum of London Archaeology’s award-winning community archaeology project through the Thames Discovery Programme website: www.thamesdiscovery.org

Check out the events page and the FROGBLog for all the latest news from the foreshore, including fieldwork reports, notices of forthcoming winter walks and FROG training sessions.

You can also follow us on:www.facebook.com ThamesDiscoveryProgrammetwitter.com/ThamesDiscovery

Peter Kent illustrations at the Greenwich Gallery An exhibition of Peter’s maritime drawings of the fantastic river events that contributed to the celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee during 2012 and to the remarkable hosting of the Olympic Games in London. High quality prints will be available for purchase.

Peter has illustrated many publications and his work is well known amongst the Thames Estuary community.December 6th – December 24thThe Greenwich Gallery, Peyton Place, Greenwich, London SE10 8RSFor more information: 0208 465 [email protected]

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EVENTS - WHErEANDWHEn

EventsSPECIAL EVENTS1953 East Coast Floods 60th Anniversary There will be many events along the East Coast and in the Thames Estuary to commemorate the flood of January 31st and February 1st sixty years ago in which over 300 UK citizens died.

The worst affected places were: Sutton-on-Sea (over 16 dead); Hunstanton and Wells (65 Dead); Felixstowe (over 40 dead); Jaywick (37dead); Canvey Island (59 dead). Events are planned by each community. Below are some of more immediate relevance to the Thames Estuary.

Essex County Commemoration Service – Chelmsford Cathedral Thursday January 31st 2013The service will be attended by MPs, local councillors and key community figures. It is expected that a member of the Royal Family will attend, echoing visits to the affected coastline areas following the events of 1953. There will be significant local media coverage.

For more information see:www.chelmsfordcathedral.org.uk

Lighting of beacons along the CoastNight of Thursday 31st January - Friday1st February 2013For more information see social media and: www.essexresilience.info

Canvey island Memory DayFriday 1st February 2013About 1.30am on the night of 31st January 2013 will mark the 60th anniversary of the Canvey Floods which devastated the island costing the lives of 58 islanders, and led to the temporary evacuation of the then 13,000 residents. The Flood has been described as one of the worst peacetime disasters in Britain.

The Town Council is hoping to mark the anniversary in partnership with Essex County Council by unveiling a commemorative plaque, holding a short service and providing a display of information to mark the anniversary on Friday, 1st February 2013 from 11am at Canvey Library.More information:www.canveyisland-tc.gov.uk

Canvey Island Library2 High Street, Canvey Island, Essex SS8 7RB01268 [email protected]/libraries

Where’s Jill?

TEP’s Executive Director Jill Goddard is always out and about on the Estuary. But where is she in this photo? The answer is somewhere in this issue of TOTT!

If you think you know where Jill is, just send us an email naming the location to [email protected] by the 31st March 2013. All correct entries will be put into a hat and the winner drawn.

In the last edition Jill was at Tilbury Fort, with the wharves of Tilbury Power Station behind her. Congratulations to Martin Lawson who has been sent a £20 John Lewis voucher.

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