Bradford community urged to back the Beck (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford community urged to back the Beck

11:00am Tuesday 20th November 2012 in News By James Rush, T&A Reporter

The next step in a massive project to breathe new life into Bradford Beck will involve members of the public giving their views on a number of potential projects.

The key findings and results of months of surveys and investigations on the beck will be unveiled at an event tomorrow along with the possible future programmes to take the project forward.

The Aire Rivers Trust is devising a management plan to improve the 11km beck as it works towards targets set by the European Water Framework Directive which aims to clean up and help protect water courses, with a focus on ecology.

Analysis of water samples taken throughout the year by volunteers at 21 locations have revealed the water is still of poor ecological quality.

And while project manager Michael Canning said the results were not as bad as they could have been, they have shown that pollution from illegitimate connections of sewers into surface water drainage is reaching the streams.

Mr Canning said the results will be revealed at two “agreement” events at Saltaire Methodist Church tomorrow.

He said: “This is basically the final consultation event. We are presenting all the information we have gathered in the last year.

“In essence we want to get people’s understandings and feelings towards a collection of potential programmes which would look at benefiting and improving things such as the water quality at the beck and its tributaries into the future.

“These things are not funded and, of course, because of the circumstances we live in now with public funding becoming ever smaller, we have to be very creative in the way these things get to be funded.

“The plans for the next phase include a renaturalisation scheme, which would consider bringing sections of the beck back to a more natural state, and a scheme of information, interpretation and signage, which would help identify where the becks are, explain their history and remove old contamination signs.”

Elsewhere the project could develop a Love Your River initiative, introducing litterpicks and waterway and tributary protection, along with a scheme to develop nature trails along the beck.

Mr Canning said: “These are rough ideas at the moment.

“It’s also important because it reminds people that these little river systems are there and they are actually a really important part of the landscape – this has shaped Bradford.”

The sessions will take place from 3pm to 5.30pm, for industrial stakeholders and associated professionals, and 7pm to 8.30pm for the wider public.