A former 30-hectare golf course at Sandilands on the Lincolnshire coast has been converted by the National Trust into a wetland nature reserve after a six-year programme of planning, consultation and earthworks. Lead consultant Influence Landscape Planning & Design regraded fairways into a mosaic of wetlands, grassland and coastal scrub, with accessible boardwalks, trails and a new visitor hub including café, expanded car parking and changing place facilities. The reserve sits within Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park on the East Coast Flyway, targeting habitat gains for thousands of migratory birds.

Eryri National Park Authority has withdrawn its own planning approval for a proposed hydroelectric dam in north Wales after legal pressure from campaigners over environmental impacts. The scheme, intended to generate low‑carbon power from an upland catchment within the protected landscape, faced objections over river ecology, habitat disturbance and construction access in sensitive terrain. Designers and contractors now face greater uncertainty for small hydro and other linear infrastructure within UK national parks, particularly around cumulative impacts on headwater streams and designated habitats.

England’s nine water and sewerage companies failed to report more than 50,000 sewage discharges within the legally required timeframe in the first half of 2026, according to campaign group Surfers Against Sewage. The missed notifications affect storm overflow and combined sewer outfall events that should trigger rapid incident reporting to regulators and local authorities. For drainage and wastewater engineers, the scale of under-reporting complicates network performance assessment, spill frequency analysis and the design of storage, screening and real-time control upgrades.