The PURE partners held two exchange visits in the south of the North East Region of England,  one studying the catchment approach for the village of Skinningrove and one discussing the European Water Framework Directive (EWFD). Skinningrove village  is in one of the 4 North East catchment areas where PURE will deliver a catchment plan. During a site visit to the village, local representatives explained the PURE partners the water problems they are facing. The Kilton Beck originates on the North Yorkshire Moors and  is flowing through woodland before entering a narrow, steep sided valley.  The beck then runs through Skinningrove village before flowing into  the North Sea at the North End of the village. In 2000 the village suffered from two severe floods due to heavy rainfall which caused a lot of damage to houses, properties and the river itself
 

Since then several measures have
been undertaken including which
the building of a flood protection wall

The villagers fear that this is not enough, and believe that rising sea levels due to global climate destabilisation was not taken in account sufficiently. In addition to the flood risk there is also a water quality problem resulting from the iron ore mining  which took place here until the 1950's.Local resident Tommy Evans explained how the village has tried to tackle this problem and demonstrated the working of filters that have been build to purify the water .

Although this filter seems to do it's job
pretty well effectively there is a problem
with finding a good solution for the sludge
residue. Maintenance is also an issue underestimated before the beginning of
the project.

During a workshop the PURE partners discussed how a catchment plan could help to address all of these problems. This resulted in a lot of recommendations like finding a process director (since all of the presently involved organisations seem to feel responsible only for their specific part of the problem) and focussing  more on the whole catchment instead of only concentrating on Skinningrove village and its’ immediate surroundings. Some of the recommendations were quite radical like considering removing a row of houses and redeveloping them at the spot of derelict old mine building elsewhere in the village. The local project managers appreciated the advice they got since this helped them to view the problems from a broader, different perspective. This will inform their future management of the catchment. Later during the PURE process the catchment plans will be 'Pure Checked' and we will find out what actually has been done with the advice given.