The fence around the Lone Oak is gradually being pulled apart. It is happening late in the evening, usually on fine days, when there are only a few people around; a group of teenage boys, some on bikes, come to the park specifically to break things and at the moment this fence is their target. Seven or eight of the planks have been pulled away now and one of the uprights has been damaged.
Continue reading “The vandalism continues”
Picker Uppers of the week: Jo and Milo. Thank you both for helping us look after the park.
Mail from Sam Smith, the Sports Participation and Coach Coordinator for Trowbridge Town Council.
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It must be summer, the vandals are back.
Continue reading “The vandals are back”
by Sarah Marsh
The Friends met up one Saturday morning in March to join in the annual Great British Spring Clean. This is the third year we have done a thorough litter pick whilst the vegetation is at its lowest, and we can get into areas not accessible in the summer months.
Continue reading “Good News from the Park”
There has been a lot of noisy forestry work going on in the park for the past few weeks. We have had both enquiries and complaints.
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Dudley, dog of the week; a beautiful fox red labrador who has trained his owner to be one of the park’s picker-uppers. Cheers Dudley.
More dogs:
The Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan Examination is entering the second week of hearings. The Friends of Southwick Country Park spoke on Thursday (04/03/2019) of last week about the importance of the Church Lane site to the ecology of the Lambrok and the park. We tried to point out Wiltshire’s obligation under SEA Directive 2001/42/EC and the National Planning Policy Framework (2019) to properly assess the ecology of the Lambrok as it runs through the sites at Church Lane, Upper Studley and Southwick Court.
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The Phantom Ditch Digger is back!
Continue reading “The Return of the Phantom Digger”
Mail and pictures from DKG
This was the scene which greeted me this morning next to the picnic area and in view of the new signs regarding dog fouling.
Yes, the bag contained dog poop!
DKG
Click here for more about the park’s dog poop problem
by DKG
Another beautiful sunny day greeted the volunteers meeting in the car park for today’s tasks, assisted by Richard from the Countryside Team. Quite a few tasks were highlighted and most, if not all, were completed by the end of the morning. These included;
Continue reading “Work Party Report”
Are you a picker upper?
Turn the page for this week’s champion picker upper
At the beginning of 2014, FoSCP and the Countryside Team submitted a proposal to Natural England that Southwick Country Park be declared a Local Nature Reserve. We know this was done with Wiltshire Council’s permission because we couldn’t have done it without; they are the landowners. A management plan for Southwick Nature Reserve was drawn up.
Continue reading “Southwick Nature Reserve”
Damming the Digger’s Ditch
We approached Wiltshire Wildlife for an expert opinion on the ditch that is draining our boggy patch in Lambrok Meadow. Their Water Team has concluded: we think the most likely cause is that it is part of an historic drainage channel that has just opened up naturally.
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Over the past several years, FoSCP has been monitoring the development of the boggy patch right in the middle of Lambrok Meadow, south east of the goat willow.
Last year, there were caddis fly larvae there, which we think had time to develop into adults before the the puddles dried out. There has been frogspawn and even tadpoles there for the last two years. The flora is developing too, with sedges, rushes and cuckoo flowers.
Pictures from Creative Commons
Somebody has been trying to drain our boggy patch!
read on for the details
The WHSAP public hearings will begin on April 2nd. FoSCP have submitted additional written representation and have asked permission to speak at the hearing to be held on the morning of April 4th, when the biodiversity at sites at H2.4, H2.5 and H2.6 will be discussed.
Here is our second submission to the WHSAP Examination.
Our first submission can be found on the main menu under the heading WHSAP. All our posts about Wiltshire’s Housing Site Allocation Plan are tagged WHSAP and our posts about the planning application at Church Lane are tagged Church Lane.
From Jeremy Riggs.
By Barbara Johnson
We have two nest-boxes, one either side of our garden. One with a smaller hole, just for blue tits, the other with a larger hole to accommodate great tits, sparrows etc.
Read on for the rest of Barbara’s story
The draft Trowbridge Bat Mitigation Strategy was published yesterday, February 21st. It contains information and proposals that will certainly be significant to both the WHSAP Examination and to RPS’s application to develop the Church Lane site.
Click here for the details
Please clean up after your dog
Lambrok Meadow is full of dog waste; people seem to drive to the bottom of the car park, let their dogs straight out into the field and then just walk away while the dog defecates in the grass. It is impossible to walk in the field without walking in dog poop.
Southwick Country Park is a public space, a resource for our families and for local schools. It comes under the same rules as the Town Park and should be open and accessible for everybody to enjoy – but we have had complaints from people because they get dog poop on their clothes and shoes.
Nobody wants to limit anybody’s access to the park but the selfishness of some dog walkers is doing just that; there are families who no longer bring their children here because of the dog poop.
Rex, photographed this morning while walking his human in Village Green. He is a Bavarian Munsterlander crossed with, of all things, a Shar Pei: very, very large, very friendly, not as wrinkly as you might expect.
The Inspector’s Examination of the Wiltshire Housing Site Allocation Plan (WHSAP) has reached the public hearing stage. Hearings will begin on April 2nd at 9.30 am in The Civic Trowbridge, St Stephen’s Place, BA14 8AH.
Continue reading “WHSAP – the latest news”
The decision on the planning application (18/10035/OUT) to develop the Church Lane site was due to be made yesterday, Wednesday Feb 6th, but has been delayed. The target date for a decision is now Monday April 1st.
Continue reading “Church Lane site update”
A chilly but dry Tuesday greeted FoSCP, meeting up in the car park for the day’s tasks. It was decided to try and finish the clearing of the bramble and blackthorn at the rear of the car park and to burn off the debris from the last working day as well as this.
Continue reading “Tuesday report from DKG”
By Sarah Marsh
“A new year and time to reflect on the old one and where better than on one of two seats donated by Asda. The Friends of Southwick Country Park applied for their tokens scheme and when customers voted for us we were awarded £500.
Continue reading “Asda benches”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 