Podcasts about Environment Agency

Livestock moving into Wales from England will have to be tested for the disease bluetongue from the first of July, after the Welsh Government decided not to join England in a nationwide restriction zone. Wales and Scotland have no cases of bluetongue so far this year and hope testing and vaccination will keep it out. But livestock organisations say it'll cause chaos at the borders with huge delays and financial losses for farmers. This week the Chancellor unveiled her spending review, which resulted in relief among some farmers, who'd feared big cuts in budgets for environmental projects. In the event, while there is a cut, it's not as big as many had feared - £2.7b will go to sustainable farming and nature recovery in England; there's also investment in flood defences. Defra though is facing cuts to its own budget of 2.7%, which some worry will land on arms length organisations like Natural England and the Environment Agency. All this week we've followed the journey of a loaf of bread from seed to milling into flour. We find out what challenges seed breeders and farmers face in producing the perfect grain of wheat. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Sally Challoner.

The Environment Agency says the north west of England is in drought. One farmer tells us this year's crops are already ruined because of a lack of water.Two proposed reservoirs have been given 'nationally significant' status by the government to speed up the planning process. Decisions on the Lincolnshire Reservoir which is planned for an area near Sleaford and the Fens Reservoir near March in Cambridgeshire will now be accelerated. Ministers say the law will also be changed so that in the future all projects which are, as they put it, 'fundamental to national water resilience' will automatically be designated as 'nationally significant'. Farming communities are concerned about the impact on productive farmland, and one farmer says the Lincolnshire scheme will wipe out her home and her business.All week we're talking about the nation's national parks. The Scottish Government's decided not to go ahead with plans for a new national park in Galloway. After a long legal battle supreme court judges ruled that wild camping is allowed on Dartmoor, we speak to the park's chief executive. In Wales we report on a nature recovery project in Pembrokeshire which works with farmers to enhance farmland by the coast. In The Broads Norfolk farmers and environmentalists are trying to tackle the damage being caused by deer. Golden Eagles have been extinct in England since 2015 when a solitary bird died in the Lake District. But could that be about to change? A conservation project in the south of Scotland which began in 2018 has seen a huge increase in the eagle population there, and some of those birds have begun exploring places like the Northumberland National Park where one was spotted just a few weeks agoPresenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney

Scottish farmers are being warned to prepare for a possible summer drought. SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has issued a water scarcity alert as 17 river catchments are so low. In England the Environment Agency says two thirds of rivers are below normal or lower for the time of year. This week we're digging into the world of potato production - none of which would be possible, of course, without healthy, disease-free seed to get the crop started. Growing seed potatoes is a high-value, tightly regulated, specialist sector, and in the UK it's largely concentrated in Scotland where the disease risks are lower thanks to a cooler climate. Europe was a key market for Scottish seed, but Brexit changed all that. The EU's plant protection rules mean the trade is no longer allowed. However growers haven't given up on resuming exports and efforts continue. The asparagus season is underway, traditionally, the spears of this tender crop are only picked from 23rd April, St George's Day, to 21st June, the longest day of the year. It's crucial for growers to have their best produce ready at the right time. Not only that, getting it to market and making sure it's quality is perfect can pay real dividends when supplying top end restaurants and catering. We join one grower who welcomed the whole supply chain to his farm to see how the asparagus they buy from him, is grown.Presenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney

Today is a big day in the battle to take over control of the Kent County Council with results coming in from the local elections. All eyes are on the rise of Reform UK who have taken significant victories nationally – we'll hear from reporters at counts across the county. Also in today's podcast, three beaches have received the highly unwanted title of having some of the worst bathing water quality in England.They've all been awarded the dreaded gongs in the 2025 'Brown Flag Awards' – these are beaches rated as 'poor' by the Environment Agency due to their potentially unsafe levels of bacteria in the water. There's been backlash over plans to install a Ferris wheel in the middle of Ashford Designer Outlet – with some residents complaining “this isn't an amusement park” Bosses at the shopping centre have applied for permission to put the wheel in the main car park for half of the year.The Sweeps Festival is back in Rochester this long weekend in a celebration of music, dancing and street vendors. We've been chatting to a restaurant owner on the High Street about what the annual event brings to the community. And in sport, Gillingham will be hoping to spoil the party for Port Vale as they head up north for their final game of the season. Their hosts will be pushing for the title, but the Gills will be looking to keep their 11 game unbeaten run alive. 

Joining Rachael Forsyth on this week's HortWeek Podcast is John Durnell from the Hampshire Wildlife Trust and Alistair Emery, founder of Land and property investment and consultancy, Kingwell.John and Alistair are collaborators on significant natural capital scheme at Keyhaven near Milford-on-Sea converting degraded arable farming land into a "high value wildlife site".Kingwell bought the farm in 2020 and is working with Hampshire Wildlife Trusts to create meadows and grassland, enriching the biodiversity as large-scale BNG habitat.The land will be transformed in five or six phases which will be offered to developers as BNG credits - "we thought was probably what the market would absorb" Alistair says.Working alongside local authorities and the Environment Agency in a form of public-private partnership HWT will provide technical support on habitat creation and ongoing management of the land over the next 20 or 30 years. As John says, "frankly if we're going to turn around the sort of fate of wildlife in the UK I think every single sector is really going to have to do its bit."Alistair talks about the benefits from a land owner's point of view and how it can benefit rural business and community as well as the environment: "Farmers are under a lot of pressure to look at how they can diversify and commercialize their farms, particularly with BPS falling away. It's looking at what are the opportunities that can keep farms going. Environmental schemes such as this are going to play a part in enabling farmers to continue."They outline the carbon sequestration benefits of soil restoration and way the "nascent" BNG credits market will interact with local construction schemes and planning departments.Alistair says: "Our planning system is broken. And it's not broken because of things like BNG. It's it's other factors that are driving that."Also in the planning system, developers are finding ways to get around BNG, finding exemptions so that they don't have to deliver it onsite or even offsite."I think things will change. It's a very new thing. It was only February last year that it became statutory and small developments in April. It takes a long time to get these schemes approved and over the line and supply."John says: "What I always find frustrating is when the Government infer that lack of supply or BNG or protection for the environment is the thing that's stopping house building. And frankly, that's risible when... if you speak to most developers, they'll admit that it's high interest rates, lack of planning officers, lack of capacity... [and] things like lack of labour. They discuss the teething troubles with BNG, issues with planning and posit options on how system might be adapted to allow the various agencies to work together more effectively, which means, John insists, public and private partnerships.They also make the case for larger schemes. Alistair says: "If you have on-site mitigation where you've got fragmented patches of areas within developments that are completely unconnected and going back to the resource problem of the local authorities, then being able to monitor and enforce to ensure that the biodiversity is actually being delivered in those areas, it just doesn't work. It will only work properly if we can do it strategically on large areas of land like what we've got in Keyhaven.John adds: "Small areas suffer from this thing called edge effect where the edges, problems come in from the edge and the edges tend to be degraded to a certain extent....mitigating at scale strategically is a really, really good model. " Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Under Arnolds Field, tonnes of illegally dumped waste have been burning for years, spewing pollution over the area. Locals fear for their health – and despair that no one seems willing to help By William Ralston. Read by Sam Swainsbury. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

In today's episode, Rusty and Simon, co-founder of Tyler Grange, sit down with four key members of the TG family to dive deep into what makes this forward-thinking organisation tick. Covering key themes such as embracing change, cultural innovation, and building resilience - including bold moves like implementing the four-day workweek - the discussion highlights each guest's unique values around the organisation's approach to mentoring, personal growth, and creating a supportive, flexible work environment focused on employee wellbeing.[00:50] Julian Arthur — Technical DirectorJulian Arthur joined Tyler Grange in January 2010 from Waterman Group. As Technical Director, he leads on innovation, tackling complex projects as an Ecologist and expert witness. Passionate about green infrastructure, Julian works to balance the needs of wildlife, people, and clients while mentoring the next generation of environmental leaders.[08:00] Jon Berry — Managing DirectorJon Berry joined Tyler Grange in January 2010 and currently holds the position of Managing Director. With over 25 years of experience as a chartered Landscape Architect and qualified Arboricultural Consultant, Jon is responsible for the business's performance and strategy. He is deeply committed to living the company's values and exploring new ideas, innovations, and collaborations.[29:54] Carly Goodman-Smith — Operations DirectorCarly Goodman-Smith, Operations Director and committed Ecologist, joined Tyler Grange in June 2010. Driven by the core values of TG, Carly is passionate about mentoring and continuously improving the business to benefit everyone.[45:50] James Harmer — Finance DirectorJames Harmer joined Tyler Grange in May 2019, bringing his financial expertise from the Environment Agency. As Finance Director, his mission is clear: to ensure the business has the cash flow and profitability needed to grow, thrive, and support a happy, successful team.In this episode:[00:02:11] How Rusty's influence and the concept of "dream catching" shape career development at Tyler Grange.[00:04:03] How Tyler Grange supports self-driven growth, offering personal and professional development opportunities without forcing involvement.[00:09:02] Examining strategies for building a strong culture and helping employees cope with external challenges.[00:16:38] The importance of embracing change in an organisation's identity and its impact on employee alignment and recruitment at Tyler Grange.[00:34:35] Carly Goodman-Smith talks about how a safe space for sharing ideas and feedback at Tyler Grange fosters resilience.Connect with Tyler Grange here:https://tylergrange.co.uk/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/tylergrange/Please like, subscribe or follow, so you're notified of any new episodes coming up, and if you're keen to reach Rusty or Simon with any suggestions, feedback or comments, you can contact them via the show's LinkedIn page here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-bouncebackability-podcast/

According to The Rivers Trust's State of Our Rivers 2024 report, just 15% of England's river stretches achieved good ecological health and none are in good overall status. Failures can be attributed to multiple sources, including agriculture and rural land management activities, treated and untreated sewage discharge, and urbanisation and transport pollutants. Mark Lloyd (CEO, The Rivers Trust) and Helen Wakeham (Director of Water, Environment Agency) discuss what needs to be done to tackle the problems and restore our waterways to health. How can we address monitoring and policy gaps, and how do we make sure that the solutions and policies put in place are fit for the future as new threats emerge? Chaired by Dame Fiona Reynolds. This University of Bath IPR event took place on 19 March 2025.

