Floodplain restoration project wins national award

Work to restore rivers and floodplains in the Trent Valley in Staffordshire has been recognised with a national award.

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency have been working with many project partners, including Heidelberg Materials, to carry out more than 100 river and floodplain projects through the Trent river system over the past 25 years.

The work has now won the 2023 UK River Prize catchment-scale award, presented by the River Restoration Centre, which celebrates the achievements of those working to restore our rivers and catchments.

Among the projects that helped secure the award win is the UK’s largest river island restoration at Cherry Holme, adjoining Barton quarry, which we collaborated on as corporate members of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, as well as our Barton quarry’s older restored river-meander features. 

The project partners are working to undo the damage that has taken place to more than 85 per cent of Staffordshire’s watercourse due to being straightened, embanked and disconnected from their floodplains through human intervention. 

“Our involvement with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, as well as the Transforming the Trent Valley project, complements our ongoing conservation and restoration work at Barton quarry, which involves creating a large area of wetlands within floodplain woodland,” said principal landscape architect David Southgate.

“We are proud to be involved in restoring the natural heritage of the Trent Valley and helping nature recover while helping to provide flood alleviation for local places.”