Update on the OCSG

Hello All,

A quick update to let you know that the OCSG is still active as we have received more funding from the DEFRA, part of the Making Space for Water project. We will host in the next couple of weeks an evening meeting to discuss our current activities and the plan for the next twelve months for the OCSG.
We are currently working with the Environment Agency on a Flood Levy project in the upper Ouseburn, looking at diverting some of the high flows of the Ouseburn to some existing pond, this pond will be linked to the large Cell I pond in order to remove some of the sediments and improve the water quality of the river. We are also working on an action delivery plan for 2009. All of this plus the recent flooding in the Ouseburn and the lower Ouseburn will be discussed in our next meeting.
I will email everybody in a couple of weeks when the meeting date is finalised.
See you all very soon,
Sebastien

Quikmap for the Ouseburn

Dear All,

I am trying to come up with a map for the Ouseburn that everybody can populate online.
here is the start.

OCSG May Meeting - New Beginning or the End is NIgh?

Dear All,

You are all invited to the upcoming Ouseburn Catchment Steering Group meeting it will take place on Tuesday 20th May 2008, between 18:0-19:30, in Room 1.01 in the Cassie Building, Newcastle University.

The meeting will be to discuss the future of the Ouseburn Catchment Steering Group in terms of work and future collaboration.

Please let me know if you would like to attend either via email or telephone.

Paul and I are looking forward to see you all again.

Here are the main agenda items:

1. NEWS ITEMS

Upper Ouseburn MS4W final meeting and project outputs

Invertebrates Sampling Day in the Ouseburn – 7th May

Heritage Lottery Project Update

Newcastle International Airport Site Visit – 9th May

2. WAY FORWARD FOR THE OCSG

Ouseburn Catchment Action Plan

Ouseburn Catchment Role to deliver Water Framework Directive

Source of funding – Awards for All – Else?

3. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

4. NEXT MEETING DATE AND LOCATION

Ouseburn Beasties Sampling Day - Wednesday 7th May 2008

Dear All,

We are organising with Tyne Rivers Trust, Jesmond Dene Rangers and Living Waterways project a micro-invertebrates sampling day in the Ouseburn on Wednesday 7th May. Two members of the OCSG would have been trained by then and we are targeting four to five sites in the Ouseburn catchment:

1. Callerton Pond: We see it as a reference site i.e. in terms of what the Ouseburn should aspire to in the next twenty years;
2. Kingston Park outfall and A1 - Newcastle Great Park area is an excellent location to look at the impacts of the rapid land use changes occurring right now in the Ouseburn catchment;
3. Jesmond Dene - This is the most visited Park in Newcastle and we need to be sure the water quality is good enough for our children to swim in it;
4. City Stadium Culvert - Upstream and Downstream - this area is not monitored by the Environment Agency and it could be worthwhile location for our future monitoring programme.

The sampling will take place at 6pm in a synchronous fashion and the results will be dispatched through this blog and the Tyne Rivers Trust River Watch website. More information will be published on this blog when we get closer to the date.
If you are interested to come along, please contact me through this blog.

Sebastien

DEFRA Making Space for Water - Second Public Meeting

Dear All,

A short email to thank everybody who turned up to last night meeting at the Northumbrian Piper.
It was as successful as the first meeting and it feels that our way of engaging with the public is appreciated. Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday events:

Meeting walk to look at Newcastle Great Park Cell G ponds and the future of A1 runoff remediation.










Picture taken during the evening presentations where Paul Quinn from Newcastle University and chairman of the OCSG, Richard Robinson, Agency project manager and Colin Percy from Newcastle City Council gave an update of the work done in the last six month and proposed some suggestions for the future of integrated urban drainage in the Upper Ouseburn.


The OCSG is and will remain independent and we will be more active in the next few month. Starting with a cleaning up of the Ouseburn on the 7th April and a Ouseburn sampling day on the 7th May.

Keep looking at this space, I will update it weekly and will upload more documents.

Thanks again for your support and if you would like to contribute to this blog, please contact me and I will give you the details to become a contributor.

Sebastien

Newcastle Chronicle Extra article on Ouseburn barrage: Truth or misquote?

Dear all,

I received last week the free edition of the Chronicle and I found this article:
It is the first paragraph which made me jump when mentioned that the barrage was created to clean up a polluted waterway in Newcastle!
As mentioned during our last meeting, the only improvement made to the polluted waterway is to fit screens at CSO along the Ouseburn.
This measure will principally reduce the amount of floating litter existing in the sewer network but will not reduce the quantity of dissolved organic matter present in the water during a large storm event.
I am also on the Ouseburn River User Group that will meet up for the third time on 30th January. As far as I know, this is not a public meeting.
I will post soon some information regarding the November 2007 Jesmond Dene site visit.

