Tuesday Work Party Report
A warm and dry morning this Tuesday, 27th Aug, greeted the FoSCP for our meet up in the car park, along with Richard from the Countryside Team; a nice change from our previous two work days which were very wet. With the holiday season still in full swing we did not have our normal complement of friends so the number of tasks to complete had to be reduced.
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Bank Holiday Monday 26th August at the Southwick Village Hall and Playing Fields.
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By David Feather
If anyone is wondering about the Wiltshire Housing Plan and its proposals for the area off Church Lane, it seems that you will have to keep on wondering for some time more. We have not forgotten about it and are watching “progress”. The wheels of bureaucracy grind on very slowly but hopefully this will be of advantage to those of us who love Southwick Country Park. We need to ensure that the planners get it right.
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21.08.2019 at 09.33 Fb message from Sarah Chum Millard
Hello, I think I’ve spotted the missing panel from the animal bridge. It’s in the water upstream from the bridge. At first I thought it was tree roots. Unfortunately, I wasn’t dressed for a paddle. Hope you can retrieve it
Just a reminder that we are still looking for the missing panel from the decorative bridge. Have you seen it?
Here is a link to the details:
Drop in through the afternoon to help to look after your local river and learn about the secret world below the surface of the Lambrok Stream!
We will be clearly visible from the Frome Road car park entrance. Please wear suitable outdoors clothing. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.
For further information contact Abigail Leach on 01380 736066 or AbigailL@wiltshirewildlife.org
For updates on the event please check Twitter @WiltsRivers
The target date for Wiltshire Council’s planning department’s decision on RPS’s outline application (reference number 18/10035/OUT) to build 65 houses on the fields between Southwick Country Park and Church Lane (WHSAP site H2.4) has been moved yet again, this time to Monday December 2nd 2019.
Continue reading “A WHSAP update”
One of the panels from the Decorated Bridge between Cornfield and Village Green has gone missing.
Continue reading “Missing believed stolen!”
As a reader of this website, you value the Country Park but can you put a financial value on it? I would have thought that it was almost impossible, but the Government’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) believes it can.
Continue reading “What is the Country Park worth?”
By Sarah Marsh
The long dry spell of weather has been good for our tenant farmer who has been able to get an early cut of the crass. It has also been good for the farmer as nearly all the ragwort has gone from the mowing fields. After a lot of hard work from the Friends last year to remove plants and spot spray, there appears to be very little in evidence this year.
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Somebody has used the Carved Seat in Kestrel Field as a fire place!
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Every year since 2010, Butterfly Conservation has conducted a survey of the country’s butterflies using thousands of volunteer citizen scientists. Last year over 100,000 volunteers took part.
Continue reading “big butterfly count”The small green tent in Sleepers Field had vanished by yesterday afternoon. Camping is NOT permitted in the park.
There is a small green tent in Sleepers Field. If you are passing and feel so inclined, a friendly word to the effect that camping is not allowed in the park might move the campers on before officialdom arrives.
We have passed the pictures to PCSO Till and to the Countryside Team.
Thank you
FoSCP
It’s National Meadows Day today, an annual celebration of wildflower meadows across the UK. The event takes place on the first Saturday of July each year.
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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.
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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.
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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”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 