North Highland

The North Highland advisory group area includes the area that drains to the North and East from Cape Wrath in the far north west of the Scottish mainland to the River Lossie catchment just east of Elgin.  The area includes the three large catchments draining into the Dornoch, Cromarty and Beauly Firths, plus the estuarine and coastal waters adjacent to the area out to three nautical miles.  It also includes ground water which provide flow in many rivers.

The North Highland area advisory group comprises representatives of the key stakeholders and responsible authorities for river basin management planning in the area.  They have developed a supplementary plan, covering the North Highland area, to help the implementation of the river basin management plan for the Scotland river basin district.

This page has information on:

• The North Highland area management plan;
• North Highland area advisory group membership;
• area advisory group meetings and minutes;
• the North Highland Forum, including how to join

The co-ordinator and first point of contact for the North Highland area advisory group is:

Name: Rachel Harding-Hill
Email: rachel.harding-hill@sepa.org.uk
Office: Dingwall
Tel.: 01349 860347

The North Highland area management plan

The North Highland area management plan has been developed by the area advisory group.  It has three parts; a summary document, an action table and catchment summaries.  Information can be found about individual water bodies via our interactive map application.

Contents

Available as pdf  (1.1mb ) or view online below

• Introduction
  • Purpose
  • What area does this plan cover?
  • How to use this plan
• The water environment and achieving environmental improvements
  • The current condition of the water environment
  • Pressures and risks
  • Objectives for the water environment
• Actions planned to achieve our objectives
  • Putting the plan into action

		Last updated
Action Plan Details of the work of the North Highland Area Advisory Group. Progress will be reviewed at full AAG meetings.	Action Plan_NH	September 2010
Catchment summaries Guide to using catchment summaries ·   Caithness and Sutherland ·   Moray Firth – Dornoch to Inverness ·   Ness ·   Moray Firth – Nairn to Lossiemouth ·   Ground Water Bodies	Guide to using catchment summaries Caithness and Sutherland catchment summary Moray Firth – Dornoch to Inverness catchment summary Ness catchment summary Moray Firth – Nairn to Lossiemouth catchment summary Ground water bodies - summary	Published September 2010
Water body information	Interactive map application or Water body information sheets	See interactive map page December 2009

The Scotland river basin district plan includes a number of chapters that explain the different parts of the river basin planning process. It also sets the wider context for the North Highland area management plan, including the area’s classification, objectives and measures, which you might find useful.  

Membership

Membership of the North Highland area advisory group is determined by the range and type of pressures in the North Highland area. Members include representatives from:

• British Waterways
• Cromarty Firth Fisheries Board
• Forestry Commission
• Inverness Harbour Authority
• Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Board
• Moray Firth Partnership
• National Farmers' Union, Scotland
• RSPB
• Scottish and Southern Energy
• Scottish Crofting Foundation
• Scottish Government Rural Inspections and Payments Division
• Scottish Natural Heritage
• Scottish Rural Property and Business Association
• Scottish Water
• Scottish Environment Protection Agency
• The Highland Council

Membership is flexible. It will be possible for additional members to be co-opted for agreed periods to assist with the preparation of particular aspects of river basin planning. Such members can be co-opted onto the area advisory group for single meetings, to cover specific agenda items or for a short period to advise on a particular issue. They will not be full members and therefore will not determine quorum or vote.

Meetings and minutes

The North Highland area advisory group meets regularly and provides a mechanism to support the production of a river basin management plan (RBMP) for the Scotland river basin district, and its co-ordination with other plans and programmes.

Previous meetings

Agenda, minutes, papers and presentations from the past four meetings of North Highland area advisory group will be available shortly.

North Highlandarea advisory group forum

Anyone with an interest in the water environment of the North Highland area can become a member of the North Highland advisory group forum.

• Get involved
  More information on joining an AAG forum.

Presentations and proceedings from previous AAG forum conferences are available from the river basin planning co-ordinator.

Events

Forestry and the Water Environment event held on 22 November 2010 at the Caledonian Stadium, Inverness.  The agenda and presentations are available here:

Agenda – Forestry and Water event

Eddie Nicol – SEPA – CAR diffuse pollution

Eddie Nicol – SEPA – CAR Engineering

Iain Sime – SNH – Forestry and Natural Heritage

Julia Garritt – FCS – Policy context

Julian Fryer – FCS – Site Planning

Rachel Harding-Hill – SEPA – RBMP

Simon McKelvey – CFFT – Forestry and Fisheries

Further information

Significant water management issues (SWMI)  (1.85mb)
Published in 2007, the report provides a comprehensive assessment of the threats to Scotland’s water and identifies the actions and improvements that are necessary to protect the water environment.

SWMI in North Highland  (62k)
Summary table of SWMI affecting water bodies in the North Highland area.

Early basin planning work
Information on early river basin management planning work, such as environmental and economic characterisation and Plan of Action.

Monitoring and classification
Information on how monitoring and classification are linked to basin planning can be found on the monitoring and classification pages.

Use the links on the left to visit other area advisory group pages.