Partnership for brook?

Last night Ebley Mill saw members of the Ruscombe Brook Action Group and experts come together to hear two guest speakers from Bournemouth talk about one of the country's most exciting projects to improve stream quality and biodiversity.

It was great to get all the different groups together to share expertise: the Environment Agency, Severn Trent, British Waterways, Stroud Valleys Project and more came together to walk the brook (see photo of one group above) then hear about the experiences in Bournemouth.

I gave a brief overview about RBAG and some of what we have been doing then Sarah Austin, Project Officer, Bourne Stream Partnership and Stuart Terry, Coastal & Capital Works Manager, Borough of Poole gave us a great overview of their exciting project.

We learnt lots about how they created a partnership of different groups that is working to improve water quality and wildlife.

Our brook quality has already improved over the last months following work by Severn Trent, but as noted before we consider there is much more work needed. This talk has been very useful getting the views of so many experienced people about the best ways forward. The challenge now is to develop these ideas together with the community and land owners so that we can all benefit. Reed beds for example are one way forward as they are cost-effective, sustainable, have wildlife benefits and improve water quality very significantly.

I would love to see a partnership develop similar to Bournemouth where all agencies pull together not just to improve Ruscombe brook but also the other waterways in the District.

RBAG wish to especially thank the speakers for coming to Stroud - although they have talked to many groups around the country this was the first time they had walked another stream to share their knowledge and ideas. We would also like to thank all those that came to the site visits and meeting, in particular Bob Nightingale, Stroud District Councils' Drainage expert for his help and Cllr. Nigel Cooper for chairing the meeting. A last thank you must go to RBAG members who did most of the organising for the event: Helen Patrick and Chris and Heidi Cohen.

See more at: www.rbag.org.uk