It started off quite bright and sunny but in the past half hour cloud has built up driven on by a stiffening and chilly north east breeze.  It looks like a wet morning in prospect which may help to lift the river and bring the salmon up over the Foss.

I had some welcome news from the EA yesterday.  Our fencing work at Nanny Carr's does not need consent as it's agricultural fencing and exempt from the usual controls.  I now wait for a response from the National Park and English Nature but as EN have a memorandum of understanding with the EA which means that if one grants consent or exempts a project then it's deemed that the other consents also I don't foresee any problems.  The real sticking point will be the availability of grant funding which is far less generous now since the Chancellor clawed back £10m from DEFRA's rural development budget to pour into the bureaucratic black hole known as the NHS.  So, we wait and see.

It's been a long time since I mentioned the Hatchery.  Truth is progress has been slow here of late for a number of reasons but gravelling out the spawning channels should be done soon so more pictures shortly.

The development at Brants Gyll is even more alarming than first thought.  Hidden away in the tiny detail on one of the plans is a fuller description of the beckside wall.  This appears to be 7 feet high and founded on massive quarry blocks.  I hope that the EA take a keen interest in this as it will have a devastating impact at the foot of the beck and potentially seriously impede the progress of migratory and resident salmonids up this vital spawning beck.  We will see what can be done.

Ian