Severn Estuary Partnership

On Monday the 25th August 2008 the Severn Estuary Partnership (SEP) in conjunction with the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences of Cardiff University attended Cardiff Bay Harbour Festival. The Partnership took copies of recent publications including Severn Tidings, Guidance notes, Membership flyers and information on the 3rd Severn Estuary Partnership Annual Forum. Cardiff University provided a Marquee to display these publications and posters. Partnership Assistant Paul Parker was on hand to answer any questions and raise the profile of SEP by actively engaging with the public.

The festival offered the opportunity for members of the public to explore local ships including the historical Mathew and Cardiff Universities research vessel Guiding Light.

The day was a huge success and presented an opportunity for the SEP to raise its profile in the public domain. Many members of the public were interested in the Partnership and took away publications for further perusal. A focus of a lot of questions was the proposed options for tidal power in the estuary and the confusion over what is actually happening. The day indicated the usefulness of a dedicated area on the SEP website to inform and update the local public on renewable options in the Severn and the current processes for tidal power development. It is hoped that such a webpage can be developed in the autumn.

In total over 280 people took an interest in the Partnership at the event, with many of these taking away forum flyers and expressing a desire to attend in mid September. SEP also took the opportunity to raise the awareness of the membership scheme and are delighted that numerous people took the opportunity to join on the spot!