Masked raiders have stolen £100,000 worth of stock from a wholesalers in Medway.At least eight people are thought to have cut their way into the industrial estate unit in Chatham in the early hours of last Wednesday. Hear from reporter Sean McPolin who has been covering the story.Also in today's podcast, a woman who was tied up during a violent robbery in Sevenoaks has described it as an "horrific experience".A man armed with a gun stole nearly £1.5 million worth of jewellery from a property in Parkfield near Wildernesse Golf Club last June.The work and pensions secretary's confirmed personal independence payments won't be frozen following a backlash from Labour MPs.Liz Kendall's also announced changes to the eligibility for universal credit from 2028. Hear the response from shadow minister and Faversham MP Helen Whately.A Kent pub chain boss has warned fewer part-time jobs will be available and prices will rise as major tax changes come in next month.The amount employers have to pay towards national insurance is to increase after being announced in last autumn's budget. We've been speaking to Phil Thorley from Thorley Taverns in Thanet.Work to clear woodland near Ashford of tonnes of illegally dumped waste is due to get under way next week.The Environment Agency's confirmed equipment will start to be moved onto Hoads Wood and removing the rubbish will take more than a year. We've got reaction from Sally Smith from Kent Wildlife Trust.And, Bedgebury Pinetum have announced a program of events to celebrate their 100th anniversary.Since 1925, the site has grown from a tree collection into an internationally significant conservation centre which welcomes more than half-a-million visitors each year.

The Climate Change Committee has called for a transformation in agriculture in its latest report. The CCC advises the UK government on ways to reduce emissions in order to meet net zero by 2050. Its 7th report sets out a plan from 2038 to 2042, and recommends a 27% drop in the number of cattle and sheep, and that we all eat less meat. It wants to see more woodlands, more peatlands re-wetted and more energy crops like miscanthus. Scientists at Scotland's Rural College have been feeding cattle an extract from daffodil bulbs to help reduce methane. The ground-breaking research aimed at reducing emissions is called "dancing with daffodils".Fly tipping is on the up - the latest Environment Agency figures for England show more than a million incidents of rubbish being dumped on public land last year, up 6% from the year before. Those stats don't include fly tipping on farms, and the Country Land and Business Association says in its latest survey, 90 per cent of respondents reported having rubbish - from fridges to tyres - dumped on their land in the past year. Rural groups and councils are calling for tougher penalties for fly tippers.Presenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney

Send us a textEpisode 269 - Luke Kozak on Fishing, Friends and the EAI sat down and chatted with my friend Luke after eating a good breakfast and casting a few rods.I talk with him about his fishing career, when he used to guide with me, the places he likes to fish and the people he has met along the way.We also talk about the conservation work he did on rivers before joining the Environment Agency. He speaks about what is happening behind the scenes there.I hope you'll enjoy the conversation as much as I did

In this episode 240 of the podcast I bring you a rundown of when you may be able to recover your costs if you are successful in making a claim or defending a claim in the Employment Tribunal. In this episode of the podcast we cover: What you need to know to avoid having a costs order made against you. When you may be at risk of having to pay the other party's costs. When a costs award may be made What the Employment Tribunal will consider when they are deciding whether to make a costs award. If costs can be awarded against someone who does not have a legal representative. If costs will be awarded against you if you do not have the money to pay. What vexatious, abusive or disruptive conduct is. Why unreasonable conduct in the bringing or defending a claim can lead to you having to pay costs. What the Employment Tribunal will consider when determining if a case has no reasonable prospects of success. The type of costs order that can be made. The amount of costs that you can recover.   Cases covered in this weeks' podcast Hargreaves v Evolve Housing and Support (2024) Clements v Secretary of State for Justice (2021) Legge v Environment Agency [2024] 3 WLUK 616  Vaughan v London Borough of Lewisham and others UKEAT/0533/12     Training for your Team Would you like to arrange training for your team to reduce the risk of both unhappy employees and claims being made against you? Please get in touch for a no obligation discussion, we can offer training anywhere in the UK in person or delivered remotely via MS Teams. Please drop me an email alison@realemploymentlawadvice.co.uk       Fixed Price Advice from Real Experts As part of our HR Harbour annual subscription service for employers we provide guidance and training for employers, supervisors and managers. If you would like to know more about the HR Harbour Service and how you can get unlimited support from as little as £210 per month please contact me for a no obligation discussion – alison@realemploymentlawadvice.co.uk or you can find full details here: HR Harbour Don't forget you can contact us by telephone 01983 897003, 01722 653001, 020 3470 0007, 0191 375 9694 or 023 8098 2006 We have a variety of free documents and letters which are available to download here: DIY Documents We are also on YouTube! You can find a range of topics and also listen to this podcast on YouTube here: YOUTUBE   Zoes Law Raising awareness of melanoma and skin cancer. You can find more information here: https://www.facebook.com/zoepanayilaw

Welcome to our January MiniPod - a monthly update where we're joined by an expert guest & we react to current events in water, climate and nature - all in about 15 minutes.In this episode we're joined by Julie Foley,  Director of Flood Risk Strategy & National Adaptation at the Environment Agency and we explore...The recently updated flood and coastal erosion risk information for England that means one in four properties in England could be in areas at risk of flooding by the middle of the century.2024 was the 4th warmest year on record in the UK – so why do we talk about weather but find climate such a tricky topic?How to achieve greater inclusivity of multicultural communities in flood projects.Check your long term flood risk... https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-riskOur 2024 Season of Planet Possible is supported by Atkins Realis. Credits Presented & Produced by Niki RoachExecutive Producer Andy Taylor - Bwlb LimitedWith thanks to Alastair ChisholmHonorary Executive Producer Jane Boland

Frustrated residents say a popular countryside footpath has been turned into an impassable bog following dredging work.The Environment Agency completed the work in November, but the foot-deep sludge from the drainage channel is still blocking the route.Also in today's podcast, a woman has been rescued from a vehicle by firefighters after flooding shut several roads.It's after heavy rains and flood warnings have been issued for the county – with more potentially severe weather on the way. There's been a huge turnout at public meeting over Deal water quality after ‘do-not-swim' warning issued at beach over sea pollution levels. You can hear from one campaigner who says it's essential there's action to improve water quality this year. The boss of a much-loved farm shop which is shutting its doors after more than 40 years says they've been “overwhelmed” by the response to the closure.The site in Cliffe Woods will serve it's final customers this Saturday. And for the first time you can hear from new Gills manager, after Mark Bonner parted ways with the club over the weekend. John Coleman is the new man in charge – and has told the KentOnline Podcast he's got his eyes set on a turn around in form.  

Our guest speaker is Andreas Galatoulas, Data Analytics and AI Director at AECOM, sharing how they as a global consultancy are using AI across its construction, engineering and infrastructure projects. As a qualified data leader and with national publications for his work, Andreas drives AECOM's on data strategies, data ethics and auditing AI models. At the NCE TechFest Awards, Andreas led the team which won the Best Use of Technology: Artificial Intelligence for their work with the Environment Agency for flood image analysis.We also hear from two Urbano Member SMEs, Alex Luketa, Partner at Xerini and Mark Wakeling, Technical Manager from Plowman Craven, on how they use AI and other tools to enhance tech development projects with clients in the ACTE sectors.Support the show

A bus company's investigating after a driver was filmed telling a passenger she gave 'disabled people a bad name'.The confrontation happened after Nargis Fakhri, who uses a wheelchair, tried to board the 140 Arriva service at Strood Retail Park.Also in today's podcast, we've been hearing how "Do Not Swim" warnings for some of Kent's busiest beaches will be a blow to local businesses.The water quality at Dymchurch, Littlestone and near to Deal Castle has been rated 'poor' following investigations by the Environment Agency. It's led to fears it could impact summer tourism next year.Hear from the leader of Folkestone and Hythe council.The Chatham and Aylesford MP has been leading a debate in parliament over what can be done to tackle fly tipping.Millions of pounds is being spent annually on clean ups and Tris Osborne says many people face a postcode lottery when it comes to dealing with it.As one of the biggest stores at Bluewater closes for the final time today, another new shop is opening.Reporter Cara Simmonds had a sneak peak around Sephora and spoke to the managing director.And finally, a trader who's been selling ice creams, burgers and buckets and spades from a kiosk on Sheppey for more than 50 years has decided to call it a day.Janet Deadman has made the difficult decision to leave the business in Beachfields, Sheerness. She's been speaking to reporter Joe Crossley.

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/620  Emma-Claire Shaw, a dynamic low-code product manager and consultant at Defra in the UK, brings her vibrant personality to our latest discussion. With a bustling family life, including two young daughters and a dog, Emma balances her work with a passion for social activities such as music festivals and fitness through early morning gym sessions and trail running. Her intriguing relationship with food reveals a chocoholic side matched with a deep interest in nutrition and a primarily plant-based diet. We unravel her insights into the latest gut health trends, where she shares her experiences with nutrition and I reveal my experiments with Celtic salt for weight management.Our conversation takes a fascinating twist into the world of Microsoft Power Platform, as Emma shares her journey of implementing transformative low-code solutions in government operations. Her experiences highlight the impact of Power Apps in streamlining processes such as fleet vehicle logs and port inspections at Defra, showcasing the potential for increased efficiency in the public sector. We also reflect on the significant role of Microsoft 365 and the evolution of tech adoption in government, sharing compelling stories from around the world, including innovative uses of similar technology in container inspections in Australia.As we round off our episode, we dive into the digital transformation efforts of environmental agencies in the UK, focusing on initiatives like the Environment Agency's efficient fishing rod license verification via Power App. Emma discusses the ongoing challenges with offline data access in remote areas and shares strategies that have been successfully deployed elsewhere, such as in Western Australia. We also delve into Natural England's modernization of its licensing schemes, marking a shift from paper-based forms to a centralized digital platform, reflecting a broader move towards operational efficiency and innovation in government processes. Join us for this captivating narrative that weaves together technology, lifestyle, and wellness.90 Day Mentoring Challenge 10% off code use MBAP at checkout https://ako.nz365guy.comSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

