Newland Homes has published a concept plan for the building of up to 45 houses on the land at Upper Studley (WHSAP site H2.5) just diagonally across the road from the park. They have distributed a leaflet to 170 local addresses as their first step in the process of public consultation.
Continue reading “Development at H2.5”Message from Becky Lou: Someone’s little Piglet found at the park today, he hung on but no one returned so he’s being looked after… Get in touch if he’s yours.
It is now two years since the Friends of Southwick Country Park took issue with Wiltshireโs Housing Site Allocation Plan. Despite our best efforts the sites surrounding the park and Lambrok Stream, at Church Lane (H2.4), Upper Studley (H2.5) and Southwick Court (H2.6) were selected, last year, for future development.
Continue reading “Newt-counting”
We are not out of the woods yet. The latest coronavirus figures for Wiltshire are not encouraging and scientists now believe that airborne transmission is playing a big part in the disease’s spread.
Continue reading “Social distancing”
Somewhere between fifty and sixty teenagers gathered in the park, under the Lone Oak, yesterday evening, to celebrate somebody’s fifteenth birthday. It’s hard to imagine how such an event could not have ended badly.
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We have been sent pictures this afternoon of newly damaged goat willow trees in Sleepers Field. Who is doing this?
Who is it spending their lockdown time climbing into our trees with a sharp blade? If you know anything about this, please report it.
UPDATE: On closer inspection this looks as if it may be squirrel damage. We apologise to the Village Green Vandals for jumping to conclusions. We have sent the photographs to our Tree Officer.
Our email address is friedsofscp@outlook.com
PCSO Mat Till’s email address is Matthew.Till@wiltshire.pnn.police.uk.
Mat is a member of Community Policing Team 1, which can be contacted on 101 ext 36337 or on 07471029309.
There has been a lot of petty vandalism and antisocial behaviour in the park recently and we need your help to make it stop.
Continue reading “Anti social behaviour”
The teenagers who burned the ash poles in the western corner of Village Green have taken to snapping off trees.
Continue reading “Vandalism in Village Green”
Who burned all the ash poles in the wood at the top of Village Green?
Continue reading “Who burned the ash poles?”
This is a red-and-black froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata) photographed in the park yesterday by Ian Bushell. 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 “Froghopper”
The Lyrids Meteor Shower will peak tonight between midnight and dawn.
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1Air pollution levels are falling all over the world. In some UK cities, air pollution has fallen by almost 70 per cent. Daily carbon dioxide emissions have fallen by almost 60 per cent across the EU since the coronavirus pandemic began. Is here going to be an upside to this lockdown, after all?
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Continue reading “Looking on the bright side”
The car park is closed but the emergency services and the people who feed the animals at Hope Nature Centre will still need access.
Behind the public face of our website, are pages of data and analysis that include information about how many people access the site, where they access it from, and what they look at.
Continue reading “Lockdown”
A message from the Countryside Team:
Is the park open? Yes, I would think it still can be open but access will be on foot and people will need to walk to it from their home address and once there, would need to apply the social distance of two meters. They shouldnโt be meeting up with people from outside their own place of residence and should be taking only one walk a day.
If everybody sticks to the guidelines, then I see no reason why Southwick Country Park has to be closed at present. Obviously if the government advice changes then we will need to take what ever action they recommend.
Go safely and look after yourselves.
There are traffic cones across the entrance to the main car park. Neither the Friends nor their Countryside Officer know who put them there or if they mean that the park is closed. We are making enquiries and will keep you informed. In the meantime, let’s assume that the park is closed.
The media is full of advice about how to avoid the coronavirus disease COVID-19; there are lists of things to do and even more lists of things not to do. It has been a lot more difficult to find information about the safety (or otherwise) of a walk in the park.
Continue reading “Coronavirus”
Why do we feel so much better after an hour or two in the Country Park?
Continue reading “Every Breath We Take”
Simon Tesler of Southwick Court has written a letter of objection to planning application 20/00379/OUT.
Continue reading “Objection letter to 20/00379/OUT”
Mail from Simon Tesler at Southwick Court:
Continue reading “Objections to application 20/00379/OUT”
This is a screenshot taken from the Environment Agency’s Flood Map; it shows the risk of Lambrok Stream flooding. We have dropped a yellow marker at the place where the access road to the planned development of 180 houses (planning application 20/00379/OUT) is intended to cross the Lambrok.
Continue reading “Flood Map”
The public consultation on planning application 20/00379/OUT has been extended.
Continue reading “20/00379/OUT public consultation extended”
Planning application 20/00379/OUT’s Ecology Survey and Assessment Report has been arbitrarily divided into six separate documents. This makes it very difficult to read, particularly as the contents page is in the first document and thereafter there are no page numbers. Stick at it, though; we have found it as interesting for its omissions as it is for its findings
Continue reading “More on Application 20/00379/OUT”
Simon Tesler writes:
I’m the owner of the historic II* listed property of Southwick Court itself.
He continues:
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 