8:31am Friday 11th August 2006
By Roland Batten
AN ambitious project for the internationally-important River Avon is to start in October thanks to a lottery grant of more than £m.
English Nature has been given £677,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for a four-year The Living River Avon project, which will cover the whole length of the Avon and its tributaries, from their sources high in the Wiltshire downs to the sea at Christchurch.
The project has three aims - to improve the biodiversity of the Avon and all its tributaries, enhance access to and information about, the river system and to provide education and training about the Avon, its natural heritage and how man has shaped this heritage.
As well as the lottery cash, English Nature is to get support and funding from the Environment Agency, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, Salisbury district council, Hampshire county council and Salisbury International Arts festival.
Next year's arts festival will have the theme of "water" and some of the festival events will be in collaboration with the Living River project.
During the four-year project, many local groups and organisations will get involved including parish councils, schools, land trusts and angling clubs.
The cash windfall has delighted English Nature's Wiltshire team.
Deputy team manager, Dagmar Junghanns, said: "We are absolutely thrilled. This project will help people living in and around the River Avon in Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset, to get directly involved with the river and its wildlife, to understand its importance and to contribute to its conservation.
"We hope that it will change the way that people think about the river and safeguard it into the future."
Nerys Watts, who is the Heritage Lottery Fund manager for the South West, said by opening up sites to the public, improve footpaths, setting up webcams and even art installations, the scheme will benefit a wide variety of people as well as helping to preserve the river's rich biodiversity.
A start is being made now by appointing project staff and work gets underway in October.
Activities will bring together traditional conservation work, arts and community involvement and will include guided tours of the river.
It will also involve enhancement of river habitat, the control of evasive plants and improvements for wildlife.
The Living Project is linked to another major River Avon project, which began last autumn. The Stream project is creating six demonstrations sites for river restoration for the benefit of wildlife. Funded by partners - including the European Commission - it recognises the Avon's importance as a European Special Area of Conservation, which came into force in April 2005.
The Avon and its tributaries are one of only 12 rivers designated as a European SAC as well as being one of 32 river Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
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