Ministers aim to improve water quality with £11m extra funding

A FUNDING pot of an extra £11m has been promised by the Government to improve water quality by planting trees and cleaning up the nation's rivers through links with local groups.

There has been fury nationwide and in parts of Yorkshire over river pollution and bathing water quality, with protests and public meetings as campaigners call for wider action.

Now Water Minister Robbie Moore, Conservative MP for Keighley, has said the additional funding – on top of £3m already allocated to the Environment Agency – will help support projects "where rivers need it most".

Work will be delivered through smaller groups called 'local catchment partnerships' (LCPs), made up of government, local councils and landowners, businesses, experts and water companies.

Mr Moore said: "These LCPs do excellent work and I am pleased that we are able to give this additional funding to help deliver projects where rivers need it most.

“It builds on recent measures to clean up our rivers including consulting on a ban on water company bonuses, launching a new Water Restoration Fund to reinvest water company fines and penalties back into the water environment, and a fourfold increase in Environment Agency inspections."

The funding, which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has said could unlock double its worth in donations and grants, is to go towards 180 different projects – including in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and North Devon.

In York, some will go towards the second phase of The York Urban Becks project, which aims to create a more natural river course and support local habitats.

Nationwide, it will likely lead to an extra 300km of English rivers being protected and improved, claimed Defra, supporting the creation and restoration of 160 hectares of inland and coastal waters.

This Water Environment Improvement Fund (WEIF), delivered by the Environment Agency (EA), will focus on cleaning up lakes and rivers, protecting communities from flooding and planting trees.

Alan Lovell, chair of the EA, said the uplift in funding was welcome. "It builds on the steps we are taking to improve water quality and protect the environment, including expanding our specialised workforce and increase water company inspections this year, along with our powers to levy uncapped penalties on those who pollute our waterways," hesaid.

Mark Lloyd, chief executive of The Rivers Trust, said this could be an important catalyst.

“Increased funding is a very important ingredient in the recipe for successfully restoring our rivers to good health and so this is welcome news," he said.

"We are increasingly seeing the private and philanthropic sectors getting involved to match this kind of funding which enables this government support to go even further, enabling us to have a greater positive impact in more places.”

Past work under the fund saw £888,000 pledged to Yorkshire's Developing the Natural Aire project to install fish passes.