Back in business!

Dear All,

The Ouseburn Catchment Steering Group has set up a bank account through the Tyne Rivers Trust and is expecting to receive £5000 in the next few weeks.
Part of this this money will be spent on me (Sebastien), I have a series of tasks to perform. Here is a short list:

• Set up a meeting with Colin Percy, Steve Lowe, Paul Quinn and Rick Anderson to define the constitution for the Ouseburn CSG;

• Write up the Action Plan for the Ouseburn Catchment Plan. A draft was released last year as part of the PURE project and the OSCG found the Action Plan to be less comprehensive that it should have been. I will work with Paul Quinn and Archie Ruggles-Brise on the Action Plan;

• Set up the Ouseburn River Watch for the Upper Ouseburn with Paul Quinn, Archie Ruggles-Brise, Sebastien Tellier, Peter Redpath and Philip Bell;

• Get involved with the Heritage and Big Lottery funds regarding the Ouseburn Parks (Jesmond Dene, Heaton Park, etc). I need to get in touch with Sue Stokes-Walker and Amanda Watson from Newcastle City Council to get hold of the copy of the document as we would like to be aware of any river rehabilitation works;

• Raising more funds for the OSCG through businesses links (Greggs, Newcastle International Airport, SAGE, Newcastle City Council, Northumbrian Water Limited, Northern Rock, etc). This involve contacting the companies and explain our goals and how they could help us to achieve them;

• Organise the OSCG meetings (sending emails, letter, writing minutes, etc) and future public meeting (summer public consultation event sponsored by the DEFRA Making Space for Water Programme, site visit of the Upper Ouseburn led by Steve Barrett;

• Contact the Lower Ouseburn team regarding the Ouseburn barrage and see how the OSCG can be part of the regeneration consultation process for the Lower Ouseburn;

• Gathering data and understanding of the Upper Ouseburn development as part of the DEFRA Making Space for Water programme.

This short list of tasks will probably change in the next few months but I see it as a good starting point.

My next post will be about reporting the site visit and I will put online the minutes of our last meetings.

In the meantime, feel free to contact me, especially if you want to contribute to this blog.

Sebastien