The annual conference of the Colne Catchment Action Network (ColneCAN) took place on Tuesday 12^thSeptember at Uxbridge Golf Club. The day was a treat for the 80 attendees, who were the lucky ones, as the event was oversubscribed; it proved so popular that 10 people on the waiting list had to be denied. It is reassuring to discover that so many care about the fragile catchment of the River Colne and are keen to collaborate to protect and restore it.

The day was organised by Tony Booker, ColneCAN co-host. Tony has been in post since February and has been working tirelessly for the catchment with all the passion and dedication for which he is well known. Tony kicked off the day with a run through of the agenda and introduced the chairman and independent lead for the day: Gillian Branson, Groundwork South’s East Hampshire Catchment Lead.

Presentations

In the morning, we were fortunate to have some fascinating presentations. Stewart Pomeroy from Groundwork South’s theme was ‘ColneCAN: 10 years on and next steps’. He spoke about the challenges of catchment organisation, it covers 19 different local authorities; with very little core funding yet the partnership is able to achieve river enhancements to much greater value than the sum of its parts.  This was followed by Steph Horn from the Chess Smarter Water Catchment(SWC) Project who explained about how the SWC is being delivered and the lessons we can learn for the potential role out of £3m of Thames Water funding for the whole Colne Catchment. 

After the break Joanna Hewitson from Three Rivers Council outlined the efforts being made by Local Authorities to work together to support ColneCAN. This was followed by a talk on Invasive Species, Floating Pennywort and Weevil Releases by Djami Djeddour from the Centre for Agriculture & Bioscience International(CABI). It was fascinating to learn about the whole process of developing and introducing a biological control, through to the introduction, establishment and over-wintering in the Colne Valley Regional Park. Djami said: ‘finding the weevil year after year is the jackpot for us’. Lastly Graham White, Consultant Ecologist talked about the Colne Valley Wetland Birds Survey he has recently conducted. Amongst many fascinating facts we learnt of the national importance of the Colne Valley for wildlife and the key role that Broadwater Lake plays within the wider Colne Valley

You can read all the details of the ColneCAN 2023 presentations here.

Interactive Lunch

During an excellent buffet lunch, Stewart Pomeroy organised an interactive task. He had displayed ordinance survey maps with the catchment rivers highlighted on which he invited delegates to suggest projects and post them on the map.

Afternoon Walk and Riverfly demonstration

After lunch Tony led a circular guided walk from the Golf club down to the lakes, river, canal and beyond to the Frays Farm Meadows SSSI site with help from Debbie Valman of Groundwork South and Richard Barnes London Wildlife Trust.

En route we found flowering Himalayan balsam and floating pennywort, Tony talked about invasive species including the damage caused by signal crayfish, his bête noire. This is Debbie’s favourite walk in the Colne Valley Regional Park and she was keen to highlight the new boardwalk, one of the many enhancements from the Colne Valley Lottery Landscape Partnership and introduce us to the cows, enjoying conservation grazing and monitored by a dedicated team of volunteer cattle checkers.

Meanwhile Allen Beechey, from the Chilterns Chalk Stream Project, gave a presentation on the Anglers Riverfly Monitoring Initiative that is used extensively within the catchment and provides vital information regarding water quality. The presentation was followed by an opportunity to get ‘hands on’ with sorting samples, identifying key indicator species and getting a close up look at some of them through magnifiers.

ReAP display

There was a display of the ReAP & Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme: how plastic waste is collected from rivers, canals, lakes, and oceans and properly recycled and thus kept out of landfill.

Questions

The day concluded with final questions and cold drinks on return to the club. 

There were questions on the Land Owner Grant Scheme, Himalayan Balsam eradication on the Chess, Thames Water improvement to Chesham Sewage Treatment works and #20m investment from the water company, the European Water Framework Directive, Surface Water Run off, Cormorants, the proposed development at Broadwater Lake, Removal of Floating Pennywort on the Troy Cut, Floating Pennywort removal by canoeists, combining manual removal and biological control for Floating Pennywort and Himalayan Balsam, Catchment progress over the last 10 years, River Misbourne improvements and HS2 funding.

Tony Booker said:  “The day was a good one: of even more importance is that it will create a better tomorrow. There was clear evidence that a strong, catchment wide partnership now exists – that is positive beyond words”.

Stewart Pomeroy said: “What an inspiring day. The positive vibes coming from the floor and from the discussions during the networking times are really encouraging for the future of the Catchment".

Conclusion

We’d like to thank everyone for coming, especially our chair and excellent presenters, who worked long and hard on specialised material for us today. We are very grateful for their knowledge and expertise. Not forgetting a big thank you to our sponsors Affinity Water and Thames Water for making the conference possible.

Protecting the Colne Catchment from all the current problems not least pollution, water quality, water quantity and invasive species is no mean feat and to see we have so many people on our side is encouraging. (Click here to be reminded of our vision.)

The task now is to harness all that positive energy.

Feedback

Thank you to everyone who has already filled in an returned their feedback form, we are delighted to see so many positive comments and will endeavour to take all your ideas on board.

Its not too late to give feedback, please download the form here and return to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. follow us on Twitter @colnecan and keep an eye on our website www.colnecan.org.uk which we are in the process of updating. Please get in touch if you can help with that, especially if you have details of a project that needs updating.

Finally we leave you with a comment made on the day by Viv Shears, a Trustee of ReAP - UK and founder of the Anglers National Recycling Scheme who describes himself as an ‘outsider’: "Every time I come to the ColneCAN conference I’m blown away by the enthusiasm, which is not seen in other parts of the country. I’ve always been impressed by what the Colne Valley does. You need to decide what areas you want to spend money on and put them together into a convincing bid."

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