Agenda item

Monitoring the South East Devon European Site Mitigation Strategy and Pebblebed Heaths Visitor Management Plan

Minutes:

The Executive Committee considered the report of the Habitats Regulations Delivery Manager concerning a review of the South East Devon European Site Mitigation Strategy and Pebblebed Heaths Visitor Management Plan monitoring programmes. It was acknowledged that monitoring was an essential component of the mitigation approach and that he considered the current monitoring programme was considered to be robust, sufficient and fit for purpose.

 

Councillor Martin Wrigley, Teignbridge District Council wished to express his concerns that the report as presented had not answered the questions that he had given at the previous meeting. There was no evidence base and no monitoring of the impact of measures and monitoring of what was being achieved. 

 

He considered that there was the need to achieve behavioural changes by the users of the Exe Estuary. It was crucial that the public supported what we were trying to achieve. Cllr Wrigley felt that there was a failure to market activities that were being carried out. An improved evidence base would lead to greater influence on the Exe Estuary Partnership and other users of the Estuary. If what we are doing was not working we should change the way things were done. In addition he felt that there was no effective monitoring of the effect of each action taken and measure of what they had achieved. The exclusion zones designed to protect wildlife were voluntary and there needed to be understanding of their purpose by users for them to be respected.

 

During discussions the following points were noted:

·       Natural England were happy with the approach being taken.

·       Would producing more statistics change the behaviour of users of the estuary?

·       Need to persuade estuary users to change their behaviour and avoid disturbing the wildlife.

·       It was not cost effective to spend more money on monitoring of the estuary.

·       Balance between holidaymakers, environment and estuary users.

·       Many estuary users did not like regulation as it affected what they wanted to do on the estuary.

·       Could be valuable for Committee members to attend a forum meeting of the Exe Estuary Management Partnership (EEMP) to learn more about the concerns about the operation of the estuary. Although it was acknowledged the people who attend the forum are not necessarily fully representative of users of the estuary.

·       Importance of increasing the education of the users of the Exe estuary, possibly in partnership with  the Queens Drive Water Sports Centre built by Grenadier.

·       Understanding the importance of mitigation measures on the Exe Estuary. Education and marketing were key to changing people’s behaviours.

·       When taking actions there was the need to inform local residents why we were doing it.

·       A need to seek a change to behaviour in the estuary.

·       Importance of winning over hearts and minds of estuary users as the codes of conduct were voluntary and needed to be adhered to by consent. This could be achieved by having more evidenced based monitoring.

·       The committee’s purpose was to mitigate the effect of further development that goes on in such a way that it does not affect the integrity of the Exe estuary.

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.     that the recommendations presented at the meeting be noted but in the light of discussions at the meeting a further report be presented to the next meeting considering the role of the Executive Committee, the discharge of its legal duties and whether it should undertake further responsibilities to protect the wildlife in the Exe estuary by changing behaviour of users, including improvements to education and marketing strategies.

2.     that a representative of the Exe Estuary Management Partnership be asked to make a presentation to the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

 

 

Supporting documents: