Pollinator paradise created along the River Great Ouse

Over the last 18 months, the Environment Agency's Waterways team has been working hard to create a pollinator paradise along the River Great Ouse.



Pollinator paradise created along the River Great Ouse

Biodiversity and boaters are benefiting from wildflowers, bird boxes, bee hives, bee hotels and shrubbery, which have been installed along the river.

A rowing boat filled with flowers planted by the Environment Agency.

In total, the Environment Agency has introduced:

  • 7,000 bulbs
  • 1,000 metres squared of wildflower strips – the equivalent of 4 tennis courts
  • 600 metres of native hedging
  • 120 lavender plants
  • 60 bird boxes
  • a bee hive with more than 40,000 bees
  • 2 large bee hotels

A stretch of wildflowers in Bedford.

Boaters and passers-by have written to the Environment Agency to compliment the work.

Ian Wilson, a leisure boater who has cruised England, said:

The wildflowers at your locks on the River Great Ouse look amazing and have increased my enjoyment of cruising the river.

Besides being so beautiful and calming, they are a great contribution for butterflies and other insects.

Hoverflies on and near a poppy planted by the Environment Agency.

Matt Yallop, Waterways Workforce manager for the Environment Agency, said:

I am really proud of my team’s hard work and commitment to help increase the bee and bird population on our navigation sites.

It’s very pleasing to see people enjoying the explosion of colour and increased wildlife. We have reduced the areas of grass we cut to encourage nature, and this also helps lower the overall river maintenance costs.

The boat filled with flowers and the other wildflowers at the lock.

Dick Milthorp, a member of the Waterways Workforce who has been instrumental to this project, said:

Our work doesn’t end here. We are planning to add more wildflower strips to Eaton Socon landing stage, Godmanchester and Brownshill. We have also got more hedging to plant as well as bluebells, wild garlic and more.

A close up of some of the flowers.

During the autumn the Environment Agency plans to plant wildflowers across approximately 3 acres of the Denver complex of sluices, near Downham Market. The plants will be a combination of flowers suitable for shady and dry conditions.

The work is part of the Environment Agency’s long-term ambition of creating a nation resilient to climate change; healthy air, land and water; green growth and a sustainable future.

On the ground this involves improving more than 4,000 kilometres of river, creating nearly 1,200 hectares of habitat and being on track to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

A bee enjoying the wildflowers.



Government equips staff with Debt Toolkit to help vulnerable

Press release

The Vulnerability Debt Toolkit will help public sector workers and those who are in debt to government.

  • Toolkit puts protections in place for vulnerable citizens owing money to government

  • Frontline public sector staff will be able to identify and support people facing additional challenges

  • Government can now focus resources towards those in debt who are deliberately avoiding repayment

The Government Debt Management Function has published a Vulnerability Toolkit which ensures ‘vulnerable’ citizens who are in debt to the public sector are handled with compassion and support by frontline staff.

The new guidance will be accessible to government departments and public bodies, enabling them to identify and assist people whose physical or mental health may affect their ability to repay sums owed to the Government.

It will equip employees with:

  • Training to handle disclosures of vulnerability

  • A framework for gaining more information about an individual’s circumstances

  • A protocol for supporting people in potentially dangerous situations

  • A protocol for supporting people with mental capacity limitations

  • Resources for supporting people to get out of debt through improved Money Management

Cabinet Office minister, Lord Agnew, said:

“This new guide will ensure an individual’s hardship and circumstances are factored into their cases by government bodies.

“At a time when the country continues on its path to build back better from the pandemic, it’s vitally important we don’t lose sight of the need to not leave anyone behind in the process.”

By identifying those people who have got into financial trouble due to vulnerabilities, the Toolkit will allow the government to focus on those who are deliberately trying to avoid repaying.

Reasons for debt to public sector creditors include overpayment of benefits, council tax arrears or outstanding fines.

The toolkit can be found here.

Published 24 August 2021



Guidance: Pet travel: approved air, sea and rail carriers and routes

Check the transport companies and routes you can use to bring your pet cat, dog or ferret to England, Scotland or Wales.



Clare Green joins DASA as Innovation Partner for East of England

News story

Introducing DASA’s new Innovation Partner who will work with suppliers in the East of England

DASA are pleased to appoint Dr Clare Green as the new Innovation Partner for the East of England. Clare will meet with suppliers in the region to learn more about their innovations and to provide advice and guidance on DASA, and wider government, opportunities.

Clare’s career to date has spanned both large industry and SMEs, as well as knowledge exchange roles within the HEI sector. She joins us from an academic environment where she worked as a Technology Innovation Manager in a multi-university Research England-funded Connecting Capability Fund (CCF). In this role, she provided support to the projects teams to help de-risk their technology, determine the market need and competitor landscape as well as helping to secure innovation funding to demonstrate the concept and provide a route to market.

Clare also has experience in facilitating collaboration between companies, engineers, scientists and clinicians to develop innovative technologies with a medtech and biotech focus. These are very broad sectors and include personalised medicine, tissue-engineering, medical devices, diagnostics, digital health and the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve healthcare pathways.

Clare said:

I am passionate about embedding commercial focus and translational skills within project teams and get a great deal of satisfaction from seeing developments move through the technology readiness levels (TRLs) and from playing a key part in enabling early-stage ideas to pass through the critical proof of feasibility and demonstrator stages so they are investor-ready.

I am delighted to be the new Innovation Partner for the East of England region, which is special to me as I was born in Cambridge and then returned there to study for my BBSRC-funded Industrial PhD in Molecular Biology. This important economic region is a rich source of innovative technology solutions with tremendous potential to address a number of vital unmet needs for our UK defence and security end-users. Helping to turn these ground breaking ideas into exploitable innovations, which will make our world a safer place, and build UK prosperity, is a very exciting prospect. I am particularly looking forward to identifying and working with entrepreneurs who may not have worked with Government before and have not yet been able to realise the full potential of their innovations.

DASA’s network of regional Innovation Partners is available to give advice to suppliers about their ideas and how they can best engage with DASA. Find out more.

Published 24 August 2021