Current Work

Every year the Solent Forum Steering Group agree the annual work programme for the Solent Forum Officers. The work undertaken is dependent upon both staff time and financial resources. There is currently one full time Solent Forum Manager and two part time Solent Forum Officers who share the project workload. From time to time we also take on student placements who assist us with specific deliverables.

The Forum's work programme consists of core services and their development and project work when funding allows. Progress made is reported in the Forum's Annual report which is produced in March each year. This sets out what has been achieved in the last financial year and the work programme for the forthcoming year.

The table below illustrates our proposed 09/10 project programme. Contact the Forum Office for further details on these projects.

2009/10 Project Work
Towards Solent Marine Planning (SoMaP)	This project will begin preparing and scoping the need amongst local Solent stakeholders for a Solent scale Marine Planning System. The project commenced in Feb 2009 and will run for 18 months. This is the priority project for 09/10.
State of the Solent	To monitor trends on all aspects of the Solent. The indicator dataset will be updated in summer 09 in preparation for the next State of the Solent report in 2010. Data will be uploaded to the Forum’s website.
Solent Disturbance and Mitigation Project	This work is led by the Nature Conservation subgroup and will assess the impact of activities and development on Solent European Habitats. Phase 1 is complete and can be downloaded from this website. Phase 2 (primary research) and phase 3 (evaluation/mitigation) will take place during 09/10.
Recreation Audit	A review of the recreational use of the Solent coast and levels of participation. Research will finish in summer 2009 with the data published in the Autumn. See our recreation subgroup pages for more details.
Wader Roost Strategy	The project will help inform the long-term availability of secure high-water feeding and roosting sites for Waders in the Solent, taking into account the likely human and natural changes. Further work will be undertaken to characterise wader roost sites, with an official launch of the Water Roost Strategy in 2010.