Changing Times and Tides – 1st Severn Estuary Forum
Thursday 8th June 2006
Walton Park Hotel, Clevedon
Severn Estuary Forum
During 2005 the SEP began considering the approach to establishing a Severn Estuary Forum. A presentation had been made to the Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) in Spring 2005 by the newly appointed Severn Estuary Partnership Officer (Natasha Barker) to initiate consideration of the role of a Forum. It was further discussed at the October 2005 meeting of the JAC and Management Group meetings (minutes available) who agreed to proceed with establishing the Forum. It was considered that this was a missing part of the operating structure of SEP and would play a valuable part in the development of our services. It would initiate the platform for an annual conference with an estuary-wide cross-sectoral remit which was not currently available. Similair initiatives existed for other UK estuaries and coastal areas and were popular.
Severn Wonders Festival
To launch the 1st Severn Estuary Forum, the SEP team and Management Group considered options to get the initiative off to a good start and help celebrate the Severn Estuary. With support available through the EC COASTATLANTIC project for stakeholder involvement work, there was an opportunity for SEP to put resources into trialling a new community orientated initiative.
The SEP team and Management Group briefly considered hosting a one-day festival alongside or as part of the Severn Estuary Forum conference – a ‘Severn Estuary Day’. However, based on experience from elsewhere (e.g. Wash Week, Dart Festival, Marine Week in SE England and the River Parrett Festival) it was decided that it would be more appropriate for SEP to co-ordinate awareness of existing events and support local clubs/organisations in promoting their own events. Bearing in mind the size of the estuary and diversity of potential events to be linked with a themed Severn Estuary Festival, it was considered that a three week period would allow maximum publicity and participation.
The term Severn Wonders was identified in a pre-meeting of the Severn Wonders Working Group in Autumn 2005. Prior to formal establishment of a Working Group, SEP staff met twice with South Gloucestershire Council and WWF representatives, who indicated that they would be keen to sponsor such an initiative. It was during these early stages of formulating ideas for a Festival that this small pre-working group made a recommendation to the Management Group to initiate a 3 week festival based on coordinating information for a series of events all around the estuary (as opposed to SEP organising and hosting individual events).
1st Severn Estuary Forum and Severn Wonders Festival Report 
1st Severn Estuary Forum PowerPoint Presentations
Welcome
Celebrating the Severn
- The Dynamic Severn: Points of View – Chris Wooldridge, Cariff University
- Interdrated Management and the Severn Estuary – Peter Burbridge, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Climate Change: Recent and Regional Predictions
- National Predictions – David Woolf, National Oceanographic Centre
- Regional Perspective – Sarah Hendell-Blackford, SW Climate Change Impacts Partnership
- Severn Estuary Perspective – Roger Wade, Environment Agency
Renewable Energy
- Severn Barrage: Is the Tide Turning? – David Kerr, Sir Robert McAlpine
- Avonmouth Renewable Energy Project – Patrick Kearon, The Bristol Port Company
Flood Risk Management
- Tidal Severn Flood Risk Management Strategy and Avonmouth Scheme – Niall Hall, Environment Agency
- 10,000 Years of Change – Richard Brunning, Severn Estuary Levels Research Committee