North East File Collection - NEFC

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===== 260320 Old Home Page =====

===== Update 20th March 2026 =====

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Great coverage on BBC on Thursday 19th March, on Look North, BBC Radio Tees and [[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5g56yke7yo|BBC News Article]].

While this legal action has been won, we are now working to make sure that the next licence has better environmental protection.  If we don't achieve this in a year's time I may have to mount another judicial review, so watch this space.

In the meantime, please think about supporting:

The North East Fishing Collective who raised money to support my legal action and need to keep a reserve of money to be able to react quickly if further die-off incidents occur: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nefc2025

The Tees Estuary Seal Survey are raising money to pay for the analysis of the samples taken from some of the Tees harbour seal pups who die (https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tees-seal-pups) while samples from 2025 have now been analysed, sadly there will more seal mortality in 2026 and so will need further funds to cover analysis.

===== Update 3rd March 2026 =====

**To Protect the Tees – We Challenged the Licence - We Won**

Thank you to everyone who has supported this legal action.

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The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) have agreed to quash the licence for the 10 year maintenance dredging of the Port of Tees and Hartlepool, so we have won the legal case.  The MMO only accepted that the licence was illegal due to the excluded areas not being properly specified but did not accept the other 6 reasons.  They also require 12 rather than 9 month deferral in order to be able to carry out the legal redetermination of the licence.

**What does this mean?**
  * The licence remains valid for 12 months so dredging of the navigation channel will continue.
  * During the 12 months the MMO will need to carry out a redetermination of the licence and take account of any evidence which was not considered during the granting of the current licence.
  * The seal evidence is one piece of evidence which the MMO has accepted they did not consider and as such will need to consider this time.
  * The Tees will not be cleaner because of this win, but this is a significant step to getting proper scrutiny of dredging of the Port of Tees and Hartlepool.
  * There is now time to make sure that other parties also submit evidence as part of the representation to the licence.
  * The MMO will pay a fixed £35,000 towards the cost of my legal support, this combined with the donations from NEFC and others will cover the reduced fees that I am being charged.

**From my viewpoint there are several areas where the licence was deficient:**
  - Harbour seal pup mortality - MMO have already accepted that this should be considered in the redetermination.
  - Role of resuspended contaminated fine sediment particles - already in discussion with MMO so hopefully a correct assessment will be included as part of the licence redetermination.
  - 90% of sediment removed from the port exceeds the level of contamination where it is known to be detrimental to the marine environment - UK wide issue due to lack of Action Level 2 (level at disposal at sea is illegal) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
  - Lack of sampling - MMO do not accept this.
  - Lack of correct environment assessments -  MMO do not accept this.
What do you think should be considered when the licence is redetermined?

The MMO licence is specifically for the disposal of sediment at sea, so I am now going to contact PD Ports to understand how they ensure that the environmental laws are adhered to in the dredging operations themselves.

Once again thank you very much for your support for the judicial review, hopefully the redetermination of the licence will properly protect the sea, and I won't be back in touch next year for your support for another judicial review.

I will update with further details in the next few days.
===== Update 10th January 2026 =====

The MMO responded to our PAP letter on Chritmas Eve, stating that they would defend our legal challenge fully and that our central ground was "unduly legalistic". Since then we have been working to make the grounds of the case as strong as possible and expect to file a request for Judicial Review soon.

In the meantime, any donations to help the legal costs (https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/protect-the-tees/) or to pay for the analysis of the samples taken from some of the Tees harbour seal pups who died in 2025 (https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tees-seal-pups) would both be very helpful.


===== Stop Press - 30th November 2025 =====

I have been looking into the pollution of the River Tees for over 4 years and made numerous recommendations to the MMO to modify licences to improve the environment to little success.  However, having found what I believe are legal flaws in the way in which the MMO follows the OSPAR Convention, I have instructed solicitors to look into whether there is a case which requires judicial review, //I hope to know by 3rd December// (update 3rd December there is a case, so my legal team drafting the PAP letter) and will then issue a pre-action protocol (PAP) letter to inform MMO of my intention to ask for a judicial review of the granting of the latest River Tees Maintenance Dredge licence.