Sebastien

OCSG January Meeting - Minutes from previous meeting

Hello All,

A quick post to thank everybody who came to the meeting last night, it was the largest we had 19 people attending. Lets hope our group can have new members in the next couple of months.
The minutes of the previous meeting have been agreed with some minor changes.
Here is the updated version.
The next OCSG meeting will take place on the 19th February 2008 at Newcastle University, the main focus will be the DEFRA Making Space for Water March public meeting as we are co-organising it with the Environment Agency.
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Present:

Paul Quinn (University of Newcastle)

Sebastien Tellier (JBA Consulting)

Peter Redpath (Red House Farm residents association)

Archie Ruggles-Brise (Tyne Rivers Trust)

Steve Barrett (Woolsington resident association)

Graham Siddle (Environment Agency)

Brian Mark (Resident)

Rick Anderson (Ouseburn Community Centre)

Howard Elcock (CPRE NE)

Ken Heads (Newcastle University)

Colin Percy (Newcastle City Council)

Bob Wilkin (Resident Garden Village)

Anna Newson (Friends of Jesmond Dene)

Apologies:

Allan Snape (Northumbrian Water Limited)

Richard Robinson (Environment Agency)

Bill Colwell (CPRE NE)

Jessica Grinsted (Living Waterways Project)

Phil Bell (Melbury Park Resident Association)

Sarah French (Groundwork NE)

Sue Wannop (Newcastle City Council)

Helen Hayden (Newcastle International Airport)

MINUTES

1.Comments on the last minutes

Minutes from the July meeting were agreed during the meeting.

2.News

Jesmond Dene Big Lottery bid

ST met with Sue Stokel Walker (SSW) and the Jesmond Dene Rangers (Sarah and Jill) on 26^th September to discuss the Heritage Lottery Foundation (HLF) bid. Phase 1 of the HLF bid has been accepted and Newcastle City Council is finalising its details and will submit it in March 2008. SSW stated that all the money has already been allocated and no money from Phase 1 will be available for any joint project with the OCSG.

One action of this meeting was to set up a site visit in Jesmond Dene with NWL and the EA to tackle the “smell” issue in the park. SSW and the Rangers stated that the smell comes from the drain and not the river itself.

Anna Newson (AN) stated that Phase 1 of the HLF bid is worth £5 million and most of the funding is spent on landscaping and the building of a new visitor centre. Brian Marks (BM) noted that landscaping without integrating with the water seemed to be a missed opportunity, he thought that Jesmond Dene is a beautiful area but the access should be improved.

Paul Quinn (PQ) mentioned that he spotted grey fungus/sewage contamination on the river bed and this could cause some health issues to the children occasionally bathing in the Ouseburn. PQ would like to propose to create a water storage feature in the upper section of Jesmond Dene (downstream of South Gosforth round about up to Crag Hall gauging station). This feature will be multi-purposes (flood storage, treatment zone, amenity) and is the type of activity the OCSG is promoting for the Ouseburn catchment.

Bob Wilkin (BW) noted that the pollution issue has been present in Jesmond Dene since 1976 when they built the drainage network throughout Armstrong Park (twin sewage pipe through the whole park, buried under the main path). It was once considered to build up a vertical chimney to force the sewer gas upwards and therefore remove the smell from the park.

Sebastien Tellier (ST) reported that the Rangers mentioned that during the 1^st July 2007 storm, the cover of some of the drains lifted and raw sewage came out and possibly leaked into the river.

BM proposed that Newcastle City Council spends some money on water monitoring to assess the current water quality. PQ mentioned that it is the Environment Agency responsibility to monitor the river quality (the Agency sampled the river 12 times a year) but this should be done after a storm event as it will give a better representation of the type of pollution occurring in the Ouseburn (possible contamination from sewer outfalls or else). PQ would like Phase 2 of the HLF to look into this issue.

Steve Barratt (SB) asked Graham Siddle (GS) the current quality of the Ouseburn and wondered what will be the cost to raise the current water quality objectives.

ST mentioned that the current ecological status for the Ouseburn is on the following website (http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/maps/info/river/ then insert your postcode in the What’s in your backyard window). ST stated that the as long as the Ouseburn is complying to its current target (poor quality) the Environment Agency does not have to invest in measures to improve its quality. ST also mentioned that changing the water quality objectives for the Ouseburn should be one of the objectives of the OCSG as it will have an impact in the whole catchment (less combined sewer overflow discharges, more habitat restoration, etc).

BM proposed that a fraction of the HLF bid could look into this (£10-15,000 out of £5Million).

OCSG should propose a joint project with Newcastle City Council to include in phase 2 a water monitoring project. AN and BW proposed that the Environment Agency should be integrant part of such a project.

ACTION: ST and PQ set up the site visit for the 17^th October. ST to inform AN, BW, Jessica Grinsted (JG) and Peter Redpath (PR) of the arrangements.

ST and PQ to keep in contact with SSW to discuss water quality monitoring and water storage feature feasibility study for phase 2 of the HLF funding programme.
UPDATE: The site visit took place in Jesmond Dene with Graham Siddle and Neil Affleck from the EA, Steve Robson from NWL. The Jesmond Dene rangers showed to both organisations the issues about the drains (cracked cover, leaking cover, some causing bank erosion). NWL and the EA were not aware of the situation and Steve Robson promised to send a map of the locations of the drain covers in Jesmond Dene. AN, PR and JG also attended.