   A group of 110 Water Guardian volunteers test the river water quality in our catchment (which is part of Sussex.)..The Guardians are part of the Western Sussex Rivers Trust. Their work will be discussed at a meeting at Buriton Village Hall on Wednesday 13 November at 7:30pm. Sian Macleod, a Water Guardian and Trustee for the Western Sussex Rivers Trust explains their work to Mike Waddington. There is a lot of information abut improving water quality, improving biodiversity and the partnerships - water companies, the Environment Agency, local farmers and landowners and the Water Guardians - working to improve quality, at Home · Western Sussex Rivers Trust (wsrt.org.uk)      :  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode Helene talks to Cath about her role as Senior Engagement Advisor and internal facilitator with the Environment Agency (EA) Cath tells Helene a bit about the EA and the type of work they do. She explains how her role as Engagement Advisor includes facilitation and also how she works an an independent internal facilitator for other projects withing the EA. Cath gives some examples of what she really enjoys about her role as a faciliator including working with the public on a climate adaptation project and working alongside external independent facilitators that the EA also use. She explains that external faciliatators are often used when more complex conversations need to be had, or where there has been a breakdown of trust and someone independent is needed. She shares some insights as to how the internal facilitators network of aroudn 200 facilitators was set up and how she balances her work as Senior Engagement Advisor and facilitator.  She tells Helene about a role play technique that really made a difference and about how asking good questions are crucial to her work as a faciliator. Cath also talks about how she keeps her faciliation skills up including attending the IAF England and Wales conferences, and local IAF meetups and EA facilitator learning days. She also shares some advice for other internal facilitators.  A full transcript is below. Today's Guest Environment Agency - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) facilitationnetworkmailbox@environment-agency.gov.uk   To find out more about Facilitation Stories and the IAF and the England and Wales Chapter   Facilitation Stories website: https://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/   And to email us: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org   IAF England and Wales: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales The Facilitation Stories Team  Helene Jewell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenejewell/  Nikki Wilson:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolawilson2/ Transcript H.J Hello and welcome to Facilitation Stories, the community podcast of the England and Wales chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as IAF. My name is Helen Jewell, and my guest today is Cath Brooks, senior engagement advisor with the Environment Agency. Welcome, Cath    C.B Hi, yeah. Hi. How are you doing? Alright?   H.J I'm good. How are you?    C.B Yeah, good. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for inviting me. I'm Looking forward to it.   H.J It's really good to have you on the podcast. Okay, so I have a whole load of questions to ask you, starting with the Environment Agency. I just wondered if you could tell us a little bit more about what the Environment Agency does and what your role is?   C.B Yeah, for sure. So yeah, I hope that it'll inspire people. I've worked at the Environment Agency for almost 20 years, and I still absolutely love it. It's a great organisation. So we're a public sector organisation, and we aim, quite simply, to protect and improve the environment. We employ about 12,000 people, and some people work nationally across England, and then some people work in area offices. We've got 14 different area offices across England, so you either work on national issues or you work on local issues in one of our area offices. And I guess to create places for people and wildlife, we work on quite a lot of topics that people are deeply concerned about, and finding ways forward can be difficult on some of the issues, people have strong opinions about the environment and how we should be managing the environment quite rightly. So Facilitation skills are really important in that context, with some of the really difficult issues that we're managing. So some of those topics are things like managing major industry, making sure they're not polluting the environment, and waste, dealing with contaminated land, making sure water quality of our rivers and we've got enough water so water resources as well, working on fisheries, conservation and ecology, and my area that I work on is management of flood risk. So those sorts of issues are really interesting, and people have strong opinions about how we should be managing those issues. So there can be quite a lot of conflict, I guess, which is why facilitation is so important.   H.J And so then, obviously that's quite a broad even under the umbrella of the environment, that's quite a broad range of different areas, and in your particular area then, in your role as senior engagement advisor, what does that actually involve? Sort of before, obviously, I guess facilitation is part of that, but I know you also do it sort of separately as well. What does your main role? What does your main role involve?   C.B Yeah, so we've got engagement advisors. Obviously, the organisation's quite technical organisation, quite science and engineering led, but we also have engagement and communications experts within the Environment Agency, and I'm one of those. So I work alongside quite technical teams, and at the moment I'm working, I've worked in lots of different parts of the organisation, but at the moment I'm working in flood risk management, supporting our teams. I work nationally, and so supporting our national teams with big projects where there's, they're difficult topics, where people have strong opinions. And my job, my main job, is engagement planning. So we're whatever the project is thinking about what are our engagement aims? Why do we want to work with our stakeholders? Why do they want to work with us, making sure we're not just thinking from the perspective of the Environment Agency, my job is to help our staff to think about the impact it's going to have on on a range of stakeholders, and plan the best methods that we can for that particular project to work out, how can we get the best from our stakeholders? How can they get the best of us? How can we find solutions that work for all of us, not just for the Environment Agency?    So we try to avoid taking what we've called in the past the ‘decide, announce, defend approach'. My job is to help staff to be more, to sort of take a more ‘engage, deliberate, decide', so to help have quality conversations about these difficult issues, really listen to our stakeholders, designing the right methods, really to help create that space for those quality conversations about what can be really difficult issues. And that's my job, is designing those sorts of engagement methods, if you like, and then facilitation sits really nicely alongside that.    H.J And so when you do that facilitation, I as far as I understand, you're part of an internal facilitators network. How, how did that kind of come about? When was that set up?    C.B Yeah, that's right. So when I joined the Environment Agency, back in 1996 we didn't have many people who worked in engagement roles or facilitation network. So we started really by setting up the engagement roles and setting up training for staff around comms and engagement and how to do that engagement planning like I've just talked about. And very quickly we realised actually there's another set of skills that that we need to develop as well, which is facilitation. So when you are designing methods that involve dialog, you know having facilitation skills, having skills to be able to design those interactive sessions in a way that you're making the most of that time when you've got your stakeholders in the room is really important. And it's quite a different skill, actually, than just engagement planning, being able to design a face to face or an online session where you've got people in the room making the very best of that time. So we're all really busy. Our staff are busy, our stakeholders are busy. So making the most of those opportunities, that's why we developed the facilitation skills courses.    So first of all, we started off by getting some expert engagement professionals in to help us design facilitation courses that were for in-house facilitators. And then very quickly, and within about 18 months, we realised that people were going on the training, really enjoying the training, but then struggling to apply the training in their day jobs, because, you know, you could go a couple of months and not use it. And we very quickly realised that if you're going to facilitate, and you have to do it quickly, you have to do it very often, and you need, you need to support each other. So we set the network up to give people safe space to be able to facilitate internally. So to develop people's skills and create opportunities to be able to facilitate not in your day job. So that's why the network was set up, was to, so people could put forward a facilitation request and get someone who wasn't their day job, they went and practised their skill outside their day job, which, which means you can facilitate in a more pure way which was, which has been fantastic. It's, it's worked really well.   H.J And I want to ask a little bit more about that, actually. But before I do, I just wanted to pick up on the differences between engagement and facilitation, and where you see the differences being?   C.B yeah, I do think they're quite different skills. So I think being able to do good engagement planning across a project, you think we've got big projects that might go on for years, and they're quite technical. You need to understand the, you know, the technical context of that bit of work, what the business objectives are, what the engagement objectives are, what best methods we can apply, you know, to help people to engage with us, and for that to have an impact on on the decision making, that's quite different. You could do that, and then you can realise in that process, there's usually going to have to be some kind of series of face to face events. But the person doing that engagement planning might not necessarily have this skill to be able to run that face to face content, and sometimes actually, we do need a completely independent facilitator.    So there might be a topic where we might have lost trust with some of our stakeholders, where it's not appropriate for the Environment Agency to facilitate those conversations and we do need an independent facilitator. And that is whether it's an in-house facilitator and an independent facilitator, being able to design that's more in depth, designing how to make the most of the conversation, how to create a space where people feel safe, to be able to air their concerns and feel listened to. I guess it's like engagement planning, but it's really specifically thinking about that particular conversation and what you want to get out of that conversation. So it's micro design, I guess, within a particular moment in time, and you might use that facilitator, or you might use a facilitator that then exits the process, whereas the engagement person stays throughout and they use the results of that conversation, and they kind of have to carry on, whereas a facilitator might just come in for that particular moment, then they might not be involved again. So they are quite different skills.   H.J And so what determines how you choose a particular facilitator, be it an in-house one or an external facilitator. How does that process work?    C.B Yeah, so we'd use an in-house facilitator for a process where, so quite often the engagement person needs to be, needs to participate in the conversation. And if the engagement person involved in that bit of work needs to be involved in the conversation, then they'd use an in-house facilitator to help make sure that, you know, they just come in, offer the service, create the space so that everyone in the team can participate. And often there's other people outside the team, you know, other stakeholders and things. And if the topic is not too controversial, it's all to do with positionality and trust and the way the Environment Agency is viewed. If there's good trust and good relationships between all the people, then an in-house facilitator can do that role. When I'm doing that, I upfront say, I work for the Environment Agency, but I'm not here today as someone who works in the Environment Agency, I'm here to facilitate and make sure you're heard. I'd work with all the different stakeholders before to make sure that the design was taken their, you know, that their needs into account. I wouldn't just turn up on the day, so do all the things that an independent facilitator.   Obviously, we're a public sector organisation, so it has to make the most out of me as a facilitator and engagement expert. So I try and do that as much as possible. I'd only use an independent facilitator, which obviously costs us money as an organisation. We'd only do that in a situation where we genuinely needed that independence, and lots of reasons for that, but normally it's to do with trust and transparency and making sure that, you know, there might be awkward situations where things might have gone wrong in the past, and stakeholders would feel more comfortable if someone independent is facilitating, even just for a small period of time, just to help us through that.    H.J And how many facilitators have you got as part of your network then?    C.B Yeah, I knew you were going to ask, I think there's about 200 at the moment on the facilitation network.   H.J Wow. Okay, and how do you manage that kind of balance of work in your, let's say, day job, versus facilitating for a different, a different project that you're not part of then?   C.B Yeah so for me, I mean, we all do it differently. So we're allowed 11 development days a year. And so I use those Development Days aren't just, you just, don't just go on training courses and things. I use my Development Days to do independent facilitation for other people within the environment agency. So each quarter I have a maybe do one event per quarter for someone else, if it's a chunky event, because you need to do the planning for them, you need to facilitate and then help them with the results. So I think we all do that. We view it as part of our development, and we, you know, discuss it with our line managers and carve out time to go and do it. It's completely up to each individual facilitator to decide, and we have peaks and troughs in our work. If you're working on a project that had a lot of facilitation within that project, then you might not do any facilitation for anyone else in that quarter. But yeah, generally, people use their development time.   H.J Okay. And what kind of facilitation do you particularly enjoy?    C.B My favourite thing I've done in the last 12 months was when we were at the River Severn, when we did, when I have opportunities to facilitate with members of the public who are not part of the Environment Agency. And I was really fortunate, we were sort of testing a new methodology on the River Severn about adaptation pathways, they're called, so thinking about climate change and the impact of climate change, and we did something called Community panels, where we got members of the community. So an independent facilitator designed the process and needed some sort of support facilitators, and I acted as a support facilitator, and that was really, really fun. It's just a real privilege to be able to hear from members of the public who don't know anything about what the Environment Agency does, and yeah, to help them to have conversations about the environment and flood risk management, and their ideas were absolutely brilliant and really refreshing to hear. And that was, that was great, because most of my work is either internal or with partners that know the Environment Agency well. So that was something that was different for me and really stretched me as a facilitator, bringing together people that didn't know each other. We were doing it online, and, you know, I didn't know them, and it was, yeah, it was helping them to feel relaxed very quickly and heard, that was, that was really good. It was good for me as a facilitator. Good stretch.    H.J Nice and how often, I guess, do you get to do something a little bit stretchy? Let's say that you actually learn from rather than, let's say a bit more day to day type stuff?   C.B Probably only a couple of times a year, because it did take up quite a lot of time. It was four evenings and a whole day on a Saturday. So that's quite unique. But again, very much supported by the organisation, and was viewed as part of my development. And it was, it was a brilliant part of my development. It really blew the cobwebs off in terms of my facilitation skills. Took me out of my comfort zone, and it was really good. And I guess it would be easy not to do things like that, and it would be, you know, easier just to kind of do the day job. But where's the fun in that? You know, it really, it really helped me, and I took a lot from it back to the day job, and it reminded me about the importance of making sure people are comfortable and active listening. And it was good for me to hear how people view the Environment Agency, who don't know much about what we do. And so, you know, they came up with these brilliant ideas. Like, as an engagement person, I was able to come back in and sort of talk to people about so. But realistically, yeah, time wise, probably once or twice a year.   H.J And how easy is it for you then to kind of just thinking about that there's different hats that you wear. How easy is it to be sort of, you know, independent facilitator versus engagement professional, and, you know, to kind of remember which hat you're wearing, I guess?    C.B Yeah, it can be hard. I think when you're, we get quite embedded in the projects that we're working on. So I'm working on one really big project at the moment, and, you know, you have weekly calls within the technical team, and you become part of that technical team, and that's where it becomes hard to add value I think. When you're fresh and you go into a team, that's when you know you can sort of challenge in a really constructive way. So I think we just, yeah, I just I do, I need to have reflective conversations with people on a regular basis. So my manager is brilliant for that. She's quite sharp, she's really useful for me and sort of challenging me and making sure that I am still doing the job and not sort of just blending into that technical team.Because facilitators and consultants, the benefit of using independent facilitators is that they challenge on our cultural assumptions, and we have got a lot of cultural assumptions, and we do make a lot of decisions, which means that we probably sometimes can push engagement down the track a bit further than we should. So yeah, so that's it's difficult, but yeah, using, using my manager and and also independent facilitators, that's where they can really add value. I think when we're using them on projects, it's really having really useful conversations with independent facilitators about what I'm working on, and they can give really good advice and just keep you remembering about how to challenge teams in a constructive way. But it is quite tiring. I'm not part of that team. I am there to challenge constructively, and it, yeah, can be tiring, but it's,  you do get a lot of rewards as well from it, but you're not part of that team. And that's, I guess that's a bit like what it's like as a consultant, is that you're not, you're not fully part of that team. You're there to kind of help them as a team, to work well together, but not necessarily be embedded within that team.    H.J Which definitely has its pros and cons. So thinking about then, the kind of the learning, the development, the support that you have to work as a facilitator, what kind of opportunities? I know you said you have your development days, and that you use those to do facilitation. But what else are you able to do to kind of keep your skills up and to learn more?    C.B So we get together as a network, so we have network learning days. So we've got one next Monday, so we run those about every six months where we get the whole network together face to face. We have network days more locally, like we, me and you run one in Bristol, which is really good. And the thing I love about the Bristol one that we do with the International Association of Facilitators is it's so refreshing for the Environment Agency, half the people that come are from the Environment Agency, and half the people that come are just independent facilitators doing all sorts of facilitation across all sorts of sectors, charity sectors, you know, finance sectors all around the world. You know, some of them work in Africa and all sorts of different places. And it's really exciting meeting, and really, really good for us to to be challenged and meet people that are doing facilitation in other places, and they you know that those days are brilliant, and although only a couple of hours, probably learn more in a couple of hours than you could learn, you know, in a whole day online and things and just little conversations and testimonials and, you know, different methods that people are testing out and what's gone wrong and what's worked well. That works really well.    And the two day conference that the IAF run in April. So I went to the, I went to that for the first time two years ago, and I went last year as well. And then every year I'm bringing more and more people from the Environment Agency, because that's when I learn the most in the year is just immersing yourself in two days of just learning sessions and being exposed to people that are facilitating in really different contexts. But there's so much that we can learn from each other. So yeah, and just techniques that you just wouldn't even dream of, I just techniques that I wouldn't even dream of, you know, like last time I went, there was an amazing session about using your body and not talking, but just how you can just facilitate using movement and using your body and help with conflict resolution and different difficult conversations with people just using your body. It sounds really strange, but it was really amazing. It's really interesting.   H.J I guess it's the same for for any of us that facilitate, we tend to do our particular thing, or even if you're an external independent facilitator, and even if you work across different sectors, you can get a little bit stuck in your own, you know, you have your preferred tools and techniques, and you use them again and again. And so any of those kind of days, you know, for me, definitely I learned so much and been to so many sessions where I think, oh, yeah, that's a thing, I've never thought about doing that. So it's definitely not just internal facilitators that have that, because I think the rest of us do as well.   C.B Yeah, yeah, it's great, isn't it? It's amazing. Yeah.   H.J It's really nice, the Bristol meetups you mentioned, I think that is a really nice mix of, I think it's about 50-50 split, internal and external. And I'm always amazed myself at the breadth of different types of facilitation, and the more you, you know, you talk about facilitation and what you can facilitate, you know, it's actually quite a huge array. The edges are very fuzzy, but it's really nice to see all those different methods and different conversations that we have together.    C.B Yeah, yeah, it's amazing.   H.J So thinking about the actual tools and techniques and all that kind of stuff, what's the one thing that you really, really love? I know you've talked about working with the public, what's the one methodology, perhaps, or tool that you really love using? Is there one or a few? Perhaps?   C.B So I worked on a research project called ‘adapting to a changing climate flooding coast'. It's like in difficult situations where flood defence is not the answer for lots of different reasons, but there's not a straightforward, this is how we're going to manage the problem. It was a really good opportunity to take ourselves out of our comfort zones and think, what methods within, with these communities could work? Because we've not got all the answers, actually. And so we developed some more conversation based techniques. And so we did role play simulation. I think when people say role play, everybody's like, Oh, but it's a 90 minute role play simulation where everybody gets a chance to hear different perspectives. And so that was a real privilege being involved in testing that and very emotional. So things like role play simulation and those sorts of techniques that support better quality conversations. I sort of we experienced a situation where people have been working together for years and years, like the local flood Action Group and local planners, our members of staff, and people got to the point where they didn't want to go to the meetings anymore, but because it was redesigned around this role play simulation, and they all went along and took on someone else's role for 90 minutes. At the end they, it was quite emotional, and people, I think, were able to empathise and stand in the shoes of I didn't realise I was making you feel like that. And it was a building block for completely redesigning how the different stakeholders then worked together, and then they got together after the role play simulation, said, What does this mean for the way we're going to work together in the future? And it was just, it was very powerful. It wasn't very long. It's only 90 minutes, like I said, but it was just the fact that it was like a key I suppose that sort of opened up people's eyes to realise that they'd all been exhibiting behaviours that were really unhelpful if they did genuinely want to find a way forward with each other and help each other out to find solutions.    And also, everyone went to the pub afterwards, which I think also just really helped for them to see each other as human beings and to realise that it's not easy for people to just work in a professional role and take their hat off. We are all people and we, you know, we do really need to respect each other within conversations. And it was a yes, it was quite a simple technique. And in the past, I would have been one of those people as soon as you say role play simulation, I would have been one of those people that's really sceptical, but it's really changed my view on the power of standing in someone else's shoes and pretending you're that person and doing that in a safe space. So that in the last few years has probably been the technique that I think has been most powerful in helping people that are really stuck in positions and the meetings have become very adversarial and difficult, and where our staff don't want to go, the stakeholders don't want to come. You know, it's the worst situation that you sort of as a facilitator and engagement expert that you bump into more often than you'd like to. And it's trying to help people reset their relationships. And it was a really powerful technique.   H.J Wow, it's good I guess that you have such a technique that you know definitely works in a given situation. And it sounds like those perhaps conflicting, difficult conversations do come up a bit, I guess, with the very nature of the work that you do.    C.B Yeah, absolutely, yeah.    H.J And do you get to kind of play around much with different tools and techniques? Because I presume you've got quite a lot of time pressure to actually do the facilitation and do all the rest of the work that you need to do. Do you often fall back on tried and tested things?    C.B Yeah, absolutely, we absolutely do fall back on tried and tested things, especially when we're doing things in-house. I think if we were, if there was a situation like that, we would use an independent facilitator to come in and help us. Even if I was doing some of the design work, I would be working alongside an independent facilitator. Yeah, I haven't done any roleplay simulation without an independent facilitator. And I think that is really worth it, and it can make a massive difference. So yes, it's recognizing those situations, I think, where something's become unproductive and difficult, mental health wise, for everybody involved, and it is worth then the investment of we need to do something different here. So we do support those situations.Most of the time,yeah, we're just using run of the mill techniques, like we love online since covid, you know, lots of online workshops, mural boards, or, you know, whiteboards that sort of thing is our go to run of the mill. What we would use all the time, slido polls, things like that. Yeah, that's just the everyday stuff that we're doing.    Although, like having to be very wary about not making assumptions about people's sort of not everybody's comfortable with using those, those sorts of techniques, you know. So having to remember that you do need, you do need to give people space to understand how to use the mural board. And I think people, yeah, so the mural boards and concept boards, whatever you use, they're brilliant, but you do have to always remember to do a little intro. It sounds really obvious, but otherwise, I think it can be a real barrier for people. Some people just don't know how to move the bits and bobs around, and just not getting too comfortable with whatever technique you're using, I think is really helpful.    There's loads and loads of techniques, and I think one of my favourite ones that I learned at the last International Association of Facilitators is like the role play simulation is a difficult technique, like, as in, difficult to design, and you need to do loads of prep. But the really quick technique that I learned was called, ‘I wonder if', and that was a really good technique, and it's just a different way of framing things so and that can be used at any moment with even within a meeting, you know, and that thinking about how you frame questions is maybe the, maybe the use of questions and how you frame questions is the most powerful tool that we've got as facilitators, in terms of, even within a session, that can make a real difference and turn a conversation around.   H.J And I guess, particularly when you know you can't necessarily redesign a whole session each time for every piece of work you do, and sometimes, if it's about, perhaps just making those small changes, by asking those powerful questions then, and they get you the results, much easier to focus on doing something like that than thinking about sort of grand redesign and using all sorts of different tools and all the rest of it, which is nice, and I think does keep us kind of interested. But actually, there's a question about, I suppose, who are we doing that for? Are we doing that for us as facilitators, because it's interesting, or are we doing it for the participants?   C.B Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I love a new technique.   H.J I was gonna just a sort of extra question, really, about that online versus in person? What's the kind of balance?    C.B Oh, yeah, like 95% online now, I would say. We've always been really careful, I think, as an organisation in when we get people together because of the carbon footprint. So, you know, ever since I joined the Environment Agency, there's, there's always, quite rightly, does this have to be face to face? Yeah, and we obviously use the trains and things like that. And, yeah, now is, since covid, I think it's, I guess, you know, we've realised the potential of online and invested in, you know, the government, just generally, I think, has invested more in sort of tools and techniques to help us as as people working for the government that to use those sorts of tools and techniques to have more effective online meetings. So the vast majority of the comms engagement work I do on projects is online workshops, rather than bringing people face to face. And that's a big change in the last five years, because when I was working on the National Flood and coastal risk management strategy four or five years ago, we did bring stakeholders together, at key points for face to face meetings. I think if we were doing that now, a lot of that would be online, so you still have, you still have meetings with people, but you know, they're virtual, which brings its opportunities and challenges. It's more inclusive for some people, because they don't have to travel. And, yeah, it's, but it's, there's something magical about having people in a room, and that's the bit you miss.    H.J Yeah, definitely. I was going to just pick up on the challenges bit. So I've asked you about what you enjoy about facilitation, and you know, nice, all the nice stuff, but what are the main challenges of being an internal facilitator?   C.B I think the main challenge is, I'm working on a project where, you know, where I'm always, whatever I'm working on, when you're working on the project, and you're part of the project team and you're the engagement advisor on it, how independent can you be? And that's a challenge. And so identifying when I need to bring in another in-house facilitator, or when I need to bring in an independent facilitator is really important, and I do, I do have to do that often on the big projects I work on. So, yeah, so that's that's a challenge, is recognizing when you need that and being able to see that far enough in advance so you know, so you can plan for that.   And the other challenge, I think, is it's easy to get really busy on your day job and on your projects and that they are it is busy, and there is a lot to do,making space for me to go and be an independent facilitator for someone else, when you're really busy making space to do that as often as I can. Otherwise, I don't keep my skills fresh, and six months can go by and I realise I haven't gone and done something. I've done lots of facilitation, but I've not done anything for someone else that's completely independent of my day job. And so that's what I have to check myself on, is making sure that I am, I am still doing that, and when I do it, it's so brilliant. And that's when, like I said earlier, that's when you get taken out of your comfort zone of facilitator, which is what sharpens us up, I think. Because facilitation is hard, it is it's exhausting, but it's brilliant as well, when you have those magic moments, when people have understood, you know, understood each other better, and you've helped, by the way, you've designed that meeting and created that space. You've helped people to move forward more in a more positive way, and that's worth it.   H.J Definitely. That's a definite similarity. I think, you know, as external facilitators, exactly the same. Well, certainly for me, you know, it's that feeling, I guess when you've you've done something right, you know it's gone well. And you know that people have come to a good place at the end, it's like, yes. Nice, big glow.    C.B Yeah, ready for my Mars bar at the end.   H.J Yeah. And so, I guess, last question really is, what advice would you give to anybody else that is working as an internal facilitator. Any words of wisdom?   C.B Yes, I would say, keep taking opportunities for training, because I think formal training has its place. And I think going and doing more formal training, it's easy to sort of just do your training initially and then never do any more formal training. I think formal training has its place as facilitators. So going and regularly doing formal training. Definitely mixing with other facilitators who are not part of your organisation. So the International Association of Facilitators provides that perfect opportunity in April. It's you know, and so if you're able to go along, even if it's just for a day, not the whole thing, I think that's really helpful. And then the last thing is, as often as you possibly can, is to facilitate outside of your day job. And I know that's difficult, it's difficult to make the time, but that is, I think, where you'll build your confidence as an independent facilitator. And getting, you know, getting feedback, I guess, is the last bit that links to that other one. So yeah, that's the things I would encourage people to do.   H.J Brilliant. Thank you. It's been brilliant to talk to you today, and thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and bits and pieces about all of your experience and all the stuff you love about facilitation.   C.B Thank you too.   H.J So listeners, we've reached the end of another episode of facilitation stories, the community podcast of IAF, England and Wales   N.W If you'd like to find out more about the IAF and how to get involved, all of the links are on our website. Facilitationstories.com   H.J And to make sure you never miss an episode, why not subscribe to the show on whatever podcast app you use?   N.W We're always on the lookout for new episode ideas. So is there a fabulous facilitator you think we should talk to?   H.J Or something interesting emerging in the world of facilitation you think listeners need to hear about?   N.W Send us an email at podcast@IAF-Englandwales.org .   H.J We hope you'll join us again soon for more facilitation stories.   N.W Until then, thank you for listening.  