Please have a look here for more details and if you able make a donation to support legal costs - https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/protect-the-tees/

I am being supported by the North East Fishing Collective who are also raising money to support my legal action: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/nefc2025

Thanks, Dr Simon Gibbon - simonrg@northeastfc.uk

[[MMO Judicial Review Background]]

===== This Website =====


Developments are necessary to provide homes, facilities and jobs for us and so are to be welcomed.  The companies involved make sure that developments deliver what they should for owners, buyers and customers.  The various different regulators make sure that our commons are protected.  They can only do their job if they know what going on.  So if you feel something is wrong with a development or spot something that isn't being done as it should be or an incident - environmental, nature, safety, pollution, then report it.  If you spot a company or a public department going above and beyond to help the environment, then tell your local media, post on social media and tell your representatives that this is how it should be done.

===== Development and Environment =====

This site was developed to bring together information around the die-offs in the marine environment around the River Tees.

It turned out the River Tees is not necessarily unique, as many of the challenges to the environment that are experienced on the River Tees happen at other places around the UK and even around the world.

In order to understand what the challenges to the environment are and how they occur it has been necessary to understand how a port like the River Tees work, how the navigation channels are maintained (River Tees - Maintenance Dredging), how material is disposed of at sea, what marine licenses are necessary.

However, the challenges come not just from the activities on the river, but also from the development alongside the river ([[The Crab Die Off and Teesworks|An analysis of the crab die off and the environmental risks of Teesworks]]).  So it is also necessary to understand the planning process and specifically all about ground contamination.

===== Helping the Environment =====

Lots needs doing here are good causes that are helping nature around the River Tees:

**The Tees Estuary Seal Survey** needs funds for this year to fund the analysis of blubber samples from some of the seals which have stranded this year [[https://www.sealresearch.org/research/tess-seal-pup-crowdfunding-project|read about the project]], and then make a donation on the [[https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tees-seal-pups|Tees Seal Pups Just Giving page]].

The Whitby Lobster Hatchery is doing a great job having already introduced over 40,000 benthic lobsters back into the water off North Yorkshire and are making great strides on a unique crab hatchery.  You can find out about their work and make a donation on [[https://whitbylobsterhatchery.co.uk/]].
===== 2025 November Version - The Lower Tees and Its Coast - The Risks that Industry, Dredging and Development Pose to Crabs & Seals =====

A talk by Dr Simon Gibbon to Great Ayton Wildlife Association on 19th November 2025.

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This talk presented the context for concern about pollution within the River Tees, by outlining the 2021 crab die-off and the ongoing seal pup mortality situation, and then described the historical and ongoing pollution risks that exist within the lower Tees.

[[this>NEMRG/251119SimonGibbon-RiverTeesPollutionEnvironment-NoVideos.pdf|Presentation Slides plus Extras with links to supporting information]]

===== 2025 February Version - The Lower Tees and Its Coast - The Risks that Industry, Dredging and Development Pose to Crabs & Seals =====

A talk by Dr Simon Gibbon to [[https://casav.uk|Climate Action Stokesley and Villages]] monthly meeting on 18th February 2025.

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Simon Gibbon started looking at the Tees after the mass crab die-off in autumn 2021, as a retired industrial chemist he has had to learn about how the river works in all senses (industry/nature) in order to be able to start to understand the challenges which the environment and industry face.  From an environmental viewpoint his talk will tell us about what goes on in the lower Tees and along its banks, talk about recent studies into the high seal mortality and explain why perhaps the official explanation of the crab die-off needs further investigation.The river Tees as an industrial / post-industrial river is not unique to the UK, Europe and even globally, so these parallels will be highlighted as well.

[[this>NEMRG/250218SimonGibbon-RiverTeesForCASaV-FinalExtras-Compressed.pdf|Presentation Slides plus Extras with links to supporting information]]

===== Draft Articles =====

==== Crab Die-off ====

[[Chronology of Marine Die-offs]]

[[Mass Marine Mortality Events - Summary]]

[[DEFRA Reports]]

[[the_crab_die_off_and_teesworks|An analysis of the crab die off and the environmental risks of Teesworks]]

[[Crab Die-Off EIR Requests]]
==== Dredging ====

[[Dredging Operation EIR Requests]]

[[Dredging the Tees]]

[[River Tees - Maintenance Dredging]]

[[River Tees - Tees Maintenance Dredging Annual Reports]]

[[River Tees - Sediment Sample Spreadsheets]]

[[Able UK - Dredging the Tees]]

[[Teesworks - Capital Dredging the Tees]]

[[Sediment Disposal Around the UK]]

[[Best Practice Dredging for the River Tees]]

[[OSPAR Sampling Guidelines]]

[[Cefas thoughts about the River Tees over Time]]

[[Other countries approaches to sediment sampling]]

