A selection of temporary and permanent flood barriers, which would be deployed in emergencies, have been put to the test in Northwich.

100 metres of demountable defences were erected and 14 flood gates were closed as part of a live training exercise by the Environment Agency throughout the town centre on Thursday 20th July.

The exercise is the first time the full set of defences, which can be deployed within three hours, have been tested since the launch of the new Northwich flood alleviation scheme last month.

Over the course of the exercise, Environment Agency teams installed and took down demountable defences to practice their emergency plan for the town and ensured the rapid deployment of the additional flood barriers were in good working order.

The operation gave the agency workers valuable experience on the deployment of the equipment and significantly tested its response to future flooding.

Flood Manager at the Environment Agency, Christian Wilcox said:

The £7 million Northwich flood alleviation scheme reduces the flood risk to around 400 homes and businesses throughout the town. Therefore, it was fantastic to see the full set of demountable defences brought into effective action for the first time.

This was a major test of our operational equipment and allowed us to train up the teams who will work on deploying these defences.

Part of the flooding that Northwich has previously experienced has come directly from the River Dane and we were pleased to see that our road closure at Dane Bridge, during the test of the defences, worked extremely well and would provide a good level of signage and a viable alternative route when we need to deploy the defences in earnest.

Overall, it was great to see our practical strategies for flood protection put into action, via our joint working with the Cheshire West and Chester Council who organised the road closure. I hope such collaborative emergency response plans will give reassurance to residents in Northwich but, it is important to remember that we can never fully protect against flooding.

Residents should always prepare in advance for this by going online at www.gov.uk and signing up for free flood warnings. Alternatively, they can telephone the Environment Agency Floodline on 0845 988 1188 and find out what they can do to protect themselves and their property when flooding hits.

Flood defences in Warrington have been brought to life thanks to a group of budding Picassos from Cardinal Newman Catholic High School in Westy.

Year 7 pupils, aged between 11 and 12, were challenged by the Environment Agency to put their brush skills to the test and design images of wildlife to decorate walls that make up part of a new flood alleviation scheme.

The designs will face the pavement and be visible to passers-by along Mersey Walk in Westy.

They form part of a £34 million flood risk management scheme throughout Warrington which aims to reduce the risk of flooding to both people and property. The new flood walls are a major aspect of the defences and will cover a total of 7.2km by the time the scheme is completed in autumn 2017.

To spruce up the solid concrete of the walls, pupils took inspiration from some of the local species that live along the River Mersey including fish, amphibians and mammals such as mallards.

The regal kingfisher has also been a key feature with the colourful bird taking pride of place in an earlier phase of the scheme along Knutsford Road.

Speaking about the colourful artwork, Chris Stone of the Environment Agency said:

These lovely features will bring a little of the Mersey wildlife to the new defences, which will provide much greater protection from the risk of flooding to about 2,000 homes and businesses in the Warrington area.

It’s our priority to do everything we can to protect people from flooding. We are spending more than £2.5 billion to build flood schemes around the country, which will better protect 300,000 homes by 2021.

The River Mersey Warrington Flood Risk Management Scheme, which is now in its final phase, will enhance flood defence infrastructure, blend in with the local natural and built environment and most importantly, provide best protection to people and property in the town of Warrington. We are grateful to all the pupils from Cardinal Newman Catholic High School who got involved. Their fantastic artwork has really helped us add another point of interest to this very important project.

A waste recycling company will open a new facility and create local jobs in West Cumbria, having won a contract with Sellafield Ltd.

‘Recycling Lives’ will recycle metal from the nuclear site, offering jobs and training opportunities at a new depot in Workington.

The company will also set up a food distribution charity with centres throughout Cumbria, which will also need staff and volunteers.

This follows the success of a similar community programme they have delivered throughout Lancashire.

Martin Chown from Sellafield Ltd said:

We want to ensure our local communities benefit from the money we spend and we do this by insisting that companies that win work with us invest to support local growth.

I’m excited by the plans Recycling Lives has to create jobs and support disadvantaged people in west Cumbria.

It demonstrates the unique power of Sellafield Ltd to attract new businesses to the area

The scrap buying and processing facility in Workington, has brought an empty site back into use, and will be open to the public and other businesses from September.