The impacts of climate change are wide-ranging, but here in the UK, where none of us lives more than 70 miles from the sea, bigger winter storms, heavy rain and increased wave power create serious coastal flooding risks for huge numbers of people. In the North East of England, an innovative partnership of organisations, led by South Tyneside Council, is working on a programme of work exploring natural solutions to reducing this flood risk. In this episode of the Carbon Copy Podcast, we meet Karen Daglish, Delivery Manager at the Stronger Shores programme, to learn more about this inspiring, collaborative initiative. We also meet Judy Power, Project Manager at Tees Rivers Trust, one of the partner organisations working with the programme, and learn about the incredible, painstaking work they're doing grow and protect seagrass and wild oysters in the Tees Estuary. Listen to learn about: The long-term goals and ambition of the Stronger Shores programme. The amazing potential of wild oysters to filter water and sequester carbon. The reason that seagrass is such an important species – and why it is under threat. How engagement activities across the North East are helping more people locally to appreciate and understand the natural species on their shores. --------------------------------------------------------------Show NotesMore information about Stronger Shores: https://carboncopy.eco/initiatives/stronger-shores More projects on Carbon Copy relating to protecting coastal environments: https://carboncopy.eco/initiatives?cst&search_term=coastal&filter-local_area Learn more about taking action for seagrass: https://carboncopy.eco/community/restore-seagrass Learn more about the Environment Agency's coastal protection research: https://engageenvironmentagency.uk.engagementhq.com/innovation-programme Read about Tees Rivers Trust: https://www.teesriverstrust.org/ Read about the Wild Oysters project: https://carboncopy.eco/initiatives/wild-oysters Learn about the Tall Ships Festival: https://www.tallshipshartlepool2023.co.uk/ Listen to the Carbon Copy Podcast – Lines In The Sand, to learn more about the impacts of coastal erosion: https://carboncopy.eco/podcasts/lines-in-the-sand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Farmers this year are growing less oilseed rape than they have for the last 30 years. That is partly due to the expense of growing it, the dreadful wet weather preventing crops getting established, and the fact that it succumbs to the Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle. A group in Scotland however are growing it organically - so how do they do it?Thatched buildings are a common sight in many rural areas, but a shortage of seasonal labour, materials and outdated machinery are some of the modern-day challenges facing a thatcher today, according to a report by Historic England which warns that the traditional industry could be at risk. And campaigners fighting for the clean-up of thousands of tonnes of illegally dumped waste in a Kent woodland are threatening legal action against the Environment Agency. Presented by Anna Hill Produced by Alun Beach