[[Why the Tees is bad river to dredge]]
==== Contamination ====

[[Pollution across the UK and within the River Tees]]
==== Teesworks ====

[[Teesworks - Ignoring Pipes Kills Crabs]]

[[Teesworks - Changing South Bank]]

[[Teesworks - CoMAH Status]]

[[Teesworks - DNAPLs]]

[[Teesworks - Dumping at Sea]]

[[Teesworks - Did Ignoring Advice Kill Crabs]]

[[Teesworks - Conceptual Site Model]]

[[Teesworks - Environmental - Conceptual Site Models]]

[[Teesworks - Contamination Measurement Limitations]]

[[Teesworks - Capital Dredging The Tees]]

[[Teesworks - 200 Tonnes Oil Spill]]

[[Teesworks - Timeline of Groundworks Including Prior to October 2021]]

[[Teesworks - This is When it all Went Wrong]]

[[Teesworks - Teesside Free Port Proposal]]

[[Teesworks - South Tees Site - Freeport]]

[[Teesworks - Questions you might want to ask]]

[[Teesworks - Site history]]

[[Teesworks - SimonRG - Teesside Sold Short]]

[[Teesworks - Recorded contamination of Tees by closed bucket dredging]]

[[Teesworks - Planning Officers Reports by Chronology]]

[[Teesworks - Planning Officer Reports by Geography]]

[[Teesworks - Some Risks]]

[[Teesworks - South Tees Planning Applications]]

[[Teesworks - Timeline]]

[[Teesworks - Site Plans]]

===== Around UK =====

[[MLA-2024-00516]]

===== Topics =====

Autumn 2021 Crab Die-off

River Tees Die-off Chronology

Dredging

Teesworks

North East Marine Research Group





[[The Crab Die Off and Teesworks|An analysis of the crab die off and the environmental risks of Teesworks]]

[[https://www.facebook.com/groups/reclaimoursea/|Reclaim our Sea Facebook Group]]

[[https://www.facebook.com/groups/807874803619232/|North East Fishing Collective Facebook Group]]


**Mystery of the Teesside Crab Deaths: Algal bloom or preventable cover up?** - Webinar November 30 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm - [[https://www.grassrootsactivists.org.uk/event/toxic-teesworks/|Details]]

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[[How to report]]

[[Petition to Pause Dredging]]
===== The Developments =====

[[Teesworks - South Tees Site - Freeport]]

[[this>Teesworks/Planning/index.html|Teesworks - South Tees Planning Applications]] 

[[Teesworks - Timeline of groundworks including prior to October 2021]]

[[Teesside Infrastructure Planning Inspectorate]]

N.B. many documents are large either due to the amount of information within or because they have been produced for publicity containing high resolution photography.


===== The Environment =====



[[Mass Marine Mortality Events - Summary]]

[[1999 - Tees Estuary Present & Future - Environment Agency Report]]

[[Environmental Sampling]]

[[DEFRA Reports]]

[[Chronology of Marine Die-offs]]

[[Pollution across the UK and within the River Tees]]

[[Contaminants]]

[[Dredging the Tees]]

[[PCBs and Harbour Seal Pups - infrographic]]
===== The North East File Collection =====



This website is designed to provide open access to information around major developments happening in the North of England, so that people are able to engage with what is happening in our neighbourhood, to our environment and often with our money.



The site is not designed to be pretty, but to make the information accessible in a form it is not currently, as such the site will soon provide Google search access, which is not possible on the original sites as the documents are held within a variety of document management systems.  In order to aid accessibility in some cases hyperlinks between documents or to other content has been inserted - if you have any problems then please refer to original source to check issues.



Please respect the copyright of all documents on this site, this site can take no responsibility for any use outside that legally required of the copyright holder to allow public oversight of major developments. Please refer to the original site for definitive and potentially updated versions.



Please email simonrg@northeastfc.uk if you spot any areas where newer documents are now available.



The documents should only be used for your oversight of the developments which they document and for which they were originally made available.


===== Why Does This Matter To You =====



Find the facts so you can ask the right questions to be able to answer the questions that matter and campaign to enhance our world:

[[https://www.channel4.com/news/are-marine-life-deaths-linked-to-pollution-caused-by-river-tees-dredging|28th November 2022 Channel 4 - Are Marine Life Deaths Linked to Pollution Caused by River Tees Dredging?]]

30th September 2022 Channel 4 - What's killing marine life in the North East of England?

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27th July 2023 - Mass Marine Die-offs: Searching for the Cause of These Events in Northeast England - Dr Gary Caldwell

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