Delivering these targets

Meeting these targets will be a big challenge because maintaining or improving the current condition will be a challenge in the face of many factors such as development pressures, changes in agricultural production and climate change. Phasing the improvements over three six-year cycles will allow time to monitor and improve our confidence in our classifications, secure funding and implement measures, track progress and, where appropriate and necessary, adapt the plan. This also means that we can respond to uncertainties, for example around how to tackle particular pressures or the impacts of climate change. Comprehensive reviews of progress will be undertaken during each river planning period and will be reported in updates of this plan.

Actions to meet our targets

There are many actions currently underway or about to begin in the Tweed area which will deliver on our targets. A summary of local actions in place to mitigate the main pressures to 2015, and beyond, is presented in Table 3.

The actions required to deliver the targets consist of a combination of monitoring, data collation, regulation, investment, awareness raising and guidance work led by agencies, stakeholders or partnerships. The work varies considerably in scale, from small projects on a river bank to catchment-wide initiatives examining mitigation of alterations to beds and banks or invasive non-native species.

As river basin planning is new, many of the actions to be implemented in the first cycle involve the collection or collation of data, increasing our confidence around the environmental pressures, the development of working groups to discuss implementation methods and the development of options for implementation (or scoping studies). These actions should evolve into active projects resulting in improvements to classification status as time progresses.

Table 3: Summary of local actions needs to meet the targets set for Tweed
	Action	Timeframe
	Action	2015	2021	2027
Diffuse pollution from rural land management	SEPA and Environment Agency actions (regulatory and non regulatory)
	Tweed wetland strategy and collation of data
	Tweed catchment management plan strategic aim 1
	Revise Scottish Borders rivers and burns habitat action plan
	Collaborative Action Project Officer
	Scotland Rural Development Programme
	Catchment sensitive farming: River Till
	Diffuse water pollution plan (Till/Natural England/Environment Agency)
	Scottish Borders indicative habitat network model
	Update Scottish Borders Council Borders wetland vision model
Abstraction of water	SEPA and Environment Agency actions (regulatory and non regulatory)
	Tweed catchment management plan strategic aim 2
	Till catchment abstraction management plan
	Introduce regulation of abstractions in Till (Defra timetable)
	Revise Scottish Borders rivers and burns habitat action plan
Alterations to beds, banks and shores	SEPA and Environment Agency actions (regulatory and non regulatory)
	Tweed catchment management plan objectives 4.1–4.3
	Till wetlands restoration project
	Riverworks: prioritisation of further improvements
	Tweed Forum Bowmont Glen cross border sustainable flood management
	Tweed Futures
	Eddleston scoping study and subsequent implementation
	Partnerships with other land management agencies/authorities and owners
	Revise Scottish Borders rivers and burns habitat action plan
	Scottish Borders Council offsite habitat compensation schemes associated with wind farms and other developments (includes linkage to Flood Protection schemes [NFM])
	River restoration plan (Till)
	Scottish Borders woodland strategy implementation project “Promotion of woodlands to develop the forest habitat network” (SBC,BFT,SNH,FCS)
Invasive non-native species	SEPA and Environment Agency actions (regulatory and non regulatory)
	Tweed catchment management plan objective 3.3
	Integration of Tweed invasives data into SEPA classification scheme
	Tweed riparian invasives project
	Tweed fisheries management plan
	Revise Scottish Borders rivers and burns habitat action plan

Ensuring integration for effective and efficient delivery

The targets set out in the plan need to be integrated into:

the many other planning processes such as forest design plans, development planning and local biodiversity action planning;
the classification data used to determine where delivery is most required.

This can be done as plans are reviewed and through communication with others.

The river basin planning requirements were applied to the comprehensive Tweed catchment management plan review held during 2009/2010, led by the Tweed Forum, and appropriate measures in that plan fed into the Solway Tweed river basin district plan. The relevant Tweed catchment management plan actions are presented in Appendix 1 of this document.

The developing dialogue between the plans and planning processes in place in the Tweed area will ensure efficient, effective and focused implementation.

Working together in the future

To maintain this important dialogue and promote delivery on our targets the Tweed Area Advisory Group has agreed to continue to meet biannually to discuss and propose new measures and report progress on others. It is also the agreed intention that Tweed Forum subgroups, the Riverworks group and the Improving Wetlands and Riparian Habitats group (which incorporates the Scottish Border Council’s local biodiversity action plan wetland habitat working group), will discuss and develop specific projects, guidance and communications.