Plans for a new £2.8m initiative to celebrate the natural and cultural heritage of the River Trent has been handed a funding boost by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The Trent Vale Landscape Partnership (TVLP) has been successful in its bid to secure a £1.6m grant from the HLF, which will be used for a range of schemes between Newark, Nottinghamshire, and Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Work on the three-year project is expected to get underway in 2010, which will include the creation of a network of heritage trails, the conservation of hundreds of hectares of wildlife habitats and improvements to riverside moorings.

Led by British Waterways, the TVLP comprises a number of public bodies, such as Lincolnshire County Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Natural England. Rob Fitzsimons, Trent Vale development manager, said: "This scheme will provide the communities of Trent Vale with the opportunity to embrace the natural, industrial and cultural heritage that makes the area unique.

"Thousands of people will be able to get involved in events, activities, training and much more over the next three years. This is the culmination of four years hard work by the partners and now everybody is itching to get started." Des Gallagher, HLF casework manager for the East Midlands, added: "The Trent Vale contrasts the natural beauty of meadows and tidal reaches of the Trent with the distinctive industrial heritage of the East Midlands."

The news follows an announcement by the Environment Agency that it is set to launch an investigation into how a section of the River Trent upstream from the Trent Vale area became polluted with cyanide. Officers have managed to reduce the level of pollutants in the stretch of river between Stoke-on-Trent and Yoxall in Staffordshire by pumping oxygen into the water.

Severn Trent Water has confirmed the cyanide entered the river from its Strongford Sewage Treatment Works in Stoke-on-Trent. Image: Rob Fitzsimons