Mendip (Local Environment Profiles 2011)

• There is no area designated as having poor air quality, requiring an Air Quality Management Area.

Source: DEFRA

• There are 23 river water bodies within Mendip. Our latest assessment of these classified 8.7% of these as good, 78.3% as moderate and 13% as poor. 

• This compares with 143 river water bodies within Somerset. Our latest assessment of these classified 1% as bad, 16% as poor, 60% as moderate and 23% as good.

• The main reasons for less than good status include: high levels of phosphate, impacted fish communities, physical modification and low levels of dissolved oxygen.

Please note - Water bodies do not fit exactly within local authority boundaries. The figures have been derived from those water bodies whose centres are within the district in question. If all water bodies within a district had been included, double accounting would have taken place. Some water bodies have yet to be classified. For the purpose of this exercise, these have been removed from the figures published.

Source : Environment Agency   

• In 2005 both the South West Region and the UK, the largest landuse came from Green Space with 90.7% and 87.5% respectively. The next largest area of land cover came in the form of domestic gardens with 3.07% in the South West, and 4.3% for the UK average.

• In Mendip, the two largest landuses are the same, however domestic gardens is lower with 2.4% and green space is a little higher with 93.0%.

• The ninth Local Environmental Quality Survey conducted by Keep Britain Tidy, was carried out between April 2009 and March 2010. The Summary Report key messages included :

~ Overall Standards within England remain the same as last year, with no change in the Cleansing Index score, which is 76, out of a possible 100.

~ 63% of standards for all LEQ indicators were either Good or Satisfactory

~ The South East joins the South West as top performing region overall, for the first time this year.

~ The South West has been either the top performing region or joint top performing region since the 2007/08 Survey. 

• The survey carried out between April 2006 -March 2007, is available down to Local Authority Level, please click here for the details.

Source : Keep Britain Tidy 

• Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) are areas of land that drain into waters polluted by nitrates, such that the ecosystem is at risk of being disturbed, or the water is likely to exceed 50 milligrams of nitrate in each litre.

• Within Mendip Council, there are areas designated NVZ with one area of deferred slurry storage.

• NVZ regulations come fully into force on 1 Jan 2012, except in deferred Slurry storage areas which have until 1 Jan 2013.
• For more information on NVZ, please see Environment Agency pages.
• For detailed maps relating to NVZ areas, please see source pages.

• There is one Catchment Sensitive Farming project within Mendip. This is the Somerset Levels and Bridgewater Bay which covers an area of 2,535kM2.

Source : Environment Agency

• Mendip area shows an extremely diverse range of soil types. In a broad landscape context Mendip soil types are dominated by clay heavy soils with shallow chalk and limestone soils and light textured soils in an obvious band in the north. Alluvial soils in the west mark the Brue and Axe river catchments. 

• Soil type is a major factor in determining the type of agriculture that can be supported. Generally light textured soils support cereals and horticulture while shallow chalk limestone soils support grazing and cereals. Clay rich heavy soils often underlie dairy pasture.

• The latest  detailed DEFRA data (2007) on the number of holdings (farm types) within Mendip indicates over 47% of farms support lowland grazing (sheep and beef)  and 24% dairy.

Source : DEFRA

• For the period of 2004-2009 inc, there were no incidents of major impact to land, air or water.
• There was one incident which had significant impact to land, air and water. There was another incident with significant impact to both land and water.
• There were another 4 incidents of significant impact to land, and a further 13 incidents of significant impact to just water.

Source: Environment Agency

• During 2009/10 there were 1699 reported incidents of flytipping in Mendip, the highest in Somerset and the fifth highest for a district or unitary authority in the region. This was a slight increase from 1683 incidents in 2008/09.

 Source : DEFRA

Please note: incidents of fly tipping are reported differently by each council. One may log black bin bags out on an incorrect day as a fly tipping incident where another council do not log this. Please be aware of these reporting discrepancies on Flycapture when looking at the data in comparison to other councils.

• Mendip District Council had the tenth lowest amount of residual waste in the South West with 457.67 kg/household. 

• In 2009/10, South Hams had the lowest level of residual waste in the South West with 341.04kg/household. The highest in the South West was Isles of Scilly Council with 1,452kg/household.     
  

• Recycling and composting has increased significantly in the South West, from 14.9% in 2000 / 2001 to 43.5% in 2009 / 2010. 

• Mendip District Council in 2009/10 against the other South West Councils, was in the bottom half of the recycling league table with 40.11%. 

• The highest rate of recycling in the SW was Cotswold District Council with 60.4%,  and the lowest rate in the South West was Isles of Scilly with 18.9%.

Source: DEFRA  

• Somerset County Council landfilled 152,285 tonnes, which was the fourth highest amount of tonnes landfilled in the South West. This  was the seventh lowest percentage landfilled (54.62%) in the South West.

• Bournemouth Borough Council landfilled the least percentage waste in 2009/10 (37.8%). Plymouth City Council landfilled the largest percentage of waste in 2009/10 (64%).  Devon County Council however landfilled the largest amount in tonnes with 194,720 tonnes.