Exo Environmental were appointed Principal Designer and Project Manager of a 4 year dredging and restoration project by the Brightlingsea Harbour Commissioners. This project aimed to remove 53,000m3 of accumulated sediment from within the historic Brightlingsea Harbour and beneficially reuse the majority of the arising material to restore 5ha of local intertidal and saltmarsh habitat.

Due to the quality and extent of the local habitats and the rich biodiversity they support, the site is located within several national and international designated sites. For that reason, Exo were employed to organise the Marine Licence for this project including shadow HRA and assessment of impacts (No formal EIA was required).

During the licence period, Exo managed the licence for the Harbour, which included the submission of evidence and information to discharge the licence conditions including environmental monitoring. Over the years, Exo organised multiple variations to the licence, including a licence extension in 2022. The dredging and beneficial reuse licence has served the harbour well over the years and will continue to do so into the future.

Exo Environmental were the supporting consultants for Morgan Marine for several years, helping with the development of the proposed Colne Marina. This modernisation and upgrade of the existing facilities required extensive design measures to ensure no negative impact on the local environment.

There is a high number of designations in the area, including SPA, SAC, Ramsar, SSSI and MCZ sites. Exo were involved in ensuring that the design of the proposed development was driven by the requirements of these designations and that betterment of the local environment was included from the get-go and not as an afterthought.

Furthermore, we performed all the necessary sampling and monitoring to help understand any potential impacts. By keeping these capabilities in house, we were able to assist with the Marine Management Organisation screening of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The information provided by Exo led to the MMO confirming the project would not require a full EIA as the impact was deemed negligible due to the integral design considerations.

Exo also drafted a shadow HRA for the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) carried out by Natural England. Our team ensured that, through an in-depth understanding of the environment and development proposal, the impacts were minimised and thus the proposals accepted by the regulators.

Exo worked with a private client in Sandwich to assess the impact of a development project (Scoping) on a local water system. The area under consideration is protected under various environmental designations including SSSI.

Our investigation included an initial desktop study followed by a site visit and field work including a topographic survey, Valeport flow measurements, water quality assessment with a multiparameter sonde, and sample analysis at a laboratory.

We worked closely with the local IDB and EA to understand the hydrological regime and concluded that the development could not affect the water body status or jeopardise the water body achieving good status because the water bodies were not directly interconnected.

 Furthermore, dilution of any upstream impacts of the development by the significant quality of water would leave any contaminants entering the water course untraceable. It needs to be stressed that the development was very small scale, and no serious contaminants were under consideration.