Continual Improvement is at the heart of every ISO Standard.  The cyclical nature of ISO Standards lends itself to regular review and update of your Management System, to ensure it's working efficiently and to address any issues or opportunities that inevitably crop up. However, Integrating these improvements can be challenging, even for mature systems. Today Ian Battersby explains the concept of Improvement as defined in ISO Standards, how to find root cause for non-conformities and integrating improvement actions from multiple sources.   You'll learn ·      What is meant by ‘Improvement' in ISO Standards? ·      Common misconceptions about Improvement in ISO Standards ·      How to address non-conformities in your Management System ·      Finding the root cause of a non-conformity ·      Integrating Improvement actions   Resources ·      Isologyhub   In this episode, we talk about: [00:30] Join the isologyhub – To get access to a suite of ISO related tools, training and templates. Simply head on over to isologyhub.com to either sign-up or book a demo. [02:05] Episode summary: Ian Battersby will be explaining what Improvement means in relation to ISO Standards, how to address non-conformities and integrating the required Improvement actions. [02:30] What is meant by ‘Improvement' in ISO Standards? – One of the requirements of all Management System standards is to determine and select opportunities for improvement (Clause 10). This is the fundamental aim of Management Systems: to make things better In the words of the standards, it is so that an organisation can: “Implement any necessary actions to meet customer requirements and enhance customer satisfaction These shall include: a) improving products and services to meet requirements as well as to address future needs and expectations; b) correcting, preventing or reducing undesired effects; c) improving the performance and effectiveness of the management system.” An organisation going through certification for the first time may never have had in place a system for planning improvements.  Some organisations are dealing with improvements, but not necessarily through a single, consistent route. While you can meet the requirements of the standards without a single route, the standard is not prescriptive in how you go about this. [04:45] Common misconceptions about non-conformities – the standard does go on to cover nonconformity and corrective action (10.2); is it suggesting these as the main source of non-conformities (NC).  It isn't really explicit about other sources, other than specifically including customer complaints as a form of NC. However, there's a strong argument for consolidating data from different sources, so it's worth considering how complaints data is handled. Other sources of non-conformities can include your Internal Audit findings, addressing where you may not be meeting client expectations, addressing failure to meet legal obligations ect. As a reminder, ISO 9000 (Fundamentals and vocabulary) includes the definition of nonconformity: non-fulfilment of a requirement: need or expectation that is stated, generally implied or obligatory i.e. Legal / client expectation. [10:00] Addressing non-conformities – You need to evaluate the need for action to eliminate the cause of the nonconformity, to ensure that the issues doesn't recur, or pop-up elsewhere. When a non-conformity does occur, you need to: ·      Determine the causes ·      Determining if similar nonconformities exist, or could potentially occur; Any corrective actions should be appropriate to the effects of the nonconformities encountered. So, you don't need to commit a huge amount of resource to minor issues. [11:40] Join the isologyhub and get access to limitless ISO resources – From as little as £99 a month, you can have unlimited access to hundreds of online training courses and achieve certification for completion of courses along the way, which will take you from learner to practitioner to leader in no time. Simply head on over to the isologyhub to sign-up or book a demo. [13:40] Finding the cause of non-conformities  – Without removing the cause, repetition may occur, and this is where integrating improvement data from multiple sources comes into its own. The idea of Common cause is - a single cause may manifest itself in very different outcomes. For example, a lack of competence could lead to a process being delivered wrongly, leading to reducing level of quality in service or product, which would be picked up as an NC. Competence is an area which can also lead to NC's, through the result of a helath & safety incident or environmental incident if people aren't trained to use equipment or follow set procedures.   It can also lead to a customer complaint where the failed process is apparent to a customer. If a product NC isn't spotted until after the product delivered/in service it could lead to a warranty claim Or even a claim for damages should it lead to harm/loss to the customer It could lead to regulatory breach or even enforcement or legal action Some of these outcomes may not be apparent until they have impacted upon a customer or other interested party, so would not be recorded internally through a nonconformity system. All this to say, finding the root cause will require looking in a lot of different places. Having a common methodology in place to address non-conformities, including considerations for different types of issues, makes life a lot easier. [15:55] Integrating Improvements from multiple sources: There are many sources which can highlight opportunities for Improvement, including: Internal Audit – This is a conformity assessment, so any gaps or issues identified will be NC's that need addressing. Surveillance Audit / Certification Audit – Your Certification Body will also be conducting a third-party conformity assessment, which may highlight something you've missed in your own internal audits. Supply Chain Audit – Auditing your supply chain can also highlight NC's that you can encourage them to address, both for your benefit and theirs. Client Audit – You may be audited by clients, especially where there may be specific technical industry related issues. Management Review – This is the perfect platform to identify Opportunities for Improvement. You can highlight NC trends from Internal Audits here and define if they need to be addressed separately. You will often have members of senior management present at a Management Review, so there is a greater chance for you to plan tangible actions to address issues, especially if they are business critical. SWOT / PESTLE – This usually happens early on in the Implementation phase, but there's no reason why you can't repeat the exercise on an annual basis. This exercise directly identifies your risks and opportunities, both from internal and external sources. Getting input from all levels of staff as they may also shed light on potential NC's and opportunities other departments may not even be aware of. Accident reporting / Safety observations – Any incident should be viewed as an opportunity to improve. Some accidents are unavoidable, but many are a result of someone not following instructions, equipment being left unattended or in the wrongs location ect. Addressing these will help you to ensure a safer environment. Site inspections – Just walking around your site can yield new insights. Ask other departments that may not visit your area to do a sweep and report any findings. Sometimes all you need is a fresh pair of eyes to highlight issues you've missed.   Complaint / Other customer feedback – Allow clients and stakeholders to have input. Regulatory requirements – You may discover you are breaching a regulation, which needs to be addressed ASAP. Consider a legal register to keep track of all your legal and regulatory requirements. Enforcement (HSE, EA, professional body) – You may have opportunities for improvement enforced by professional bodies such as the HSE or Environment Agency. Management Action – Any management meetings should take opportunity suggestions from both management and the general workforce. Product NC's – If you're in the manufacturing industry, you likely already have a system in place for monitoring any product related non-conformities. This process can be applied on a broader scale, as it embodies the same principles: Identify the problem, find the root cause, address the root cause, put preventative measures in place to stop recurrence.  If you'd like to book a demo for the isologyhub, simply contact us and we'd be happy to give you a tour. We'd love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here's how: ●     Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin ●     Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one. Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes: Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

