River Thames Symposium
April 2010
In April 2010, the project hosted a one-day symposium on the River Thames, Stakeholders and Environmental Governance. This event explored the role of stakeholders in decision-making and environmental governance for the River Thames – port and waterway – in the past and today.
The Thames and waterways of London are today at the centre of a wide range of policy initiatives and grass-roots campaigns – from the revitalisation of wharves and waterways, the Mayor of London and GLA’s ‘Blue Ribbon Network’, the Thames Gateway and Olympics to ongoing environmental concerns. The governance framework for the river involves a complex set of obligations and rights relating to consultation. The ‘stakeholder’ is currently crucial to this consultation process, but the idea of the stakeholder grows out of a long history of debate over the role of users and the public in the governance of the river and riverside areas.
The symposium aimed to:
- explore the changing role of stakeholders and public participation in relation to policy-making and the tidal Thames environment;
- highlight the most pressing issues relating to stakeholders’ role in the environmental governance of the river and identify key areas for further research;
- inform on the River Thames governance history project at the GMI and ask whether history offers lessons for stakeholder and public participation in the future governance of the river and port.
The event brought together invited participants working in the field of river, water resource and port management with policy-makers, stakeholders and academics.
Speakers were: Colin Morris (Ports Division, Department for Transport)
- Phil Pinch (London South Bank University)
- James Trimmer (Head of Planning and Partnerships, Port of London Authority)
- Jane Wilson (Senior Specialist Landscape and Geodiversity, Natural England)
- Jill Goddard (Executive Director, Thames Estuary Partnership)
- Kevin Reid (Senior Planner, Greater London Authority)
- Gary Beckwith (Chairman, City Cruises)
- Phil Stride, Head of London Tideway Tunnels, Thames Water
- Sarah Lavery (Environment Agency).
Syposium report
Please view the full report for this event (PDF).
Feedback and Discussion
A social networking site on Ning.com has been created as a discussion forum for issues raised by the Thames Governance project and to provide up-to-date information on the ongoing work of the research team. Information will also be posted on the GMI website.
We would like to hear your views on any issues raised by the project or symposium. Please contact Vanessa Taylor or sign up and comment on our networking site.
