Category: News

We have spaces available on Fun & Food on Wednesdays at Binchester Farm and Fridays at Quaking Houses Village Hall. Check out avaliability here.

New Wear Rivers Trust Project Support Officers Jade and James enjoyed a day of practical work in Stanley after two days of induction. The two new members of staff joined colleagues and volunteers to re-connect the Stanley Burn wetland which was created in 2017. Silt and debris had filled the previous channel and reduced the efficiency of the wetland.

Along the wetland there are 4 large ponds which fill with water at heavy rain incidents slowing the flow of water downstream. The increased connectivity of the wetland to the drainage system should improve water quality by holding pollution and preventing it reaching the main river. Pollution comes from the nearby road and industrial estates which combine with materials leeching from abandoned mine workings to make the Stanley/Twizell Burn a contaminated watercourse.

A new channel was dug to re-connect the wetland to the Burn by-passing the main river which is steeper and thinner. A reduced gradient should reduce speed of flow and erosion.

The re-connection was part of the Stanley Burn Volunteering Project funded by Stanley AAP which aims to use conservation volunteering to improve the health of local residents following the Covid-19 pandemic. There are still a couple of opportunities to get involved in activities. More details, when available, will be on our Get Involved page.

Wet and muddy but happy staff and volunteers were able to reflect on a job well done. On Monday 14th August during heavy rainfall the inlet was working well with the water draining into the wetland.

WRT will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the wetland and inlet.

Wear Rivers Trust are proud to be working with Durham Wildlife Trust and Sunderland City Council on the Link Together project, working to increase community enjoyment of 13 sites in the Sunderland Coalfield area by working with local people to improve the environment, benefitting local amenity. Access to nature and attractive greenspace aids human, physical and mental health and wellbeing. The project development stage has been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (HLF). A second stage application to HLF supported by match funding from Sunderland City Council and Northumbrian Water to deliver a 2 year improvement programme will be submitted in the Autumn. For further details of the project and to submit any comments or suggestions by 11th September 2023 please click on the link below:

Link Together | Durham (durhamwt.com)

We welcome two new members to Wear Rivers Trust, Jade Harley and James Dodsworth both started with us on Monday 7th August as Project Support Officers. They both bring with them experience and a passion for the environment which will strengthen our Project Team to deliver all our existing and future projects. To find out more about them head to our ‘About us’ section of the website and choose the tab ‘Our Team’.

Welcome to Jade and James!

As the Team is now growing and hopefully Covid 19 is behind us, we have decided the time is right to get a new base. From 1st September Wear Rivers Trust will have an ‘office hub’ based in the Four Clocks Centre right in the heart of Bishop Auckland. This is the in Gaunless catchment and we have and continue to work a lot around this area. The team will continue to be home based as we have team members living all across the Wear Catchment and beyond, however we now have an office space where we can come together and work face to face to plan and discuss all our exciting projects!

Free to attend and lots of activities throughout the day to get involved in

The Girls Did It!!

Kirstie our Office and Business Development Manager and Helen our Administrator took part in the Great North Swim 2023 on Saturday. They swam 1 mile in Lake Windermere for Wear Rivers Trust. They did the swim in choppy waters in just over an hour and raised £400 in sponsorship for the Trust.

Well done girls

Jack Butlin started working for WRT in January 2023 in a development role as Project Support Officer. This role is expected to progress to Project Officer within 12 to 24 months, Jacks performance is such that after 5 months he has exceeded all expectations on multiple aspects and is already working at the level expected of a Project Officer. He has therefore been promoted to Project Officer with immediate effect.

All WRT staff and trustees congratulate Jack on his early promotion and Jack continues to be an asset to the Trust and is a very well thought of member of the team.

Well done Jack, keep up the good work!!

Staff from EDF joined staff at Bear Park yesterday to stabilise the river banks using Green Engineering. Sarah Dewar a Senior Health and Safety Advisor from EDF gave the following feedback:

‘Paul, Mick, Jack & Philip

Just wanted to send a huge thankyou on behalf of the team and myself for Wednesdays volunteer day.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the day, your help and how knowledgeable you all were on the tasks we were carrying out.

I will definitely be recommending the Wear Rivers Trust to any of our colleagues in the area who are looking to carry out volunteer days, please see attached some of the photos we got throughout the day.

Looking forward to re-visiting our river bank creation in the future to see how its fairing up 😃

Thanks again!’

We welcome corporate volunteers to join us as we work to protect and enhance our waterways in the Wear Catchment, if you are a corporate and are interested in joining us please email admin@wear-rivers-trust.org.uk

Women trailblazers in UK win over £2m in government funding including GB shared

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