Hear from Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, as we dive into the challenges of climate adaptation and what it means for our cities. 2023 was not only the warmest year on record, it also marked the warmest 10-year period on record. As we witness first-hand the impacts of a warming climate, including heatwaves, more intense precipitation and increased flooding, the case for building resilience against these risks becomes ever more important. This is particularly so in our cities, where the concentration of populations and economic activity make adaptation non-negotiable. This episode's guest has recently led a comprehensive review of the Climate Resilience of London, which takes stock of the city's preparedness for climate impacts and makes a series of recommendations for how the city needs to bolster its efforts. In this episode, we explore: How cities are vulnerable to cascading and interconnected risks, which amplify the impacts of climate change; How a collaborative approach to learning and building resilience will be critical in the years ahead; And how adaptation and resilience need to be woven through our all our decision making, while paying particular attention to the most vulnerable communities To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr For more information on climate risk, visit GARP's Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com   Links from today's discussion: Read the final report of the London Climate Resilience Review: https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-and-climate-change/climate-change/climate-adaptation/london-climate-resilience-review C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group: https://www.c40.org/ Thames Estuary 2100 Group report directory: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/thames-estuary-2100-te2100   Speaker's Bio(s) Emma Howard Boyd, Chair, London Climate Resilience Review Emma has been the Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, leading the delivery of its work since summer 2023. She has had an extensive career in financial services at the forefront of the climate change, environmental and sustainable finance agenda. Emma is also currently Chair of ClientEarth and a Global Ambassador for Race to Zero and Race to Resilience, and outgoing Chair of the Green Finance Institute. She has been Chair of the Environment Agency and an ex-officio board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2016 to 2022. Emma serves on several boards and advisory committees which include The Major Projects Association, Climate Arc, and the European Climate Foundation. She was the UK Commissioner to the Global Commission on Adaptation from 2018 until its sunset in January 2021.

Having created a watchdog for the environment, the government took its teeth out and muzzled it. Can public outrage rouse the Environment Agency to action? By Hettie O'Brien. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Fishing is a very popular pastime. In England alone, the Environment Agency issued more than 900,000 fishing licenses between March 2022 and April 2023. But illegal fishing on rivers and watercourses is on the up, according to the police, who are stepping up patrols with other agencies. Angling clubs pay thousands of pounds every year to stock rivers with fish for members and taking fish without permission is theft. Better training of police in poaching laws has, however, led to a recent spate of convictions and a legal first for volunteer river bailiffs.A new housing development in Essex is welcoming some new arrivals, but they're not excited home-owners. That's because houses on the estate at Manningtree come complete with their own flock of sheep and a full-time shepherdess.We're talking about trees all this week and today it's the threat to our trees from pests, pathogens and disease. Climate change, pollution, land use change and invasive species are all making trees more vulnerable to pests and diseases, like ash dieback. It was first detected in the UK back in 2012, since then it's swept across the country with devastating effect on our third most common broad-leaved tree. According to the Woodland Trust, ash dieback will eventually kill up to 80% of ash trees across the UK. Dead trees are dangerous trees, so local authorities are spending millions of pounds managing trees that are deemed unsafe. Presented by Caz Graham and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

The US, UK and Australia on Monday said they were considering working with Japan in the trilateral Aukus security pact, the world's biggest chipmaker will build cutting-edge facilities in Arizona in exchange for billions of dollars in subsidies, and the Environment Agency for England and Wales is allocating £11mn collected in fines against water companies, to environmental restoration projects.Mentioned in this podcast:TSMC boosts Joe Biden's AI chip ambitions with $11.6bn US production dealUS, UK and Australia say Japan could join part of Aukus pactRegulator seeks to quell public anger on UK water with £11mn restoration fundRegister for our FTWeekend Festival in the US! The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian and Marc Filippino. Additional help by Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Monica Lopez. Topher Forhecz is the FT's executive producer. The FT's global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show's theme song is by Metaphor Music.Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People living in Sittingbourne say they feel trapped in their homes as roads works and new housing developments cause daily congestion. They're caught in the crossfire as the government set housing targets leaving local authorities to deal with the consequences.Also in today's podcast, thousands of NHS dental procedures have been cancelled in Medway over the last two years with more than 1.1 million not performed.It comes as half of all dentists based in the Towns say they won't do any more NHS work due to financial pressures, “too much bureaucracy” and difficulty with recruiting and retaining staff.A dead rat has been found decomposing in the kitchen of a popular sushi restaurant in Canterbury. They were forced to stop service immediately and given a damning one-star food hygiene rating. Swalecliffe has been named as one of the places in the county most affected by sewage spills in the last 12 months. New figures from the Environment Agency show there were more than 11 spills there - you can hear from Sally Burtt-Jones from SOS Whitstable. And a Kent couple who are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary share their secrets to a long and happy marriage. Ron and Phyllis Wills say they've barely spent a day apart since they met in 1953. 

