Trout in the Town Project Minutes 26.03.08

AP stated that the day was a great success and that a huge amount of rubbish was removed from the river from Ball Grove up stream. Also a very successful pruning of a lot of seriously overgrown trees and bushes which has opened up the river but also has left plenty of cover too. A story had been posted on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph website, under the Your East Lancashire Colne Section of the website. AP was not sure how many hits this site was getting on this section, unfortunately this data is not available, and he would continue to get these stories online as it seen as important to ensure that the information is in the public domain.

Election of officials: Chairman: Paul West.

Treasurer: Richard Benson.

Secretary: Andy Pritchard.

E.A. Advisor: Lee Preston.

Committee: Graham Counsell.

Jerry Stanford.

Graham Firth.

It was thought that AP could approach Mr Charles Jardine to ask if he would be willing to be a figurehead, to have someone like Charles on board would be a fantastic fillip to the project.

(Action AP).

Outline of the Project AP gave a brief overview of the project and on the issues that were being faced on the river, various newsletters from the WTT were shown around and in particular Mr Simon Johnson's Catalyst for Change' that appeared in Salmo Trutta. It is hoped that the entire river system can be improved over the coming years. It was hoped that further river clean ups could take place in the near future, GC asked about the removal of the rubbish from the river and how this could be best achieved? In the past the Council had provided skips and other PPE to aid this process. GC suggested that if future work were being undertaken, particularly in the Town it would be an idea to wear fluorescent type jackets to draw attention to these people working on the river.

JS has a lot of contacts from his years of working on environmental projects and JS will get as many email and phone no's to AP to circulate details and to ensure other influential people are aware of the project. These people are namely: Derek Gascoigne, David Penney, Matt Whyte (PBC) and André Pomfrett amongst others. (Action JS and AP).

It is crucial that Pendle Borough Council are kept informed of the work that is being done and the contacts within the Council are to be established. (Action AP) Part of the project for the future would require further assistance from the EA and LP could advise further on this, allied to the WTT; it was hoped that as part of the educational function in the future that local schools could grow on Trout from our own river. This would ensure that the new guidelines on stocking could be achieved, as these fish would have the genetic footprint of our own river. Obviously we are some way off this yet, but this was a hope for the future.

The EA monitoring of water quality, it was mentioned that there were certain differences along the river, particularly down at Barrowford where the water often has a turbid look to it and appears diesel coloured. AP and LP will look into this further in the future. AP & GC mentioned that whilst on the clean up day they had been turning stones and the fly life was tremendous, perhaps some monitoring of invertebrates could be carried out in the future.

(Action AP to discuss further with LP) Accounting RB explained how he could use CWAC bank accounts to run the project. It was thought that being as these were already up and running this would be the easiest and most convenient method of running the project. As RB was the Treasurer to both CWAC and Trout in the Town he could use differing budget codes to show a true and accurate reflection of the accounts. These would also be extremely useful in showing Pendle Borough Council the accounts to ensure that CWAC was fulfilling their side of the agreement with the free river lease'.

AP asked LP if the EA monies would be held by the EA or released to the project. LP explained that there was every likelihood that the monies from the EA would be released. The EA Legal team were looking at the legalities to this; LP would get back to the committee on this when he had further news.

(Action LP) RB is to look into insurance for none members of CWAC whilst working on the project. (Action RB) Identify the issues on the whole river system It was agreed that the whole of the river system needs to be reviewed and a list of priority works need to be identified. It was agreed that a map of the river (large scale if possible) could be used to identify and draw up plans. AP to approach Dave Oyston of LCC to see if these could be made available as they were for the Calder Catchment Sub Group of the Ribble Fisheries Consultative. (Action AP) AP explained that as this project was Trout in the Town' we should also ensure that the Town section should feature heavily within the early stages of works; all agreed that this was crucial, this fitted with the members wearing hi visibility jackets whilst working on the Town Sections to draw attention to the fact that people were working on the river and banks.

The WTT are appointing Project Managers the adverts were out for three posts, which have been funded by The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. AP was hoping to hear soon that these officials were soon to be in post to assist in putting a plan in place. Denise Ashton and Simon Johnson were assisting in these efforts too. In the meantime there are certain pieces of river that need some basic remedial action to try to prevent further erosion. These were identified as Drivers Field' which is being eroded significantly downstream of the top wooden bridge. It was thought that the gabions supporting the bridge were actually deflecting the main current flow of the river into this bank. The concrete bridge (now pier) is also a major concern; the current flow at this point is in danger of putting the weir at risk. There are efforts in place trying to identify who has responsibility for this area, however if push comes to shove we really should look at trying to put some interim measure in place to redirect the flow to the previous main flow channel.

All in river works MUST be reported to the EA via LP to seek authority before any work is commenced and NO work should be undertaken in river without the written consent from the EA.

(Action AP to seek further knowledge on how to report plans to the EA) AP reported that there is a broken sewer pipe that has been reported to the EA and investigations were ongoing into this, it is thought that remote cameras are seeking the collapse.

Date, Place and Time of next meeting: Wednesday 9th April 2008 2000 hrs Please come along and become involved in what will turn into a fantastic regeneration project.

Admiral Lord Rodney Public House, Mill Green, Waterside, Colne, Lancashire, BB8 0TA.

Directions from the M65 Take the second exit at the end of the motorway. At the next roundabout take the first left and travel uphill towards Colne town centre. After the railway bridge you will see the station on the left. Turn Right into Bridge St then first left into Shaw Street, signposted to the industrial estate. Follow this road down to the Mill and we are at the end, just before the bridge.

troutinthetown@yahoo.com or colnewaterac@btinternet.com