Weather permitting, the grass will be cut for hay and silage on Thursday. Please take care while there is farm machinery in the park, particularly if you have children or dogs with you.
We will try to keep you updated
Thank you
Inspector Stephen Lee, who oversaw April’s hearings into the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan, has submitted a preliminary report.
Continue reading “Inspector’s findings and advice”
Wiltshire Council has received the Inspector’s post hearing findings and advice from Stephen Lee and published it on the WHSAP DPD Examination page on their website.
Continue reading “WHSAP latest news”
Before the end of June, the park’s tenant farmer will be cutting the grass for hay and for silage. The work will extend over several days but which days and for how long will depend on the weather. When the work is due to begin, Wiltshire Council will put up notices at all the gates to warn park users, and on the website we will try to keep you posted.
Please be careful when there is farm machinery in the fields, particularly if you have children with you, and please, please will dog walkers take extra care. Our farmer knows how the park is used and will keep his eye open for children and exuberant dogs but most of the work will be done by contractors who may not be expecting either.
Stay safe.
FoSCP
Red-and-black froghopper
This is a red-and-black froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata) photographed by DKG on Sunday morning in Village Green. There are ten different species of froghopper in the UK and while the red-and-black froghopper is not the most common, it is widespread.
Continue reading “Froghoppers”
Incident@Lambrok is how the Environment Agency titled its report on the week-long torrent of heavily sedimented, chlorinated water that Wessex Water let flood from a broken water main, through the Lambrok down to the Biss, taking in Southwick Country Park and its precious freshwater biota on its way.
Continue reading “Incident@Lambrok”
During the Easter holiday there were little children seen playing in the park, apparently unattended by any adult. In particular, two little boys, maybe six or seven years old, were seen playing all by themselves on the bank of the stream by the wooden bridge. The weather had been very wet and the water level was high, certainly high enough to drown a small boy.
Continue reading “Keeping children safe”
All sorts of water fly spend the very large majority of their lives living on a stream bed as larvae called nymphs. These are the species we are worried about at the moment as a burst water main upstream pours sediment-laden water into the Lambrok for the third day.
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The Lambrok is filled with the sediment from a burst water main further upstream near Southwick Court, where the footbridge crosses into Spring Gardens. Wessex Water cannot fix it until Tuesday; they are waiting for a new part to be delivered.
The Environment Agency has made Wessex Water turn down the water pressure so that less sediment is being washed into the stream. Hopefully there will not be too much damage to our Lambrok’s biota; we are particularly worried about the waterfly nymphs that live on the gravel stream bed.
FoSCP
The decision on RPS’s application to build 65 houses on the field south of Church Lane has been delayed again, until July 31st. We expect that this is, in part, to allow the Secretary of State’s Inspector, Stephen Lee, to make his decision and final report on Wiltshire’s Housing Site Allocation Plan.
Continue reading “The latest Church Lane update”
Mail from Park Watch
friends ofscp@outlook.com
Just wanted to report the riding of a quad bike in the field by Lambrok. One adult Male riding with a small toddler included.
Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan update.
Wiltshire’s Spatial Planning Department has said that Inspector Stephen Lee’s preliminary report on the WHSAP Examination, which was due on Thursday May 9th, is delayed but for only a matter of a few days. When it has been received, it will be published on the WHSAP webpage.
All our posts on this subject are tagged WHSAP.
Our suggestion that we set up a Park Watch along the lines of a Neighbourhood Watch brought in a double handful of volunteers, all of them regular park users. They said that they wanted to help or that they hated to see the park spoiled in any way; nearly all said the park is a special place for them.
Continue reading “Park Watch update”
The vandalism in the park began earlier this year than last but at least it began with the destruction of infrastructure rather than with the killing of trees, as it did last year.
Mail from Sam Smith, the Sports Participation and Coach Coordinator for Trowbridge Town Council.
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