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© Lower Otter Restoration Project
Queen’s Green Canopy
The Environment Agency, on behalf of the Lower Otter Restoration Project, has been granted a virtual plaque after planting 225 trees to form part of the Queen’s Green Canopy which marked the 2022 Platinum Jubilee.
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2 January 2024: After a fascinating journey over the past few years, we are pleased to be able to say that the construction phase of the pioneering Lower Otter Restoration Project is now complete.
As a result, this website will no longer be updated, but it is our intention that it should remain available online as a publicly available source of information until the end of 2024.
To comply with data protection legislation, the project mailing list is being deleted as no fresh updates will be issued by this route.
The Lower Otter is now being managed by the Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust and you can sign up for their newsletters here.
You can still email the project team and your message will be passed to the most relevant team member for a response.
On behalf of the whole team we would like to thank all those partners and members of the public who have supported us in this challenging and important project which has led to the creation of 55ha of fantastic intertidal habitat, benefiting wildlife and the community.
Residents celebrate opening of the 'Elizabeth Bridge'
24 November 2023: The brand new 70m "Elizabeth Bridge" has been officially opened by Hon. Charles Fane Trefusis and Mark Rice, Environment Agency Area Director, marking a significant milestone for the project.
Click here to read more.
Latest updates
Q&A
Answers to the most frequently asked questions about the project are available here.
Environment
Environmental Statement
To see the Lower Otter Restoration Project Environmental Statement, click here.
The Lower Otter Restoration Project worked with local people and partner organisations to adapt and improve the downstream part of the River Otter, its estuary and its immediate surroundings for future generations. We worked with nature, rather than against it, in the face of continuing climate change.
Key aims of the project include:
- Maintaining and securing existing public footpaths, including part of the nationally important South West Coast Path.
- Securing vehicle access to South Farm residents and businesses along South Farm Road, with raising the road or a bridge being possible options.
- Reconnecting the river to its floodplain allowing it to flood and drain naturally by breaching the embankments in several places. The breaches have been spanned by bridges to allow continued public access.
- Stabilising the former domestic refuse tip to protect against future erosion.
- Working with Budleigh Salterton Cricket Club to provide a more sustainable site for them which is less prone to flooding.
- Provision of new education and interpretation facilities.
- An increased area of rare inter-
tidal habitat with significant biodiversity benefits, including for birdlife. The project provides compensatory inter- tidal habitat for that lost to coastal squeeze in sites such as the Exe Estuary which are benefiting from new flood defence initiatives. The Lower Otter Estuary was identified as an area suitable for such new habitat creation. - Working with tenant farmers to adjust existing land use to allow livelihoods to be secured, water quality to improve and biodiversity to thrive.
Schematic maps of some initial proposals can be seen here. Maps and details of four options presented at a public exhibition in Budleigh Salterton on July 5th, 2017, are available on this page.
Detailed answers to common questions can be found here.
What the project set out to achieve
