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Lower Otter Restoration Project to recieve £8.5m funding

  • by JW

“As the projects develop, we hope that other coastal areas facing similar issues will be able to learn from the work we have done and better understand their own options in the face of a rapidly changing climate.”

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This Tuesday, Dr Sam Bridgewater, head of Wildlife and Conservation at Clinton Devon Estates, will be giving at talk via zoom on the Sid Valley’s biodiversity:

Online: Biodiversity in the Sid Valley @ Café Scientifique – Vision Group for Sidmouth

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It will be interesting to hear what ideas he feels can be transferred from the Otter Valley to the Sid – as he has been very active in the very ambitious and very inspiring project to ‘renaturalise’ the Lower Otter River:

Lower Otter Restoration Project underway – Vision Group for Sidmouth

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It really is quite a project:

Home: Lower Otter Restoration Project

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And has now received considerable funding.

Devon Live reports, interviewing Dr Bridgewater at length:

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Funding boost confirmed for Lower Otter Restoration Project

The Lower Otter Restoration Project has been awarded around £8.5 million as part of Project PACCo

Multi-million pound funding for proposals to restore the Otter Estuary to its natural and historic flood plains to avoid a catastrophic failure of sea defences has been found.

The Lower Otter Restoration Project has been awarded around £8.5 million as part of Project PACCo – Promoting Adaptation to Changing Coasts – with the Otter Estuary one of two pilot sites with the other is in the Saâne Valley in Normandy.

The preferred option, for the project, led by landowner Clinton Devon Estates and the Environment Agency, would see the Big and Little Marsh floodplains around Budleigh Salterton restored, with breaches created in the Little Bank, the Big Bank and the River Otter Embankment to allow water to flow through.

Dr Sam Bridgewater, head of Wildlife and Conservation at Clinton Devon Estates, said: “Before the coronavirus emergency we had planned to hold an exhibition in Budleigh Salterton so that local people could see the latest proposals. Because that’s no longer possible we will host a virtual exhibition on the project website www.lowerotterrestorationproject.co.uk once the planning application documents are ready.

“To reach this point the project partners have consulted extensively with the local community over the last seven years, with their input and responses helping us shape the direction of the restoration project.

“To continue with this community involvement, we would like as many people as possible to visit the online exhibition. Together with the Environment Agency we will be happy to answer any questions people may have about the planning application and proposals. “East Devon District Council, the local planning authority, will consider the views of local people as part of its normal planning process, which will include formal means to comment on the application.”

“As the projects develop, we hope that other coastal areas facing similar issues will be able to learn from the work we have done and better understand their own options in the face of a rapidly changing climate.”

Funding boost confirmed for Lower Otter Restoration Project – Devon Live