78% of water bodies in North West England fail to meet good ecological status, and solutions are often too expensive to implement.
We were commissioned by Natural Course to examine, at a high-level, water governance across the North West region. The research aimed to review specifically the governance in Cumbria; to assess existing work and domestic and international best practice; and to recommend a suitable governance structure that could be trialed in the region.
The research focused on the governance arrangements for the management of fresh surface waters, and sought to answer the following questions:
- What are the specific issues facing water management in the North West and Cumbria specifically?
- How is water governed in the North West generally, and specifically in the catchments of Cumbria?
- What aspects of water governance work well and which do not?
- What is needed to improve the governance of water in Cumbria?
- What alternative governance structures would enable better co-ordination/governance of water in Cumbria and the North West?
- How do stakeholders feel about alternative governance structures?
- What would need to be done to trial alternative governance structures in Cumbria?
The research comprised three phases, each involving significant stakeholder engagement:
- Phase 1: provided a high-level review of water governance arrangements in the North West River Basin District and Eden (excluding the Greater Manchester area) and how they fit within the national framework and reviewed domestic and international practices to identify initial ideas for change
- Phase 2: provided a more in-depth analysis of water governance in Cumbria
- Phase 3: took the learnings to propose new arrangements which were tested with stakeholders to reflect local needs and preferences
This report is the output of Phase 3, and outlines:
- Local needs and preferences for water governance (from Phases 1 and 2)
- Alternative water governance approaches at the catchment and regional scales
- Potential new water governance options for Cumbria, including recommendations for new structures detailing:
- The responsibilities and powers
- The legal designation and ownership
- The geographic scale (i.e. catchment, county or River Basin District)
- The make-up (i.e. which organisations would be represented)
- Relationships and interactions with existing structures
- Likely performance and challenges
