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I’m pleased to be able to be here today and speak to so many people from all around the country, particularly at this amazing venue. As well as being the Defra Minister you may be aware I’m from Wales – the first country in the world to be entirely covered by rivers trusts and I’m therefore delighted to be at an event where I can promote Wales as being a world first.

The focus of my speech is on the very significant milestone we are approaching with the delivery of the first River Basin Management Plans under the Water Framework Directive, how the rivers trust movement is helping us achieve the outcomes we are looking for in the aquatic environment and where to next after 2009.

Everyone in this room knows what a valuable resource water is and I know that you more than most will share our vision of a sustainable, affordable and secure supply of clean good quality water and a healthy environment. But achieving that is no easy task.

We have made great progress over the last few decades in cleaning up our rivers, bathing waters and beaches by addressing some of the most acute sources of pollution.

It is often remarked that fifty years ago the river Thames was so polluted that it was declared biologically dead, but it now supports over 120 fish species. Otters and kingfishers have returned to stretches of river from which they were absent for many years. And I’m sure you’ll be hearing more today on some of the innovative ways that’s been achieved.

We have been used to figures reported under the General Quality Assessment (GQA), which has shown a consistent improvement in the quality of our rivers since it was introduced in 1990.

It is also worth reminding ourselves that over 70 per cent of our rivers are in good biological quality compared with 55 per cent in 1990. But we know we need to go further.

The Water Framework Directive sets exciting, and challenging, new targets for the quality of our rivers, and brings with it a more stringent set of requirements for measuring the quality of our rivers.

Now we are looking at the ecological health of our rivers (and indeed other water bodies, including lakes and coastal regions).

And because we monitor many more quality indicators under the WFD than under the GQA, and the worst rated element determines the overall class, the headline figures look worse than reported under GQA.

But that should not undermine the fact that the quality of our rivers has imporved and continues to improve.

The Environment Agency’s proposals for the first River Basin Management Plans will be presented to Defra on 22 September for approval, following the six month consultation which finished in June. During that date and the publication date of 22 December, my officials and I will be in discussion with stakeholders to ensure we have the right balance contained within the first Plans, accepting that this is the starting point not the end and understanding where we need to focus our future effort.

I know that some feel the proposed measures contained within the draft Plans didn’t go far enough, and lacked the bite of extensive regulation. But it’s important to emphasise that we are looking at looking at things differently now and it’s going to take time for us to achieve our goals. The Plans contain a huge amount of information, which we will need to build upon, and put to good use and I want to see better use of local knowledge, from organisations like river trusts so we can really ensure we target our resources appropriately to make the best use of them.

The Agency is on course to deliver the Plans and this in itself is a great achievement. There are a number of countries that will miss the key deadline of 22 December. So whilst the Plans may not be perfect and contain all the actions that you would like, they will provide a sound basis for us to get on with delivering, learning with this first cycle what more can be achieved, and build upon the further evidence through monitoring and investigations that will become available over the next few years.  And this is likely to lead to further action ahead of the next Plans being produced.

I will be keen to see what further actions have been brought forward since the draft Plans were published for consultation. It’s vitally important for me as the Minister to ensure that all sectors play their part in helping deliver on the Directive, but whilst I think it is fair to say that more could be done by some sectors, I accept that not all can go at the same pace.  What these first Plans will do is to help us understand where we need to focus our effort in the future for greater impact.

So I just want to say thank you to the Environment Agency staff who have been involved in the development of the Plans and to all of you who have contributed your time, energy and hopefully actions whether that’s through membership of a liaison panel or responding to the consultation.  To truly deliver the ambitious objectives of the WFD, it requires us to work together and in partnership, which moves me on to the second part of my speech.

As I hope a most of you are aware we announced on the 29 June that we were providing £10m of extra funding this year to be used on a variety of WFD projects and I was especially pleased when a significant part of that funding, £1.75m to be precise, was identified as being channelled through the Association for dissemination across the country.

The funding we are providing to you this year is focussed around three work package areas;

    * The removal of obstructions and the provision of easements, facilitating fish passage projects;
    * The implementation of Salmon Action Plan Projects which will protect, restore and improve rivers, key species and habitats; and
    * Eel Management Plan Projects which will provide unrestricted river access to elvers, promoting wide dispersal as well as ensuring the free movement of migrating adults.

We’ll be funding work in 12 Rivers Trusts this year ranging from the West Country Rivers Trust covering Cornwall and Devon up to the Eden Trust in Cumbria.

Some of the projects include; a major fish pass on the River Ribble system at “Padiham Weir” which will be delivered and jointly funded through the EA with ART and the Ribble Catchment Conservation Trust working in close cooperation. This will also pave the way for further fish migration easements upstream which will undertaken by the Trust.

If I turn to the River Mole an important spawning tributary of River Taw system in Devon, the “Head Weir” will be removed altogether and a depleted reach restored through a community partnership that has bought out the abstraction licence, allowing the project to progress with the weirs removal.

And the Eden Rivers Trust will be taking forward a number of major habitat improvement works contributing to WFD Good Ecological Status and the Salmon Action Plan on the River Eden in Cumbria.

On the River Fal in Cornwall the whole river will be opened up for easy access to eels through a combination of eel friendly tidal flaps on the estuary, linked to flood plain restoration work paid for through matched funds and a series of eel passes to the source of the river.

The Defra funding package will also draw down large amounts of match funding from other sources ranging from local communities, to EU Interreg IV Projects including the Interreg IVB North Sea “Living North Sea” Project and the Interreg IV A Cross Border ”WATER” Project.

And for me this additionality is a key requirement for obtaining the funding in the first place and also forming the basis of what we may seek to do in future.

The remainder of the funding this year will help build some of the foundations we need to make for further improvements towards our WFD objectives within the first cycle.

As I said earlier there are many sectors that need to play a part for us to be able to achieve our WFD objectives and Government does recognise it too has a part in that. But we can’t foot the whole bill and nor should we, but we recognise that through providing some seed funding I know it builds a solid platform to enable you and others to lever in funds from elsewhere. And this leads me on to the future and where do we go to after this year.

Some of you may be aware that we have been considering for some time whether the potential for a Catchment Restoration Fund, which could help deliver some of the improvements we need to put in place, similar to the ones you are helping us with this year, but on a longer-term basis.  

My officials have been working with a range of interested stakeholders including some of you in this room and have been progressing this idea further this year and whilst I can’t confirm our intention to establish a fund today, I can say that it is something we would like to do and are looking at how it could be potentially structured, funded and would operate and I hope we will be able to give further information on this in the coming months, and through the extra funding we are providing the Association with this year, I’m sure there will be many invaluable lessons that will feed into the future potential of this project.

Thank you very much for your time today and I look forward to hearing more about what you’re up to during the course of the morning and hopefully seeing some of projects you are delivering for us this year on my visits around the country.