Contact: Emma Beagley, tel 01489 576387 email: [email protected]

1. Background

1.1 Within the Solent and Southampton Water there is a candidate maritime Special Area of Conservation (SAC), three designated Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and three Ramsar sites. These are all designations afforded to the River Hamble, and have become collectively known as the Solent European Marine Sites (SEMS).

1.2 Under the Habitats Regulations (The Conservation [Natural Habitats & c] Regulations 1994), the River Hamble Harbour Authority is a Relevant Authority and has to ensure compliance with the Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC) whilst carrying out its functions.

1.3 The relevant authorities agreed to prepare a single management scheme to guide the exercise of their functions in order to secure compliance with the Habitats Directive. This management scheme for the Solent will be submitted to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in June 2004 for approval. A draft outline of the content of the SEMS Management Scheme is attached as Appendix 1.

2. Management Scheme Process

2.1 The Management scheme for the Solent site has been drawn together in stages, as outlined below.

Stage One - Foundation Document

2.2 The purpose of the Foundation Document is to provide a stepping stone to the production of the management scheme. It describes the background information and key principles on which the management scheme is to be founded, such as legislative background, reasons for designation, responsibilities of the relevant authorities and the agreed process for producing the plan.

Stage Two - Identification of Key Activities

2.3 This attempts to relate the `operations' information from English Nature's Regulation 33 Advice to activities. The aim is to produce a matrix which provides a site-specific summary of how current local activities could interact with the interest features of the SEMS. This allows for certain activities to be discounted and identifies others to be considered further in Stage Three; these will form the basis of the management scheme. A matrix for each activity has been produced for each relevant authority to consider in relation to its particular cluster.

Stage Three - Inventory of Activities

2.4 The activities listed in the matrix will be used by each relevant authority to produce an inventory of activities which may cause deterioration or damage to the site.

Stage 4 - Analysis of Inventory

2.5 Analysis will categorise the activities from the inventory into the following:

(i) activities that are plans and projects, assessments of which are covered by other processes outside of the management scheme;

(ii) activities that may cause the operations to which the site features are highly vulnerable but are managed by the relevant authorities in such a way as to prevent damage to the features of interest; and

(iii) activities that may cause the operations to which the site features are highly vulnerable and which are therefore potentially highlighted as areas of future concern.

Stage Five - Management Scheme

2.6 The various stages will be combined to produce the management scheme.

Monitoring

2.7 This will include information on English Nature's condition monitoring of the site and other compliance monitoring which will be carried out by the relevant authorities as and when required.

3. Current Situation

3.1 The European marine site has been designated, with many activities already taking place, and it is recognised that these are normally compatible with the conservation interest at their current levels.

3.2 Only those activities that cause deterioration or disturbance to the features for which a site has been designated need to be subject to restrictions under a management scheme. For the Solent area these have been potentially identified as Access, Bait Digging, Dredging, Fishing, Commercial Shipping and Water Sports.

3.3 The issue of Bait Digging has been addressed by relevant authorities and has resulted in the production of voluntary code of conduct for Bait Collectors which has been distributed to tackle shops and angling clubs.

3.4 It has been agreed that further work on the above activities, including the formation of Topic Groups, will only be triggered when there is evidence that an activity taking place is having an adverse effect on the site. This will be triggered through future monitoring.

3.5 The River Hamble Harbour Authority is currently signed up for the Dredging, Fishing and Water Sports Topic Groups, and will participate in these groups as and when required.

3.6 The River Hamble Harbour Authority's involvement in the Management Group and Cluster Groups will continue until the submission of the final scheme in June 2004. The Management Group and Cluster Groups will only be re-formed should the relevant authorities feel they are needed.

3.7 The Management Scheme, as submitted to DEFRA in June 2004, will result in no changes to the management of the River Hamble as at present.

4. Proposal

4.1 At the last Management Group meeting, the work programme through to submission in June was decided and will effectively wrap up the work on the Management Scheme.

4.2 The SEMS timetable, attached as Appendix 2, proposes to consult the SEMS cluster groups, strategic advisory group, and management group, and relevant authorities committees approval before submitting the scheme to DEFRA in June 2004. As the River Hamble Harbour Authority's timetable does not fit with that of the SEMS, when a draft of the management scheme is made available it will be circulated to Members of the Management Committee with the option of convening a special meeting.

Recommendation

That this report be noted.

8422A/EB

APPENDIX 1

Draft Content of the SEMS Management Scheme

1. Introduction

Information from the Foundation Document

2. Legislation

Summary of the legislation section in the Foundation Document

3. Description of SEMS

Summary of information from the Foundation Document

4. Process and management structure

Summary of the process and management structure from information in the Foundation document and the Stage 2 report

5. SEMS Vision and Key Principles

Information from the Foundation Document

6. SEMS Conservation Objectives

Information from the Foundation Document

7. Summary of RAs management of activities

Relevant sections of revised Stage 3 and 4 Report

8. Summary of potential risks with sign posting to detailed inventories for each cluster

Relevant sections of revised stage 3 and 4 report

9. Action plan

To be determine and to include monitoring requirements

Rachael Bayliss

14 Oct 2003

APPENDIX 2

Revised SEMS Timetable ver 2 (14 Oct 2003)

Notes

1. The 1st draft Management Scheme that will be sent to Committees from end March - June will be agreed by officers of the Management Group and will be sent to Committees for approval.

2. In order to ensure that the 1st draft Management Scheme is agreed by 3rd week in March, Management Group officers should ensure that any necessary internal consultation is carried out before the Management Group meeting set for 1st week in March so that final changes can be agreed at the meeting for production of the 1st draft MS in 3rd week.

3. The 11 week time period for consultation with Committees is necessary in order to catch all RAs committee dates (LAs Committees often work on a 3 month cycle). The 11 weeks given may not allow all Committees to approve the scheme and some may fall outside of the program.

4. The final package to be sent to DEFRA will be the 1st Draft MS (due 3rd week in March) and any committee reports etc from RA Committees.