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 10/11 project programme. Contact the Forum Office for further details on these projects.
20010/11 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 010/11. A major Southern Planning Conference willbe held on 30 September 2010 to present the projects findings. |
| 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 sheets will be uploaded to the Forum’s website during 2010., forming the new online version of State of the Solent. |
| 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 2, the second year of bird surveys and the visitor survey have commenced. Household surveys and modelling will be conducted over summer 2010. Phase 2 will finish in 2011 when phase 3, mitigation, will begin. |
| Recreation Audit | A review of the recreational use of the Solent coast and levels of participation. The Forum's Strategic Guidance chapter on Recreation and Tourism will be updated during 2010. 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. Phase 2 aims to identify how the use of sites may change in the future. This will include running various scenarios and case studies. |
| AdaptSolent | This is a two-year non-technical community engagement campaign on climate change adaptation. It is part of a European bid led by the Environment Agency, which will know if it has been sucessful in September 2010. |
| Marine Industry Project |
The Forum is likely to run a programme with local marine businesses this year. It will look at producing a series of factsheets on business and coastal related issues, update the Forum's Marine Consents Guide and respond to the SEEDA Waterfront Strategy. Depending on funding this is likely to commence in Autumn 2010. |
