1.2 The Solway Tweed river basin district

The Solway Tweed River Basin District crosses the border between Scotland and England. Responsibility for implementation of the Directive and for the characterisation process is shared by Scottish and English authorities, and therefore been necessary to modify the approach otherwise taken in both England and Scotland to ensure that the requirements of the Directive are applied in relation to the district as a whole in a coordinated way.

Map 1 shows the Solway Tweed river basin district

1.2.1 Characteristics

The Solway Tweed river basin district RBD covers an area from Stranraer on the west coast to Berwick upon Tweed on the east coast, to Peebles in the north, and Brough in the South. Around 450,000 people live in the district, most in the towns of Penrith, Carlisle and Dumfries.

Employment in the Solway Tweed RBD currently stands at almost 175,000 people, and is expected to decline slightly to approximately 162,000 by 2015. This is due to a predicted fall in population as well as demographic change, with more of the population retiring from the workforce than joining it. Output is expected to increase by a modest 1.3% per year.

The landscape is largely rural with an extensive coastline on the western side of the district. Solway Tweed covers much of the lowland region of Scotland and similar landscape in England, making it ideal for agriculture. However, the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, particularly in Cumbria, forced many farmers to diversify their activities, and tourism has increased in importance.

The most important water related environmental problem is diffuse pollution. This is related to the importance of agriculture in the region. Nevertheless, there are some other pressures on water bodies evident in the district.

The Solway Tweed river basin district has a reasonably high rainfall in relation to the rest of the UK, particularly in the west. The vast majority of water supplies come from surface waters, the remainder from groundwater.

The quality of the environment in the district attracts many tourists and supports particular industrial sectors. There are many excellent salmon rivers in the district and the generally clean water supports sectors such as fish farming and whisky manufacturers.