Our story so far
When Defra announced that they were trialling a new Catchment Based Approach in 2011, Wessex Water stepped up to offer a pilot: the Frome and Piddle Catchment Initiative. The pilot brought together water companies, local authorities, regulators and industry to improve collaboration and sharing of the responsibility of achieving 'Good' river status. More partners were pulled in as the initiative developed, introducing further angles and opinions.
Partnering brought a lot of differing views to the table and consensus was hard to achieve at times. Being rich in data, it was easy to demonstrate what the issues were in the catchments, but finding funding and ownership for the solutions was more difficult.
The Catchment Based Approach was adopted by Government in 2012 and the Frome and Piddle Catchment Initiative expanded to become the Poole Harbour Catchment Initiative to include all of the rivers that drain into the harbour. The Stour Catchment Initiative followed shortly after in 2014, and the Dorset Catchment Partnerships umbrella term was formed to cover both of the partnerships.