The Environment Agency is getting into the festive spirit by providing stocking fillers for anglers as its staff restock rivers with thousands of fish in the run up to Christmas.

Calverton fish farm, the Environment Agency’s specialist fish breeding farm in Nottingham, produces between 400,000 and 500,000 fish each year. The farm breeds nine species of fish including Chub, Dace, Barbel, Roach, Bream, Crucians, Rudd, Tench and Grayling. The restocking activity is part of an annual programme, funded by income from rod licence sales.

Alan Henshaw, fisheries team leader at the Environment Agency said:

Many of our industrialised rivers have improved dramatically in water quality in the last 30 years and concerted restocking from Calverton has accelerated the restoration of natural fish stocks and viable fisheries.

New techniques in Pond Rearing have delivered significant improvements in the average size of the 18 month-old fish and many rivers and lakes throughout England have benefited from these stockings. The quality and range of fish produced as part of the restocking programme is testament to the hard work of the staff at Calverton farm.

All of this work is funded by money from rod licence sales to protect and improve fish stocks and fisheries.”

Some notable stockings that will take place:

• 34,781 mixed Chub, Dace and Roach stocked into the River Leadon in Gloucestershire.

• 29,750 mixed fish stocked into Rivers, Canals and Stillwaters across Cumbria and Lancashire in the North West.

• 600 Barbel into the River Dearne in South Yorkshire.

• 21,000 Roach, Bream, Crucians and Tench stocked into still waters and 7,600 Chub, Dace and Barbel stocked across rivers in Thames region.

• 6,400 fish comprising of 6 different species split between the River Wid, Blackwater and Colne in Anglian East region.

• 4,250 Roach, Bream and Tench into the Blind Yeo in Wessex plus more than 3,000 additional fish split into other waters in the area.

More stockings will continue into the New Year.

Restocking of England’s Rivers and Lakes by the Environment Agency happens for a number of reasons. This may be following a pollution incident where the original population has been lost, where recruitment is poor or in the creation of brand-new fisheries and Angling opportunities.

The Winter 2017-2018 Stakeholder Newsletter provides an update on a number of recent work projects that are being undertaken as part of the Blue Belt programme.

The Blue Belt programme is a four year programme (2016 to 2020), delivered by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) with the UK Overseas Territories on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

You can sign up to receive the newsletter by e-mail and get more updates about the work of the programme on Twitter @ukgovbluebelt

We’re seeking views on the government’s proposal to amend the domestic Minimum Level of Energy Efficiency Regulations to introduce a capped landlord financial contribution element.

This proposal is designed to future-proof the regulations and make them as effective as possible, while protecting landlords against excessive cost burdens. With a cost-cap, domestic landlords would only need to see investment in improvements to an EPC F or G rated property up to the value of that cap. The government’s preferred cap level is £2,500 per property. A range of additional, alternative, cap options are set out in the consultation and the associated consultation impact assessment.

The consultation is intended for all interested parties including landlords and tenants, local government, energy suppliers, energy assessors, small and large businesses, consumers, and the general public.

Data on pesticide usage during the 2015 to 2016 growing season on soft fruit crops.

This report is published on the Health and Safety Executive website.

The holes will allow radioactive waste to be removed from one of the site’s most hazardous buildings.

Six giant steel doors now provide a safe barrier between the outside world and the waste inside the silo, until it starts to be removed by a ‘grabbing’ machine.

Sellafield’s ‘locked vault’ is ready to be emptied

The Pile Fuel Cladding Silo was built in the 1950s when the site’s purpose was to make material for nuclear weapons.

Safely decommissioning the building is one of the highest priorities for Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Getting access to the waste inside has been one of the most complex engineering challenges in the site’s history.

Head of the PFCS programme Steven Carroll said:

It’s an early Christmas present to complete the work three months early and under budget. We can now say ‘the silo is ready for retrievals’ for the first ever time.

Getting access to this nuclear waste store which was built with no thought to how it would be emptied has been an incredible engineering challenge, involving years of planning and preparation, hundreds of dedicated people and many millions pounds of investment.

It’s also involved a massive team effort with our main contractor partner Bechtel Cavendish Nuclear Solutions and businesses such as James Fisher Nuclear and Shepley Engineers.

Reaching this landmark allows us to fully focus next year on manufacturing and installing all of the equipment which will reach in, retrieve the waste and allow it to be safely exported to the new facility for safer storage.

The level of challenge involved with this facility is unparalleled, considering the age of the building, the lack of historical information about the waste itself, the atmosphere inside the silo and its position on one of the most congested sites, anywhere in the world.

Each section of concrete has been cut away in a single piece (known as the monolith) and withdrawn into a containment bag. Six containment doors (already installed on all compartments) is then lowered over the apertures and closed.

To remove the waste, a crane will extend through the cut holes, a grabber will then drop down to scoop the waste up, lifting it out of the container and back through the hole.

It will then be dropped into a specially-designed metal box, for safe and secure storage in a modern facility.
As the first ever breaking of the structure since it was built, this takes Europe’s most complex nuclear site a step closer to reducing the UK’s nuclear hazard.