A warning
A message from a reader:
Apparently there is this guy trying to steal people’s dogs; it is doing the rounds on Facebook groups in Trowbridge. He is asking the dog’s breed and then waiting for them to get back to the car park to steal them. The people he is approaching are older and on their own.
My aunt walks her dog in the park and I would hate to think someone approached her in the park and stole her dog. It would be awful! Could you warn people this is happening?
Thanks x
Motorbike update (2.00pm)
This is the damage in Village Green, caused by what is obviously a child’s motorbike. This is an area where the Friends of Southwick Country Park have focused on increasing biodiversity, encouraging vetches, vetchlings and tares as food plants for the caterpillars of increasingly rare butterflies. We have also planted Fritillaria meleagris corms in this area.
Do you know the parents of the child or children who are riding motorbikes around Village Green?
Update 5.00pm
More pictures, from a member of FoSCP, of the damage to Village Green and Cornfield, taken late this afternoon.
Please: no motorbikes
There have been reports of motorbikes being ridden in the park’s fields. The tyre tracks are mostly in Corn Field, Kestrel Field and Lambrok Meadow and seem to show that the bikes enter and leave by the bridge into Lambrok Close. The only motorised vehicles allowed in the park are those maintenance vehicles authorised by Wiltshire Council, and mobility vehicles.
Continue reading “Please: no motorbikes”On the ninth day
We can’t find nine ladies dancing. Come spring, we will have daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze, as per Wordsworth, but feel that the link is tenuous; we will also have ladies’ smocks flowering in the meadows but we used them up yesterday by calling them eight milkmaids.
Continue reading “On the ninth day”
On the fifth day of Christmas…..
…we are foregoing the five gold rings and sending you, instead, five of Clive Knight’s pictures of the park’s Christmas floodwaters.
Real or fake?
A lot of people buy artificial Christmas trees in the belief that it benefits the environment, but environmentalists and energy analysts disagree. We need only look at a single element of the hundreds of thousands of artificial trees that will be put up and decorated this Christmas: they are all made of plastic.
Continue reading “Real or fake?”Planning application 20/09659/FUL
Newland Homes have applied to build 50 houses on WHSAP site H2.5 at Upper Studley.
Continue reading “Planning application 20/09659/FUL”Marsh fritillary
Wiltshire Wildlife Trust is trying to buy habitat for the critically endangered marsh fritillary butterfly. Please, read their appeal and consider donating.
Continue reading “Marsh fritillary”Nature Prescriptions
By David Feather
What would you say if you went to see your GP because you were feeling a bit down and was told to get out into a green space like Southwick Country Park? I ask because a number of GP practices in Scotland are doing just that.
Continue reading “Nature Prescriptions”
River pollution
Data published in September by the Environment Agency revealed that all English rivers have failed to meet the new chemical pollution standards set in 2017. The levels of sewerage discharge, and agricultural and industrial chemicals entering our water system is still too high. Lambrok Stream is classed as a main river by the EA and must be included in these findings.
Continue readingDKG
We are saddened to announce the loss of DKG, our gifted in-house photographer; David Keith Galliers died peacefully at home after a short illness.
We will miss his dry sense of humour, his kindness and his hard-working enthusiasm for the park, which he recorded for us in all its seasons and moods. His obsession with early morning light has left us some truly unforgettable images.
Our heartfelt condolences go to his family.
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More about the otters in Lambrok Stream
Simon Tesler’s video of an otter hunting in the moat at Southwick Court is powerful evidence not only of Lambrok Stream’s biodiversity, but its importance as a wildlife corridor that runs from the River Biss right up through and beyond Southwick village.
Continue reading
Another month’s lockdown.
All non-essential services closed, reduced travel, households no longer able to meet indoors or in their gardens: this is the new lockdown.
Updated 10.45am
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Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act of 1953
After yesterday’s post about dog attacks on a neighbouring farmer’s sheep, we were told of dogs chasing the horses in the field beyond the stile at Puddle Corner. If your dog chases livestock, you are committing an offence; read on for a précis of the Dogs (protection of Livestock) Act of 1953.
Read onSheep worrying
Is your dog a sheep worrier?
A neighbouring farmer has reported that a dog chased and injured his sheep on two separate occasions last week. He reported both incidents to the police, who believe that it was probably an off-leash dog from the park.
Continue reading “Sheep worrying”Handbrake turns
Please, don’t do handbrake turns in our car park!
Continue reading “Handbrake turns”Wild belt land
The Wildlife Trusts has stepped into the controversy surrounding the government’s proposed changes to planning regulations; they have concluded that the changes will damage nature, increase air pollution and leave local people with no say on protecting urban wildlife corridors.
Continue reading “Wild belt land”
Floodwater
Chris Seymour sent in pictures of the flooded Lambrok tributary, yesterday,
Thanks, Chris.
A missed opportunity?
More about planning application 18/10035/OUT
Wiltshire Council must not miss this opportunity to lead the way in developing a local Nature Recovery Network around Trowbridge.
Continue reading “A missed opportunity?”No bridges, please.
Planning application 18/10035/OUT
Above is the Parameter Plan submitted by RPS with planning application 18/10035/OUT. If you look carefully, there are two grey dotted lines that run from the red site boundary, over the Lambrok Stream, and into the park. Right at the bottom of the key, they are labelled potential foot/cycle links and we assume that a foot/cycle link that crosses the Lambrok will do so on a bridge.
Continue reading “No bridges, please.”Planning Application 18/10035/OUT
Riparian strip
We have been struggling to make sense of planning application 18/10035/OUT, RPS’s proposal to build 55 houses on the fields between the park and Church Lane, and therefore we have not yet submitted our response. This is the problem.
Continue reading “Planning Application 18/10035/OUT”
Planning changes
Last month the Government announced controversial changes to England’s planning system, which will make it much easier for developers to build new homes and commercial buildings but much more difficult for local councils to deny planning permission in designated areas. The ostensible object of the changes is to speed up development but there is an undeniable political subtext….
Continue readingPlanning Application 18/10035/OUT
RPS has resubmitted Planning Application 18/10035/OUT to build houses on the fields between the park and Church Lane. The application was submitted on Wednesday, 2nd September, for a period of public consultation that will end on September 30th. The county’s policies for this site (H2.4) are on page 43 of Wiltshire’s Housing Site Allocation Plan.
WHSAP Recap
It’s time to review the progress of the planning applications to build houses on the three allocated sites next to Lambrok Stream.
Continue reading “WHSAP Recap”
