A partnership comprising Westmorland and Furness Council, the Lake District National Park Authority, Cumberland Council and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority are working together to try and address the issue of nutrient neutrality across Cumbria.
Together, the partnership has launched the Enhance your Tank scheme to help deliver mitigation solutions to unlock homes affected by nutrient neutrality.
Nutrient Neutrality (NN) was introduced in March 2022. Its purpose is to offset the impacts of new development, which can increase the levels of nutrients entering watercourses through surface and foul water. Excess nutrients can cause water pollution, which leads to algal growth and eutrophication in our lakes, rivers and streams. This has negative effects on the species living within them.
NN restrictions are in place in areas where Habitat Sites are in an unfavourable condition due to nutrient pollution. The following Habitat Sites are in an unfavourable condition due to phosphorus:
- River Eden
- River Derwent and Bassenthwaite Lake
- River Kent
- Esthwaite Water Ramsar
Developers are required to identify mitigation within the affected catchment area to offset any impacts before their planning application can be approved.
Solution need to be upstream of the point where the development discharges into the waterbody.
One mitigation solution is to replace existing inefficient septic tanks and package treatment plants (PTP) with more efficient systems in order to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the SAC catchment. The replacement system has to be located upstream of the development it mitigates.
Septic tank and PTP owners are now able to submit details of their septic tanks/PTP through an Expression of Interest form. The partnership will then estimate the amount of phosphorous that could be saved through replacing the system and may either match the landowner up with an interested developer who is looking for solutions to unlock their development, or work with the landowner and a third-party contractor to replace the system free of charge, where funding is available.
The Partnership will then “bank” the phosphorous savings as nutrient credits, which it will then sell to a developer to allow them to deliver new housing. The number of systems that can be replaced will depend upon the amount of funding available and the Partnership will prioritise those replacements, which will generate the highest phosphorus savings.
For more details and to complete an expression of interest form, please visit the Lake District National Park website