All of our news from the last few months
Project Work Updates
Wear Estuary Enhancements
CBEC was engaged by Groundwork North East & Cumbria (GNEC) to assess the feasibility of enhancing estuarine habitat at three separate sites within the Wear Estuary between the A19 and Norther Spire Bridge. Each site varied significantly in its morphology, necessitating the development of a range of distinct restoration approaches.
Artistic visualisations of each restoration option were developed to provide a visual representation of what each option would look like after construction. The visualisations for Barons Quay were featured on the BBC website. GNEC is seeking permissions for the construction of the Barons Quay restoration, and this is expected to begin in 2025. Click here to find out more
Our artist's impression of the finished site
Woodhall Restoration Project, Hertfordshire
CBEC was commissioned by Affinity Water Services Ltd to undertake the Phase III restoration design of the River Beane at Woodhall Estate, Hertfordshire. The design was developed to reconnect the Beane with the floodplain and create a more natural sinuous channel more in keeping with chalk stream conditions (i.e., multi-thread, connected with water meadows, high groundwater level.
River Bean post construction
The design also considered improving habitat for the water vole, otter, kingfisher and fish species. The redesigned channel increased the river length of this reach of the River Beane from 600 m to 1000 m and included the creation of 3280 m² of new wetland habitat. A flood bund was added to contain small flood events within the floodplain, resulting in complete inundation of the floodplain during smaller storm events. Please click for more information.
River Bean, wood placed in the channel for habitat
Wooler Water Bank Protection, Northumberland
Eight months after construction, CBEC's sustainable bank protection design at the Wooler Water, Northumberland, is springing to life with vegetation. The scope of the project was to design a sustainable bank protection solution that is resilient to the highly dynamic nature of the Wooler Water in order to protect nearby buried pipes.
Design development was informed by a detailed Fluvial Audit and iterative Morphodynamic modelling, taking a process-based approach that works with natural river processes to achieve a sustainable design. The final design protects the bank toe with tree trunks with their root plates attached and rock roll pyramids. The upper bank has been reprofiled to a more stable gradient, and the newly formed bank surface is protected with a willow mattress formed by a lattice of willow brush attached to the bank, incorporating topsoil and seeded with a native riverbank seed mix.
The roughness and resilience of the willow mattress provided immediate protection to the bank over the autumn and winter months, and now the spring has initiated the next phase, where the willow and seeded vegetation grow and colonise the bank. This self-sustaining living structure utilises natural processes where the roots act to bind the riverbank substrate, increasing resilience, and the surface vegetation increases roughness, which dissipates erosive forces in high flows.
The River Peffery at Fodderty, Scottish Highlands
In 2024, CBEC was contracted by Lockett Agri-Environmental Ltd to develop a detailed restoration design for a reach of the River Peffery, near Fodderty. The project has been funded by NatureScot’s Nature Restoration Fund. This project was informed by a previous catchment-scale scoping study delivered by CBEC in 2023, which highlighted the site as appropriate for river restoration and identified high-level measures that would best achieve the following objectives:
- reinstate floodplain connectivity and enhance wetland habitats;
- restore river form and processes that reflect a sinuous, pool-riffle channel; corresponding to the reference river conditions at the site; and
- deliver a design that does not increase flood risk to downstream receptors and decreases flood risk where possible.
The restoration design delivers a river and floodplain environment that better reflects more natural, low-impact conditions. To achieve this, the design maximises opportunities to enhance diversity and connectivity across the channel and floodplain, specifically by increasing channel sinuosity and depositional features, and by instating several ‘online’ floodplain features including wet woodland, wetlands, and backwater features.
Following the development of detailed designs, the securing of necessary permissions/approvals, construction undertaken by CR Contracting North Ltd, commenced in May 2025, with CBEC staking out the design and providing construction supervision. At the time of writing, the works are almost complete on site – look out for future updates from the site on our social media pages!
News
New Team Members
Henry McBratney BSc
Henry is a graduate from Northumbria University, where he studied Environmental Science (BSc), where he developed his understanding of surveying techniques, GIS, and sustainable practices. he is also a graduate member of IEMA. Henry has joined the team as a Consultant – Surveyor. For more information about Henry and his role, please go here
Sussex Heritage Trust 2025 THE ECO AWARD
We are delighted to announce that the Cockshut Project received the Sussex Heritage Trust 2025 THE ECO AWARD! The award recognises a project’s commitment to excellence in sustainability, biodiversity, and energy efficiency. The new chalk stream and wetland environment CBEC designed, as a joint partnership between Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust and Lewes District Council, in collaboration with the Railway Land Wildlife Trust and South Downs National Park and Ebsford Environmental provides exceptional habitat for a range of freshwater species as well as over-wintering birds, which are declining as a result of the impact of coastal squeeze.
The project previously also won the Sussex Heritage Trust 2025 THE SOUTH DOWNS AWARD. Please click here for more information
River Restoration Centre Conference 2025
We had a great time at the RRC annual event this year in Brighton, which was the biggest one yet - over 500 attendees! For more information about the event this year, please go to the RRC website where you can enquire about next year too. It's a brilliant place to hear about all the kinds of river restoration projects all over the UK.
FIADH Animation for Scotland the Big Picture
CBEC was commissioned by Scotland the Big Picture to create an animation to promote deer stalking to help with the biodiversity of the Scottish Highlands. Deer have no natural predators, and their numbers in recent years have had a detrimental effect on native woodland and peatlands. We created this animation to visualise how the future might look and how this management could improve the area.
New Technical Service!
We are delighted to announce that CBEC is expanding our expertise to Estuarine and Tidal River Restoration. We now offer a comprehensive range of services for the assessment, design, and implementation of restoration projects within estuaries and tidal rivers. For more information on this new service, please go here.
LiDAR Drone Service
We’re pleased to announce a significant upgrade to our survey capabilities. Our new LiDAR drone is now fully operational. This technology enables us to capture high-resolution topographic data with exceptional accuracy, even in areas with significant vegetation and tree coverage. In Scotland, where LiDAR coverage can be patchy, particularly in rural or upland river systems, this new capability gives us greater efficiencies when collecting the necessary data to enable our projects to progress.
Whether in support of river restoration design, generating terrain surfaces for hydraulic modelling, or monitoring large-scale geomorphic change over time, we can now deliver more detailed and more cost-effective surveys.
Detailed LIDAR drone images
Illustration Service
CBEC offers an illustrative service to promote potential visual results for project plans. Please have a look at our Graphics/Illustration brochure below for details, or get in touch by clicking here
Brochures
Technical Services
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