William Fletcher from Recycling Lives, said:

We are pleased to have been chosen as the preferred contractor for scrap metal collection and processing from Sellafield Ltd.

We’re really excited to be able to use this contract to create social value across Cumbria.

The benefits will be more than just environmental and economic, as we create social impact through job creation and food redistribution.

Their food redistribution service operates on behalf of national organisation, Fareshare. It diverts surplus food from manufacturers, suppliers and supermarkets, that would otherwise go to landfill, and distributes it to charities and community groups in deprived areas.

Find out more about Recycling Lives

We provide three sets of conversion factors:

• Condensed set: Most frequently requested by users. An abridged version of the full set of factors, designed to reduce the volume of information users have to navigate through to find the factors they want. Recommended for most, and new, users of conversion factors
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• The methodology paper explains how the conversion factors are derived.

For new users of the conversion factors, we recommend you download the condensed set of conversion factors from the latest available year and read the guidance in the document’s introductory sheet. Then follow the informative text at the top of each conversion factor tab in the output files.

For repeat users of the conversion factors we suggest that you download your preferred factor set and read the ‘what’s new’ sheet before using the conversion factors. This sheet highlights the most significant changes to the conversion factors made in this update. Following the ‘what’s new’ guidance will ensure that reporting is consistent and comparable year-on-year.

The British Embassies Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia are pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for funding as part of the Illegal Wildlife Challenge Trade Challenge Fund and Darwin Initiative run by the UK’s Department of Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for International Development (DFID).

Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund

The Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund helps developing countries to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, by addressing demand reduction, strengthening enforcement and criminal justice, and providing local alternative livelihoods. Further information can be found here.

The priority areas we are looking to fund include:

• Developing sustainable livelihoods and economic development, to benefit people directly affected by IWT

• Strengthening law enforcement

• Ensuring effective legal frameworks

• Reducing demand for IWT products

In addition, our Embassies are particularly looking for projects that have a strong regional element, involving action or collaboration across borders. We are also looking to encourage projects that have strong partnerships with governments in the region.

The deadline for the first phase of the bidding process is 21 September.

Darwin Initiative

The Darwin Initiative helps to protect biodiversity and the natural environment in developing countries Further information can be found here.

The objective of the Darwin Initiative is to protect and enhance biodiversity and in doing so, to contribute to sustainable development in developing countries, through projects which address one, or more, of the following themes:

• Protection or enhancement of ecosystems, species or genetic resources through in-situ or ex-situ conservation or remedying environmental damage;
• Integration of biodiversity and ecosystem services within host country development objectives and economic decision making, through institution building, capacity development, strengthening regulatory and policy frameworks or research; or
• Assisting host countries’ efforts to meet their obligations under at least one of the international conventions/agreements listed above.

In addition, our Embassies are particularly looking for projects that have a strong regional element, involving action or collaboration across borders. We are also looking to encourage projects that have strong partnerships with governments in the region. We also want to encourage projects that identify synergies with priorities and actions promoted by the Illegal Wildlife Challenge Fund.

The deadline for the first phase of the bidding process is 12 September.

What to do now?

Our regional network want to work with prospective bidders to craft and refine bids to these funds and also to understand who we can help support the aims and activities of the projects. Our network has significant insight in to these issues as well as political reach and access. As priority issues of the UK Government, we would intend to work with the project implementers to help ensure the maximum benefits from the projects are secured.

To improve efficiency and coherence, we have appointed a regional coordinator to give you a one-stop-shop for initial contacts. Any inquiries will be dealt with and you can be sure they will be shared with all the Network. It is possible to contact individual Embassies directly but we recommend, particularly for Cambodia and Laos, that you first work with the regional lead.

It is not compulsory to contact the Regional lead person or Embassy or to submit bids in line with the priorities / goals of our Regional Network. However, our Network has much expertise and skills to offer and we would strongly recommend this.

Contact points

Contact points for the regional lead and various Embassies are:

Regional Lead – Nguyen.ThuyLinh@fco.gov.uk

Vietnam – Nguyen.ThuyLinh@fco.gov.uk

Bangkok – Kanyasorn.Tansubhapol@fco.gsi.gov.uk

Cambodia – Phalla.Chea@fco.gov.uk

Laos – Anongly.Phimmasone@fco.gov.uk