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Love Your River Cole

Love Your River Cole (LYRiC) is a project to restore nature along the River Cole and work with communities to invest in its future for wildlife and people. The River Cole has the potential to form a brilliant haven for wildlife, as well as a valued green space for the communities living alongside it.

With the support of the Environment Agency, a vision for the Cole Valley has been developed: a high quality and multi-functional blue-green corridor within the Cole Catchment through East Birmingham, North Solihull and North Warwickshire.

The River Cole is 34km in length, rising from the slopes between Forhill and Wythall, approximately 9 km south-west of Solihull. The Cole is an important habitat for wildlife, and supports several species including otter and brown trout.

Historically, the river Cole has been subject to modifications such as deepening, straightening and widening of the channel, and disconnection of the channel from its floodplain. These modifications are considered to have had detrimental impacts on the river habitats and flooding issues in the local area.

There is a well-studied link between the ecological quality of an environment and the happiness of its local community. By restoring more natural features to the river Cole, we hope to start to reverse these historic changes and bring the river Cole into a healthier ecological state – better for wildlife and for people.

Through LYRiC, we are restoring more natural features to the river Cole, to start to reverse these historic changes and bring the river Cole into a healthier ecological state – better for wildlife and for people.

There are four main aims of LYRiC:

1. To CREATE a high quality blue-green corridor for use as an alternative travel route for local or commuting journeys
2. To ENHANCE the natural and historic environment, the biodiversity and water quality, the surrounding flood prevention measures and the opportunities provided by the river.
3. To STIMULATE partnership working to approach catchment-wide issues, to deliver policy aspirations and unlock funding opportunities.
4. To RECONNECT local communities and businesses to improve well-being and resilience, and help people value the environmental benefits and cultural heritage provided by the River Cole.

Click on the posts below to read about the Love Your River Cole project so far:

Studies and Reports

Our work on LYRiC is based on a series of recommendations set out in the Cole Valley Catchment Landscape Vision report, which outlines ways to improve the river Cole for wildlife and the local community.

For large scale projects, we work with consultants to produce feasibility studies and design models, to ensure the work we do has the right impacts in the right places.

Funding and Support

LYRiC has been supported by a variety of organisations, helping us to deliver improvements along the river Cole for people and wildlife.

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