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Dredging Work to Maintain Water Flow and Manage Mosquitoes Starts Today at Parkgate Marsh

Exciting work commences this week, to maintain this known flood risk area and manage the pesky mosquito population

Work has now begun thanks to the great partnership between RSPB, Cheshire West and Chester Council, Neston Town Council, the Parkgate Society, and Our Dee Estuary charity, bringing the project together.

Dredging works include the installation of a new pond and drainage maintenance. Gutters will be dredged, pools opened up, water flow maintained and mosquito populations managed.

The Parkgate Marshes on the Dee Estuary are a known flood risk and require constant maintenance. High tides on the Dee Estuary are also becoming more frequent and severe.

CREDIT: RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands (link opens Twitter)

Work starts this week on two thousand metres of a main gully which will be cleared, from the Old Quay to past the Boathouse car park. Short sections of gullies/grids leading from the Parade will also be included to improve water flow management.

A new pond will be created to the right of existing flash at Old Baths car park by merging a number of small pools into one.

The work is expected to take around two weeks to complete. The work has been arranged with the landowners, RSPB, using their approved contractor.

Funding for the project has been received from CWAC Council, Neston Town Council and the ‘More from Trees' project managed by The Mersey Forest.

‘More from Trees' is a Green Recovery Challenge Fund project which aims to kickstart a Green Recovery across Merseyside and Cheshire, boosting nature recovery and connecting more people to nature across the area. The Fund is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England, the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission. A key strand of the project is Natural Flood Management, which can help to improve water quality, slowing down flood flows and increasing water storage.

CWAC Leader and Member for Little Neston, Councillor Louise Gittins said: "This project is part of the constant maintenance of the Parkgate Marshes, a known flood risk area. The project will ensure drainage gullies are clear and improve the water flow.

"The new pond will create a new habitat for birds as well as providing opportunities for the public to view them, this will also create an area for mosquitos to lay their larvae. As the pond will be large and shallow, any mosquito eggs will be laid along its edge which will provide easily accessible food for the pond wildlife and therefore reduce the number of mosquitoes hatching in the local area."

Councillor Martin Barker, CWAC Member for Parkgate added: "As Parkgate's CWaC ward member I have been campaigning for the creation of a new pond and dredging work to be undertaken at this site for some time - I am therefore delighted that through partnership working the works are now taking place.

"The introduction of a new pond at the Old Baths site will create a focal point for bird watching and will hopefully encourage more people to explore this area of our wonderful Parkgate.

"An added bonus to these works will be the management of mosquitoes and potential future flooding."

CREDIT: Martin Barker

Chair of Neston Town Council's Community and Environment committee, Councillor Brenda Marple said: "Neston Town Council is pleased to be able to work with partners to ensure the environmentally sensitive management of the marshes which will help to reduce mosquito numbers and also provide increased habitat for wild bird populations. It is hoped that the new pond will also create an attractive aspect at the Boathouse end of Parkgate."

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Comments

Anthony A

At 11:13 on 16th August 2022, Anthony A commented:

I'd be interested to know how whoever drafted this justifies saying that flooding in the estuary is becoming 'more frequent and severe'. I'm also puzzled why the piece mentions the alleged flood risk at all. I can't see how the proposed works will have the slightest impact on any supposed flood risk.

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John C

At 20:27 on 16th August 2022, John C commented:

I have to endorse the comments ofAnthonyA the very nature of a rapidly silting estuary is that tidal events become more and more infrequent . I think the works may well improve the wildlife situation which is laudable but flood risk in my opinion is a nonsense.

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Better the devil you know

At 17:39 on 25th August 2022, Better the devil you know commented:

I suspect the flood risk element is possibly meant to be related to surface water drainage discharging directly to marsh ditches thereby reducing surcharging rather than tidal flooding. But I could be wrong..

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