Environment

There’s a buzz about wildlife in Frome

WITH more than 1,200 observations logged across Frome, the Community Wildlife Mapping Project has got off to a flying start.

To build on this buzz, Frome Town Council are holding a series of free, family-friendly summer activities to learn more about local wildlife and how important and enjoyable supporting biodiversity can be.

First up is the Big Butterfly Count and Wildlife Mapping event on Monday, August 2nd at Rodden Meadow. Wildlife officer Jo Morris will suggest some easy ways to help pollinating insects and how people can submit their final readings to 2022’s Big Butterfly Count.

Come Dine with Bee, on Thursday, August 18th, is a pollinator-themed picnic on the Old Showfield. People are being invited to gather for a lunch with a twist – only comprising of foods that exist only because of pollinating insects.

The final events are pondlife investigations at Welshmill where people can learn about pond-dipping whilst learning about the amphibians and insects lurking in the water. They take place on Monday, August 22nd and Thursday, August 25th.

Mayor Sara Butler said: “After so many brilliant submissions from community members to our brilliant wildlife count, we wanted to give something back.

“These wonderful sessions in combination will give people in Frome the chance to learn more about our insect life, as well as develop new skills in pond dipping and making green spaces wildlife-friendly. And as always, keep contributing to the wildlife mapping project where you can!”

For details about the mapping project, visit: www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/wild-about-frome and to book places on the events, visit: https://buytickets.at/frometowncouncil/725098

Details: 07806 744772

Volunteers needed

PRICKLES Hedgehog Rescue of Cheddar is looking for volunteers. The charity is now caring for more than 50 hedgehogs.

It is looking for adult volunteers who have spare time for either cleaning out the hedgehogs from 9am-12noon or feeding the hedgehogs from 4-5pm.

Full training will be given and you will be part of a team that is overseen by their friendly duty managers.

Churchyard volunteers

VOLUNTEER working parties have been busy clearing parts of St Andrew’s churchyard in Blagdon, while encouraging wildlife there.

One of the organisers, Penny Crawfurd, said: “The churchyard had been allowed to grow wild and now the aim is to tidy it but allow certain areas to become meadows to encourage the growth of wildlife.”

Pictured (l to r) Charles Crawfurd. Ann and Mike Merrick, Peter Bentley, Lynsey Hatherall, Marissa George, Ray Trueman, Renée Bolton, Penny Crawfurd and Margaret Speirs.

CHEWValley Plants Trees is having a busy summer spreading the word about its ambition to double tree cover in the Chew Valley by 2030.

They gave away saplings at Compton Dando fete, while children had their faces painted, and will be at Valley Fest on Sunday, August 7th, Chew Stoke Harvest Home on September 10th and the Mendip Ploughing Match on September 28th.

They say to let them know if you would like them at an event.

Spread the word

Details: chewvalleyplantstrees@gmail.com

School’s river workshop

CHILDRENat Chew Stoke church school have enjoyed special workshops studying river health with Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART). Pupils in Badger Class found features of their local waterways using OS maps, and talked about positives and negatives for river health. Head teacher, Ben Hewett, said: “They then spent some time identifying species in Chew Stoke Brook, making river sketches and producing a variety of water craft (some more successful than others) using natural materials.”

Chew Stoke has been given a Platinum Modeshift Stars award – higher than the Gold it received previously – for encouraging sustainable travel to school.

Having been named best school in BANES and the South West, it now goes forward to the national finals to be held at the House of Commons.

Bringing wild flowers back to Wrington

WRINGTONresidents are celebrating the creation of flowering road verges in the village, after forming a Rewilding Wrington team late last year. The aim is to create new habitats to enable wildlife to flourish as well as helping to address climate change.

There has been a decline of 41% of UK species which is why an Ecological Emergency has been declared. The team identified ten local road verges which had become rather sterile grass areas.

Working with the Highways and Natural Environment teams within North Somerset Council, specific plans for each of the areas were developed. This took account of highway safety issues like visibility splays.

The vegetation in each verge area was analysed and the different techniques developed depended on what the team saw. This ranged from stripping off the turf and topsoil on the more fertile verges, through scarifying other areas, to, in some instances, leaving the natural vegetation to grow.

