Annual report of the key performance indicators for Forestry Commission England showing progress towards our key aims of helping enable the protection, improvement and expansion of the woodland resource in England. The publication includes both FCE’s six Headline Performance Indicators (also separately reported at quarterly intervals) and our annually reported indicators. This publication is also known as the Forestry Commission England Indicators Report 2018.

This release contains provisional statistics on UK woodland area, certified woodland area, and areas of new planting and restocking. These statistics are used to inform government policy and resource allocation, to provide context to UK forestry and land management issues and are reported to international organisations. Figures for certified woodland areas are often used as an indicator of sustainable forest management. However, it should be noted that woodland that is not certified may also be managed sustainably.

Phase 7 of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, a competitive funding scheme to support the development and demonstration of state of the art technologies, products and processes in the areas of energy efficiency, power generation, and heat and electricity storage, is now open for applications.

The Energy Entrepreneurs Fund seeks the best ideas, irrespective of source, across these energy technology areas from the public and private sector. The scheme particularly aims to assist small and medium-sized enterprises, including start-ups, and those companies that are selected will receive additional funding for incubation support.

A total of £10 million is available for projects in phase 7, with up to £1 million available for projects up to £250,000.

Please read the Phase 7 guidance notes carefully for information on eligibility and how to apply or view the video below.

The launch presentation is available for those who were not able to attend the launch event.

The Environment Agency consults the public on certain applications for Radioactive Substances Activity. The arrangements are explained in its Public Participation Statement

These notices explain:

• what the application is about
• which Environment Agency office you can visit to see the application documents on the public register
• when you need to comment by

The Environment Agency will decide:

• whether to grant or refuse the application
• what conditions to include in the permit (if granted)

Engineers went back to school to give youngsters in Teesside a tour of new multi-million pound flood defences which protect their community from flooding.

Pupils at High Clarence Primary School were shown around the state-of-the-art £4.5million flood defences at Port Clarence which reduce the risk of flooding from the River Tees.

And they saw first-hand the £11million scheme, currently under construction, which reduces the risk of flooding from Greatham Creek and will create 30 hectares of new habitat for wildlife to thrive.

Together the projects protect 350 homes and 32 businesses at Port Clarence from flooding.

Pupils travelled on the Transporter Bridge across the River Tees to get a bird’s eye view of the flood defences, while at Greatham they got to see workers in action building new flood embankments – and even got to see the popular seals!

The event, which took place last week (Friday, 8 June), also gave local residents the opportunity to find out more about the scheme, while MP Alex Cunningham was also given an insight into how the defences work to protect his constituency.

Great project with innovative features

Phil Marshall, the Environment Agency’s Senior Advisor on the project, said:

It’s really important the community understands how the flood defences at Port Clarence work together with the scheme at Greatham Creek to reduce their risk of flooding.

It’s a great project with lots of innovative features and the added benefit of creating extra habitat for wildlife in a vital conservation area.

Our future generations will play an important role in ensuring our communities are resilient as we deal with the impacts of climate change and it was great to show the school pupils this great engineering and habitat creation project. Hopefully it will inspire them to want to make a difference!

The first phase of the project was completed in December 2015 and saw new flood defences built in Port Clarence, consisting of a mixture of earth embankments, flood walls, and a raised section of the road on the approach to the Transporter Bridge.

In addition, the Environment Agency worked together with local business Wilton Engineering to install removable steel flood defences along the River Tees. This improves flood protection while still allowing Wilton to operate from the river.

Work started on the second phase in summer 2017 and involves raising existing flood embankments along Greatham Creek.

Managed realignment

There is also a managed realignment of part of the current flood defences. This means a new embankment to the north of the RSPB Saltholme Nature Reserve has been built around a larger area of land, and then the existing flood embankment will be breached later this year.

This results in the creation of around 30 hectares of intertidal habitat to the north of the nature reserve. It’s a popular area frequented by seals, and a variety of bird species including shelduck, knot and redshank.

The Environment Agency is working with local businesses in the area, with SABIC UK providing funding towards the scheme and INOVYN ChlorVinyls providing some of their land for the additional habitat creation. Phil added:

Work is progressing well and is expected to be completed this autumn. The local businesses in the area know only too well how devastating it is to be flooded having been affected by the tidal surge in December 2013.

By working together with industry we’re vastly improving existing defences to protect residents and businesses and reduce the risk of flooding now and into the future as sea levels start to rise. This has been quite a unique partnership and I can’t emphasise enough the benefits this will bring for the area.

The Environment Agency has also been working closely with partners at RSPB and Natural England to design and build a scheme which maximises benefits for the internationally designated habitat, and to ensure disruption to wildlife and visitors to the local area is kept to a minimum.

Contractors BAM Nuttall and Mott MacDonald Joint Venture (BMMJV), are carrying out the work on behalf of the Environment Agency.