Ken Heads from Newcastle University was welcome to the meeting

Ken Heads is doing an MSc in Sustainable Management of the Water Environment and will look at the NWL Red House Farm scheme as part of his dissertation. He will investigate alternatives to spend the £5Million budget.

Environment Agency – Water Framework Directive consultation process for Northumbrian River Basin

The Environment Agency is the agency responsible in Great Britain to apply the Directive and has set up an “online only“ consultation for the Northumbrian River Basin. PQ mentioned that neither Newcastle University and the OCSG were consulted despite having contacted the Environment Agency officer, Ellie Simpson.

ACTION:OCSG to invite Ellie Simpson to talk about the WFD and its consequences for the Ouseburn river.

Newcastle Journal Go Green article in collaboration with Newcastle International Airport

ST was contacted by Helen Hayden from Newcastle International Airport to contribute to the Chronicle “Go Green” article. GS mentioned that the Agency is paying for the “Go Green” articles and that the OCSG should contact Liz Bunton to submit a full length article.

ACTION: PQ and ST to submit an article and will plan a full length article in the near future.

UPDATE: PQ & ST submitted the article and Amy Hunt from the Chronicle got in touch with ST about the lower Ouseburn barrage.

3. OCSG Draft Constitution

ST circulated a draft constitution document after receiving a copy from Archie Ruggles-Brise (ARB), nobody from the email list contributed to it and therefore it became an item for today’s meeting.

Rick Anderson (RA) thought that the term working in partnership includes a self-censorship idea as we will be dependent on the different partners.

ARB replied by saying that without partnerships you can’t get any work done, you only need to define carefully the partnership work agreements and work closely with the partners.

PQ reiterated that our mission is to invite people to attend OCSG meetings and provide information about the current activities in the catchment.

BM mentioned that current OCSG members are representing an organization (EA, Newcastle City Council, Northumbrian Water Limited, Newcastle University, etc) but are also here as residents.

BM explained that there are three types of members:

1.Responsible for a public organization;

2. Individual/Resident;

3.Corporate Membership.

ACTION: After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that the OCSG has to advertise more as there is a need to replenish the current member’s list, this is inherent to any steering committee. ST will re-circulate the draft document and it will be re-examined during next meeting.

4. DEFRA Making Space for Water – Feedback of Summer Public Meeting

PQ thanked that all the members for their contributions to the meeting, especially Bob Wilkin, Steve Barratt and Peter Redpath for providing photographs, artefacts and their local knowledge for the OCSG posters.

ARB that it was a good meeting, well attended but lacking of press coverage and he mentioned that he will be happy to help for the press release for the next public meeting in March 2008.

PQ stated that the DEFRA project is finishing in April and OCSG will have something to present for the public meeting as PQ has two students working on Ouseburn related projects: a river restoration scheme for the upper Ouseburn to reconnect the river with the Newcastle Great Park ponds and revisiting Northumbrian Water Limited project for Red House Farm estate (surface and foul water diverted downstream of Red House Farm, near Three Mile bridge).

Details of these two projects will be presented at the March DEFRA meeting.

5. Any Other Business

Awards for All

ST has not written the application form yet as the OCSG needs a constitution in order to be an grant applicant.

ACTION: ST and PQ to write the application before the end of the DEFRA Making Space for Water Programme (April 2008).

Ouseburn barrage – Invitation to join Ouseburn River Users Group

ST was invited to come along the Ouseburn River Users Group, which a group created by Newcastle City Council for the public consultation of the Ouseburn barrage. The scope of this group is defined as below in the terms of reference:

“The focus of the group will be to comment and contribute to all areas affecting the operation of the barrage, navigation in the Ouseburn and the local environment and amenities. Any recommendation or matter raised by the group must be addressed by Newcastle City Council unless an appropriate reason is provided.”

ACTION: ST proposed Rick Anderson as the OCSG member to go to the meetings either along with ST or without him when ST can’t attend. ST contacted Christine Earl and waiting to hear about the next meeting (the previous meetings took place in April and August 2007).

A1 Development

PQ mentioned that the future development of the A1 near Newcastle Great Park has been mentioned during a meeting with Richard Robinson, Tony Mc Kenna (Aone consortium), ST and CP. However it seems to be at an early stage and Tony Mc Kenna could not confirm it was the case.

SB talked about the possible detrimental effect of the A696 upstream of the A1. The A696 impact of flooding will be looked into for the DEFRA Making Space for Water project in the next six months.

Tyne Rivers Trust new project officer

Tyne Rivers Trust recruited a new project officer for the River Watch project, Ceri Gibson, and ARB asked if she could represent the Trust for the next OCSG meetings.

Steve Barrett – U Decide project

SB has presented a project to the You Decide panel to maintain the Woolsington ponds he showed us this summer. One of the components of his project is to do some river monitoring in the Ouseburn. SB will get in touch with Bill Colwell as the latter has been trained this summer to do invertebrates sampling.