This involved North Somerset Council altering their verge mowing regimes to simply mow the site margins to keep them looking tidy and do an end of season close cut. A village-wide consultation exercise was held in February this year to establish whether such a scheme would be supported by residents. A massive 91% of the 219 survey forms returned were supportive of the plans. The survey also identified 40 volunteers who were willing to do some of the physical work. Funds were raised from a

village Just Giving campaign, support from the parish council and sponsorship of individual sites by local businesses. February saw a start on site, cutting back overgrown hedges and preparing the ground. Local seed and native perennial plug plants were then sown/planted and the local volunteers then tackled ongoing watering through the very dry spring as we encouraged germination. A website was set up bit.ly/rewildingwrington which explained what was happening over the months keeping residents informed. June saw many of the sites come into bloom attracting butterflies, moths and other insects. Many residents have now followed suit and left parts of their lawns unmowed. Once the flowers go over and go to seed, the team will be cutting down the vegetation to encourage the seed to drop to the ground. They’ll then cut the grass really low and sow yellow rattle Preparing one of the sites seed – which is best done in the autumn. This should further discourage the grass from swamping the flowering plants. TONY HARDEN

Blooming lovely!

Boost to nature-friendly recreation project

THE Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Service has secured £20,000 of funding from the National Grid Community Grant Programme to continue their long-term programme to develop a more sustainable approach to recreation on the Mendip Hills.

The Connecting on Mendip project will draw on the information gathered over the last year to help better connect local people and visitors with the landscape and nature.

The project will work with volunteers, visitors, local people, and land managers to improve accessibility at key visitor hotspots and routes in the AONB. This will include installing gates and resurfacing paths.

They will also improve the information available to visitors both online and on the ground, to provide better opportunities for people to better connect with nature.

It is hoped that improving physical connections and access to the countryside, as well as improving people’s emotional connection to nature, will encourage recreation that is more in tune with the natural environment.

Battle to save green belt land

RESIDENTSin Long Ashton and surrounding area have initiated a “Save Your Greenbelt” campaign in response to the proposed development of the Woodspring Golf Club land for housing by developers Taylor Wimpey.

There are further proposals for development of land to the North of Long Ashton, known as the Northern Triangle, as the proposed site for a US health care company for a head office campus for 1000 employees.

The objective of our campaign is to raise awareness of the proposed developments and the potential impact that they will have on the green belt, the wildlife corridor that stretches from the Avon Gorge, Ashton Court to the Mendips and ultimately the loss of precious green space to urban sprawl.

North Somerset Council (NSC) are supportive of these plans, as they now form part of their preferred options consultation.

However we believe that the council are only responding to over-ambitious housing development targets set by the government and fear that if they refuse to comply, control will be taken away and transferred direct to the developers, which is what happened in Yatton.

The responsibility for housing now falls within the government department for levelling up and communities, previously headed up by Michael Gove and NSC and our local MP Dr Liam Fox are in direct consultation with them on this matter.

Green belt was put in place to offer the highest form of protection from development. It also provides a host of other benefits including health and wellbeing for people (mental and physical), aesthetic separation between urban and rural, species rich habitats for wildlife and fauna and just on back of COP, slowing and reducing the effects of climate change.

NSC themselves declared a climate emergency in direct response to climate change. Green belt land plays a key role in slowing down the process and the green belt land identified for development has been assessed by NSC as being of the highest rating in the country, as it contains ancient woodland, it has an AONB link to Avon Gorge and it provides Bristol and local people with easy accessibility to the countryside for their benefit and wellbeing.

In addition to the impact on the green belt these proposed developments will increase pollution, see over-saturation of roads, significant increased usage and damage to footpaths, increased welfare risk to farm animals, increased poor accessibility to South Bristol and put additional pressure on local services.

We are asking NSC to delay any implementation of the local plan as during the recent Queen’s speech the LURB (Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill) was introduced, within which planning has now been included with the current Planning Bill abandoned.

Michael Gove did head the department and talked encouragingly of the need to adopt a different approach, one that is likely to contain stronger influence from local communities, a revision downwards of the housing demand numbers and a strengthening of the traditional conservative policy of preserving the green belt; we are hopeful that his successor will be of the same opinion.

Part of the site looking towards Dundry

Will Jones Save Your Green Belt Long Ashton