The Wildlife and Muirburn Bill has passed through the Scottish Parliament and brings in the licensing of grouse shoots, banning animal snares and changing the rules on the burning of heather. For the RSPB it's game changing legislation, for gamekeepers a disproportionate response.Conservation groups are calling for a clean up of an ancient woodland in Kent, which they say has been left devastated by the dumping of illegal waste. This is a place called Hoads Wood near Ashford, which is privately owned by a number of people. The Environment Agency says it's investigating a number of individuals and companies for fly-tipping.All this week we've been talking about shellfish and the oyster fishery on the Fal Estuary is steeped in history. Only sailing and rowing boats are allowed to be used to pull small dredges. But even this light touch hasn't been enough to keep the native oyster population at sustainable levels, so in a rare move, the few fishermen and women who are left are now asking for tougher regulations.Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

Episode 13 of the "Aerospace Ambition Podcast" featuring Kay Köhler from the Umweltbundesamt is out!Talking Points• What is the role of Umweltbundesamt - German Environment Agency?• How do you get from scientific discoveries to regulation?• Why did the first try to regulate contrails 15 years ago fail?• When will there be a prize tag on contrails?• What is CORSIA, what is the EU ETS?• Where do CORSIA and the EU ETS work together?• Where are loopholes for airlines in these systems?• How is uncertainty around CO2 equivalencies factored into allowances?GuestKay Köhler serves as a Senior Technical Officer in the Aviation Unit at the German Environment Agency (UBA). Holding both a Master in Public Administration and a Master in Aerospace Engineering, Kay previously oversaw emission protection, including noise and air pollution control for stationary installations, at the City of Berlin for approximately ten years. Since 2013, he has been employed at the UBA, concentrating on the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), and the non-CO2 impacts of aviation. Additionally, he participates in several European working groups related to aviation.AAMBITION Newsletterhttps://mailchi.mp/55033eb444bd/aambition-n++++Heartfelt shoutout to Kieran: Keep pushing on this ‘long final' of handing in your PhD thesis!

The BBC has been told that farmers in Wales who support overhauling their subsidies to help the environment feel "intimidated" and afraid to speak out.  It comes as some farmers are staging protests across Wales over plans for a greener post-Brexit funding scheme for agriculture, which farming unions say is unworkable.  But the Nature Friendly Farming Network, representing around 500 farmers in Wales, told BBC Wales that sticking to "business as usual" would not help the industry succeed in the long term.  It's been very wet and, as we've been reporting, lots of farmland is or has been underwater. That means crops destroyed and new crops not being planted. We've heard from farmers while the rain is clearly the problem, they say the Environment Agency is sometimes not helping. The Chair of the Environment Agency, Alan Lovell, spoke at last week's National Farmers Union conference, and unsurprisingly flooding was top of the agenda. He explained the EA's flood strategy in rural areas.The Rivers Trust have released their latest State of Our Rivers report which shows the extent of farm pollution in rivers. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.

This week we look at the positives about Scotland, King Charles's Cancer; EU caves into farmers; Biden and 'Mitterand'; Nicky Haley in Nevada; Michelle O'Neill; Corruption in the EU parliament; Ecocide;  the growth of BRICS; El Salvador's NAyib Bukele; James Marriot on egalitarian, elitist, education; Woke Comedy; 'Gas the Jews', BBC 'Holohoax' employee fired; Police ban singing Christian songs outside church; Newcastle ban lesbian Terf;  'Don't tell them Pike'; The misinformation of Prof Dame Juliet Gerrard; Environment Agency bans 'mother and father';  Electricity; The Church and fake asylum seekers; SEEK 22; with music from Big Country, the Wurzels, Led Zeppelin; Simon and Garfunkel; the Magpie Geordie; Lindisfarne;  OMD; and the Spooky Mens' Chorale. 

This week we are chatting about something super important seeing as we are in the heart of a cost of living crisis. AFFORDABILITY! Now for me, it's a key component for whatever purchase I make, but at the same time, I am definitely the type of person that wants quality products and I am personally happy to pay a little more for something if I know the quality is going to be there! Today I am speaking to Stephanie Matson from COSMOS organic certified and AFFORDABLE brand, Dr Organic. Available online and at Holland and Barrett stores nationwide!Stephanie has more than 20 years' experience, having started working life delivering environmental projects for Government departments and NGOs such as the Environment Agency before moving into organic beauty 15 years ago. She has worked for a diverse range of sustainable and ethical beauty brands and has been driving for sustainability at Dr. Organic for two years. Subscribe to this podcast in all places where you listen to podcasts and drop us an email at info@sustainablyinfuenced.com, or follow us on Instagram and TikTok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We discuss the water regulation guidelines, the cab cards developed by the Environment Agency, and how outdoor pig producers can minimise the risk of pollution. AHDB's Knowledge Exchange Relationship Manager Andrew Palmer is joined by the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) Advisor Helen Blower and Farming Rules for Water lead, Jackie Vale. Useful links Water regulations for farmers | AHDB Farming rules cab card Environmental Permitting Regulations | AHDB Water Regs UK Limited - Water Regulations Guide Check for Drinking Water Safeguard Zones and NVZs (data.gov.uk) Rules for farmers and land managers to prevent water pollution - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Applying the farming rules for water - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Feedback We'd love to know what you think of our podcasts. If you'd like to give your feedback, please complete our short questionnaire, which will help us to improve the podcast on an ongoing basis, or email us with your thoughts, comments and suggestions: foodandfarming@ahdb.org.uk 

Welcome to our series of bite-sized episodes featuring favourite moments from the Leading for Business Excellence podcast series.In this minisode, we're joined by David Sheldon, retired Head of Continuous Improvement at St John Ambulance and former Continuous Improvement Manager at the Environment Agency, as he shares an unusual perspective on customer-supplier dynamics.Listen to the full episode here: https://pmi.co.uk/knowledge-hub/podcast-embodying-continuous-improvement-with-david-sheldon-head-of-ci-at-st-john-ambulance/

Water - too much of it. We're out on the flooded acres of Lincolnshire - is the Environment Agency doing enough? We meet all the winners from the recent British Farming Awards, welcome loads of vintage tractors, get some important agronomy advice, check the markets and the weather for the week ahead - more rain?

One of the scariest things for scientists is watching entertainment media portray your field of study inaccurately—the horror! Flood resilience officer and social volcanologist Jazmin Scarlett turned her hobby of playing video games into a paper discussing the depictions of volcanic hazards in games such as Pokémon, LEGO DC Super Villains, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The typical video game volcano nearly always has molten lava, but would these games be even more fun to play if they incorporated fissure eruptions, pyroclastic flows, and the dangerous effects of ash and toxic gasses? Jazmin talked with us about her views on natural disasters in fiction media, what scares her about volcanoes, and why she left volcanology to work on flood resilience with the UK's Environment Agency. This episode was produced by Katrina Jackson and mixed by Collin Warren. Art by Jace Steiner.

While the world becomes drier, profit and pollution are draining our resources. We have to change our approach. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

I am joined on the river with Westcountry fly angler and guide Harry Chance.We talk about his love of fishing the small streams of Devon, look for some rising trout along with his work with the Environment Agency.We talk tactics and enjoy time together on the river.

A farmer was jailed last week for what the Environment Agency and Natural England describe as the ‘worst case of riverside damage' they'd ever seen. John Price admitted seven charges of damaging a stretch of the River Lugg in Herefordshire. He was sentenced to a year in prison and has to pick up the £600,000 bill for restoring the river. What are the implications of this when it comes to protecting our waterways in future? We speak to Natural England and the Wildlife Trust who raised the alarm. All week we're going to be looking at one of the fundamentals of farming: seeds - from seed banks to seed breeding and the work being done agricultural seed companies. We start off with a seed expert and professor of crop production from the University of Reading. Presenter = Caz Graham Producer = Rebecca Rooney

Roger Falconer is Emeritus Professor of Water and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering, at Cardiff University, UK, and an Independent Water Consultant. His research and consultancy interests are in hydro-environmental modelling and his models have been used in over 100 Environmental Impact Assessment studies world-wide and provide one of the engines to the model Flood Modeller (marketed internationally by Jacobs). He has published over 450 papers in journals and conference proceedings and given over 600 keynote conference presentations and lectures to learned societies and universities world-wide. He is a Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences. He was President of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (2011-15). He consults regularly on flooding projects world-wide and was a member of the: Government's National Flood Resilience Scientific Advisory Group, Natural Resources Wales' Flood Risk Management Committee (2006-16), Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (2019-date), Independent Expert Group (of 3) reviewing the recent London Floods (2021-date). He regularly gives TV and media interviews on flooding. Dr. Richard Crowder, Jacobs Director, Water & Environment, is an internationally recognized flood risk management professional with more than 25 years of experience. His history in the industry is one of innovation and doing things differently. He is a business leader with experience spanning research, innovation, project delivery, client management, sales, and operational management. Richard is known for taking on challenging projects and using innovation and digital delivery to solve problems and deliver projects in new and more efficient ways. This covers the full range of flood risk management disciplines including appraisal, environmental services, engineering design, asset management, and hydrological and hydraulic modelling. He joined Halcrow (now Jacobs) in 2002 and has held senior leadership roles including Regional Business Development Director (Europe) for the water sector, and framework manager delivering engineering and environmental services to the Environment Agency (England). He is currently part of Jacobs' Water Catchment Management leadership team responsible for Growth, the Director responsible for Jacobs family of flood products, and the Framework Director leading Jacobs contract with the Environment Agency to deliver flood mapping and modelling services.  

