Friday, 12 December 2014

The price of newt fencing - it's coming down


Unusually in business there is actually a service where prices are falling. The cost of newt fencing has dropped by around 20% in the last 3 years as competition in the market has increased and materials have become cheaper.

People, Ponds and Water Project

Pond protection in England and Wales is to get a welcome level of support after a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) totalling £1,344,500 to conduct the UK’s largest and most ambitious freshwater monitoring and protection project to date: the ’People, Ponds and Water Project’. The three year project will train thousands of volunteers across the country as ‘citizen scientists’

Diffuse pollution by agriculture


The UK Government has produced a briefing paper on the diffuse pollution of water by agriculture and has summarized measures that have the potential to reduce the effects on waterbodies by agricultural activities.  This can be found here:

In summary: ‘Surface, coastal and ground waters in England suffer from significant pollution problems: 78% of surface and groundwater bodies fail to meet the ‘good’ ecological status prescribed by the EU Water Frameworks Directive. Pollution increases water treatment costs and adversely affects wildlife. Compared to treatment, preventing water pollution at source can have a cost-benefit ratio as high as 1:65.