Past the quarter line – and a continued commitment to accountability: Our Chair, Nigel Wilkinson MBE shares his insights on progress against our Action Plan to date.

In November 2025, as the volunteer Chair of the Love Windermere Partnership, I put my name to our first Action Plan.  My commitment was transparency and accountability on the delivery of our 33 actions by November 2027. 

We have just past the quarter line and I am delighted that 29 of our 33 actions are underway.  The eager amongst you will have kept track of our progress via our social media posts and newsletters but here is a recap of our work to date: 

Tackling sewage 

• Supporting Partners’ formal roles in the issue of registration and licensing, the Lake District Foundation have created advice on Greener Boating which has been shared with 3,600 boat owners on Windermere.  As a boat operator myself, the message is clear, prepare for spills and use the pump out facilities for your wastewater to help keep our lake clean. 

• United Utilities are actively working with four communities keen to explore First Time Sewerage.  This has long been a passion of mine and it’s great to see the option being promoted, so I look forward to seeing how these investigations progress. 

• Our Partners South Cumbria Rivers Trust and Lake District Foundation have now completed their Septic Tank Emptying Programme (STEP).  The project offered targeted advice to property owners managing their sewage with a septic tank rather than a mains connection.  Over 300 properties were approached and around 75 took the offer of a free septic tank health check and emptying. 

• United Utilities have delivered advice on fats and grease management to over 50 businesses – important in preventing sewer blockages. 

• Finally, the ‘Wonderful Windermere’ initiative whereby United Utilities through a bespoke performance commitment with OFWAT support improvements in private sewage treatment is underway, and I’ll be excited to share progress in the coming months. 

Supporting positive land management 

• Our Partners including the National Farmers Union came together, hosted by the National Trust, to visit several farms in the catchment to explore some of the barriers to farmers wanting to adopt positive farming practices that improve water quality.  An important first step in working with our farming community. 

• South Cumbria Rivers Trust, as part of a County wide project, have identified locations for the installation of washdown facilities to prevent the spread of invasive species.  This work is now ready for funding to be taken forward. 

• Sediment Fingerprinting is a novel technique to identify where sediment is being lost within a sub-catchment.  This Catchment Sensitive Farming backed research in Troutbeck is complete and South Cumbria Rivers Trust are working with the researchers to finalise the report. 

• Westmorland and Furness Council have been working with their risk management authority colleagues in the Environment Agency and United Utilities to identify sites where flood risk and water quality issues could be tackled together.  One site has already been brought forward for funding, and I look forward to sharing more on this with you in the future.  

• The Environment Agency have just written to recently inspected farms found to be compliant; the letter gives information about a source of funding to support them to go further in reducing nutrient loss from their farm – part of the ‘Wonderful Windermere’ initiative. 

Sharing Information 

• The Environment Agency, working with our National Trust and Westmorland and Furness Council Partners have expanded the successful ‘Hello Lamppost’ chat AI tool to Fell Foot.  This Citizen Science initiative enables people to scan a QR code to get information about water quality and report what they observe. 

• Tours to the United Utilities Tower Wood Wastewater Treatment Works remain really popular and having personally attended I can say they are incredibly informative! 

• We have run an initial training session for staff working directly with people on or by the lake to provide them with key information about water quality and the practices everyone can adopt to play their part. 

• Our Partnership Manager Ruth has hosted 6 community drop-in sessions at locations throughout the catchment.  These are a great way to engage with us, and I encourage you to call in and share your views with Ruth and Partners.  We are grateful to the Partners and businesses that have hosted us for these events. 

• The Windermere education pilot with Goodly Dale Primary School through the Lake District National Park Authority was a great success and I understand the team are now working on finalising the materials to promote more widely – more to come! 

With plenty more happening behind the scenes, I am proud of the progress we have made so far.  Aside from the small grant awarded to us this year by Westmorland and Furness Council to support the Partnership, the Environment Agency funded Partnership Manager role and contributions from United Utilities and the Lake District National Park Authority towards our Communications Officer for which we are very grateful, Love Windermere receives no core funding and is the result of nine organisations committed to using the resources they have to make a difference. 

We said when we published our plan that we must all work to reduce nutrients against our changing climate, recent research published by the Environment Agency reinforces that message but also shows that the work we are doing, in Partnership and through the formal roles of our Partners is and will make a difference. I am therefore immensely grateful to every one of you that is supporting this journey to ensure Windermere retains its iconic status for generations to come. 

With thanks 

Nigel