In January 2021, the weir at Newlay, on which a fish pass was being constructed as part of DNAire, collapsed during a winter storm.
The reasons for this collapse were the subject of an independent review commissioned by the Environment Agency and delivered by ARUP. It is neither our wish nor role to become involved in establishing how this happened, nor to point fingers or in any other way apportion blame (if indeed there IS any blame to be assigned). We are however, happy to act as a channel through which interested parties can read the report and respond to a live Environment Agency consultation on the way forward.
That consultation can be found on the Environment Agency's consultation site at Newlay Weir - Environment Agency - Citizen Space (environment-agency.gov.uk) .
Aire Rivers Trust's position is that we do not want to see the weir rebuilt in any form, as the best form of fish passage is the open channel that has effectively been created by the collapse.
What to do with the (hopefully) redundant fish pass is an EA decision in conjunction with the various funders of DNAire.