Poultry farmers are appealing to the government to include them on a list of industries which would get help paying their energy costs. The Energy Bill Relief Scheme is being replaced by the Energy and Trade Intensive Industry Scheme - but agricultural producers are not included in either. Poultry production has declined recently, partly due to avian flu but also because of the huge rise in the cost of heating, ventilating and feeding indoor chickens for meat. The indoor vegetable industry is also asking the government for help with energy costs. While Scotland is battling with the snow, farmers in East Anglia and the South West are still hoping for more rain. East Anglia in particular had the driest February since 1959 and the third driest on record, and for a region where three quarters of the land produces grain and vegetables, lack of rain can have a serious impact nationwide. We visit the Euston Estate near Thetford to hear how low water levels have changed what they are growing. One of the big issues facing the dairy farming sector is pollution. Slurry that's not stored properly can pollute both air and rivers. Last year two thirds of dairy and beef farms in one region of England were found to be causing pollution, when the Environment Agency inspected 187 farms in Devon between 2016 and 2020. The EA report concluded that dairy farmers were taking a calculated business risk not to invest to stop pollution because the chances of being fined are so tiny. The Environment Agency has committed to introducing a system of environmental permits for dairy and beef farms to clamp down on pollution incidents, but the industry is worried. We visit a dairy farmer in Somerset. Presenter: Anna Hill Producer: Rebecca Rooney

One of the firms which operates the Government's visa scheme for seasonal workers in food and farming has had its licence revoked. AG Recruitment was one of six companies which brought temporary workers from Europe and around the world to work on UK farms. We ask British Growers what this means for a sector which is already struggling to find workers to pick their fruit and veg this summer. A farmer who lost all his ducks through bird flu, says delays with paperwork could jeopardize his plans to produce chickens instead. Tom McVeigh wants to house broilers on his farm in Suffolk after 95,000 ducks died because of avian influenza. He needs the Environment Agency to sign off on the the change of use but says they've told him staff shortages mean instead of taking six weeks to process the paperwork, it'll take six months. All week we are boldly going beyond our world to talk about how food and farming can benefit from our exploration of space. From satellites guiding tractors and scouting for illegal fishing operations, to zero gravity crops. We speak to: the UK Space Agency about how space exploration already has an impact on farms; an Israeli company which has produced lab-grown meat in space; a tech start-up which is taking technology designed for exploring Mars to weed organic crops; and a campaign group which is using images from space to keep tabs on illegal fishing. Early lambing's started, which means late nights and early mornings on some sheep farms. We join one couple who breed Texel rams in the lambing shed on their farm in Gloucestershire. Presenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney

A Suffolk farmer who invested in growing ducks but got hit by bird flu, is trying to switch to chickens instead but says his plan is being jeopardized because of labour shortages at the Environment Agency. Tom McVeigh from Kenton Hall lost 95,000 ducks to avian flu. He now wants to rear broilers but needs the Environment Agency to sign off the change of use. However, he says there are big delays to the paper work and it could stop the project going ahead. DEFRA Secretary Terese Coffey is in America and will be speaking at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Winter Conference. It's the first time a foreign minister has addressed the gathering. Dr Coffey is expected to talk about forging a sustainable future and US/UK co-operation. All week we're getting a very different perspective on farming and finding out how space research and exploration could impact agriculture now, and in the future. What do astronauts eat for lunch? Well if it's been pouches of pre-prepared meals they might like a change. How about steak? A company called Aleph Farms based in Israel has made lab-grown meat in space. Conservationists say offshore windfarms in the North Sea need to reduce the impact they're having on seabirds. The warning comes as the latest windfarm, Hornsea 4, has been delayed, following concerns about the Kittiwake – an endangered species of gull. Hornsea 4's developers say they're working hard to ensure green energy and seabird populations can co-exist. Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

Feel like you're struggling as a manager? Are you doubting yourself, feeling like maybe it's not a great fit? In this episode we look at three things that can be a factor: your work environment, your sense of agency, and your autonomy. Work environment includes physical things (e.g., furniture, lighting, etc) as well as the culture of your organization. Agency is your capacity to take action in a situation. Autonomy is your bigger picture perspective on how much freedom you have to make decisions for your life. When you look at how these three elements relate in your own work life, you gain insight that will help you every day. Let's discuss! After the episode: Register for the group coaching program: https://kimnicol.com/newmanagers/ Book a consult to discuss 1:1 coaching: https://calendly.com/kimnicol/consultation

All week we're taking a closer look at the UK's fishing industry. It was supposed to be a major beneficiary of Brexit. However fishing fleets across the country say although they can now catch more fish overall, current conditions mean they are still struggling. We report from Fraserburgh Fish Market where fishermen say one of the biggest problems they face is staff shortages. Scottish fishing boats were forced to leave 15 thousand tonnes of small haddock in the sea last year due to a reduction in on shore processing workers. The Northern Ireland Fish Producers Organisation wants the government to delay the introduction of new visas: instead of existing transit visas, which have enabled international fishermen to work on UK boats, in future they'll need a 'skilled worker' visas which includes passing an intermediate English language test. The debate around how we use land, is becoming ever more complicated, as homes, food, energy and mitigating climate change, are all pressing concerns. Recent figures show arable land prices rose 12 percent in 2022, partly due to higher grain prices following the war in Ukraine but there's also been a trend for more institutions to invest in land,. We hear from Tony Juniper, head of the Environment Agency and the Green Alliance who are publishing a report on communities and land use. Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

The U.K.'s Environment Agency calls waste crime — where instead of delivering recycling or rubbish for proper disposal, companies simply dump it in the countryside — “the new narcotics” because it's so easy to make money illegally. It's estimated that one in every five U.K. waste companies operates in this manner ('fly-tipping'), and the government seems powerless to stop it: it's so easy to be registered as one of the government's recommended waste haulers that even a dog can do it — and at least one has, as this episode shares. In part 2 of our new investigative podcast series, the team also speaks with a lawyer who describes her year-long campaign to get the government to deal with a single illegal dump site, but they fail to act before it catches fire, in an emblematic 'trash fire' for this whole issue. They also speak with a former official at Interpol who shares that his agency also lacks the resources to tackle the problem. In a three-part, “true eco-crime” series for Mongabay's podcast, our hosts trace England's towering illegal waste problem: investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby follow this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside and as far away as Poland. Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. This episode is "The Jungle" and is part two of the podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu. Banner image: The U.K.'s recyclables, plastic packaging and waste soils the countryside across the country and as far away as Turkey (pictured). Image courtesy of Caner Ozkan via Greenpeace Media Library. If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com.

Researchers have identified which neurons, when electrically stimulated, can restore the ability to walk in paralysed patients. Professor Jocelyne Bloch, Associate Professor at the Université de Lausanne, tells Roland how the technology works. Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to Earth. Researchers led by Kareem El-Badry, astrophysicist at Harvard University, identified the celestial body when they spotted a Sun-like star orbiting a dark, dense object. The origins of eels have been mystifying scientists for centuries. Though the Sargasso Sea has been their presumed breeding place for 100 years, there has been no direct evidence of their migration – until now. Ros Wright, Senior Fisheries Technical Specialist at the Environment Agency, shares how researchers finally pinned down these slippery creatures. This week, a new report from the UN Environment Programme reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from building operations have reached an all-time high. Insaf Ben Othmane, architect and co-author of the report, talks through the risks and opportunities this poses for Africa and why there is still hope for the future. After learning how long it will take the Earth's ice sheets to melt in the previous episode, we continue our journey in Greenland. As world leaders gather in Egypt for the annual UN climate conference, listener Johan isn't too optimistic about governments' ability to curb greenhouse gas emissions and get a handle on climate change. So from his coastal perch in Denmark, he's asked where we should live when the poles have melted away and coastlines creep inland. Along with the help of BBC correspondents around the world, Marnie Chesterton scours the globe for the best option for listener Johan's new home. From high-up, cold desert regions to manmade islands, Marnie's on a mission to find a climate-proof destination. But as we hear from climate scientists, we might not be the only ones on the move, and waters aren't going to rise evenly around the world. Can Marnie find a place to go, away from the expanding seas? (Image: Patient with complete spinal cord injury (left) and incomplete spinal cord injury (right) walking in Lausanne. Credit: Jimmy Ravier/NeuroRestore)

Researchers have identified which neurons, when electrically stimulated, can restore the ability to walk in paralysed patients. Professor Jocelyne Bloch, Associate Professor at the Université de Lausanne, tells Roland how the technology works. Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to Earth. Researchers led by Kareem El-Badry, astrophysicist at Harvard University, identified the celestial body when they spotted a Sun-like star orbiting a dark, dense object. The origins of eels have been mystifying scientists for centuries. Though the Sargasso Sea has been their presumed breeding place for 100 years, there has been no direct evidence of their migration – until now. Ros Wright, Senior Fisheries Technical Specialist at the Environment Agency, shares how researchers finally pinned down these slippery creatures. This week, a new report from the UN Environment Programme reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from building operations have reached an all-time high. Insaf Ben Othmane, architect and co-author of the report, talks through the risks and opportunities this poses for Africa and why there is still hope for the future. Contributors Jocelyne Bloch, Associate Professor and Neurosurgeon, Université de Lausanne Kareem El-Badry, Astrophysicist, Harvard University Insaf Ben Othmane, Architect, Oecumene Spaces for Dignity Ros Wright, Senior Fisheries Technical Specialist, Environment Agency (Image: Patient with complete spinal cord injury (left) and incomplete spinal cord injury (right) walking in Lausanne. Credit: Jimmy Ravier/NeuroRestore) Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Roland Pease Assistant Producer: Sophie Ormiston

A tide of effluent, broken laws and ruthless cuts is devastating the nations' waterways. An academic and a detective have dredged up the truth of how it was allowed to happen – but will anything be done?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Is the UK heading for a drought? Adam speaks to the head of the Environment Agency, Sir James Bevan about the impact of the recent dry weather and soaring temperatures, which are forecast to hit 37C (99F) in some parts of the country in the coming days. Adam is also joined by Charlotte Smith from Radio 4's Farming Today and BBC Weather's Matt Taylor to assess how the hot conditions will affect crops and agriculture, and when we can expect some rain. Today's episode was produced by Tim Walklate with Beth Rose, Cordelia Hemming and Miranda Slade. The technical producer was Emma Crowe.