December Review

 Burton Joyce Climate action and Biodiversity group

What has the Burton Joyce Climate action and Biodiversity group been up to?

Julia's article in the Parish Magazine for December

August  

A group of us met up with our Member of Parliament, Tom Randall, and Councillor Sam Smith in the beautiful (and Covid-safe) environment of the Grove to ask him if he will support a green and safe recovery. A copy of the Friends of the Earth proposals was given to him to read. This prioritises, amongst other things, people’s health and wellbeing and jobs in the green sector

Friends of the Earth Recovery Plan

We also discussed other areas including reducing plastic waste and also planning.
Tom clearly supported the idea of retaining green belt and maintaining the rural feel of the village. Which leads me on to:

September

We read through the enormous Greater Nottingham strategic Plan which is how the local area makes plans for future housing, business and infrastructure in the area, including Gedling. We made comments such as recommending that new housing is attached to areas which already have public transport, that housing is much better insulated, ensuring wildlife corridors are maintained, improving biodiversity in areas of development e.g. with planting and green spaces. We know that more housing is needed for our growing population, but there are ways of doing it to reduce damage to the environment and make our lives healthier. The consultation is now closed

October

We met with the Parish Council to discuss enhancing our local environment for pollinators.

Did you watch Jimmy’s Bee Rescue on the TV? Bees and other pollinators are amazing creatures on which we rely for our crops to be pollinated but they can’t cross large distances with no flowers. 

Did you know some of our favourite flowers, e.g. begonias, actually have no nectar for our insects? 

Did you know that all the mowing we do makes big flower-free deserts for our insects?

Pollinator numbers are declining but it’s actually very easy to give them a helping hand.

We talked about reducing mowing on the grass verges to allow flowers to develop, using pollinator friendly flowers in village flower beds, e.g. outside the library, and identified some possible areas in the cemetery for flowers to grow. We also discussed revitalising the lovely meadow area in the Grove and seeing if the Parish Council would pledge to make future planting bee/pollinator friendly.

We will hopefully get a chance to discuss these ideas at the next Parish Council meeting.

We also circulated information to Parish Council and our email group about the concerning new reforms of the UK Planning system that the Government is proposing, which aren’t good news for the climate, local communities or local democracy.

UK Planning reforms

Why not write to Tom Randall about it? 

December

Think about shopping locally for some presents and try and ditch the foil and sparkly wrapping paper which can’t be recycled!!

We all wish you a healthy and happy Christmas and New Year.
Best wishes from Burton Joyce Climate action and Biodiversity Group.

PS Please join us!
We’re always looking for new members
The more of us there are, the more we can achieve!!

Email: 
julia_smith24@yahoo.co.uk
philcolbourn@btinternet.com

In Our Garden

Paul's Parish Magazine article 

December 2020

Our wild animals and plants have been losing their natural homes over the years, as woodlands, hedgerows, fields, marshes and ponds have been destroyed to make way for roads, houses, factories etc. There are over a million acres of private gardens in Britain, not to mention the acres of land belonging to schools. Any garden, however small, and whether in the countryside or city, can be made into a nature reserve – land where wildlife finds a suitable home. 

Maybe if we look after the plants, insects, invertebrates, mammals and birds in our own gardens they’ll be able to open our eyes to the nature on our own doorsteps without the need to travel, what a benefit to us all! Not as exciting as elephants perhaps but readily available for us.

Lockdown has been challenging for us all and also for the wildlife as we’ve all been busy disturbing the wildlife in so many ways. This year has been such a strange one giving us time to ponder our actions and lifestyle. We usually have volunteers to help us in our garden through Wwoof (Working Weekends on Organic Farms) but this year it’s not been possible so we have had to ‘do it ourselves’. We’ve had a good year and a good fruit harvest together with salad and vegetables which we’ll be enjoying over the winter and we’ve been looking for ways to make our garden more wildlife friendly.

We know there are still a few hedgehogs in the village and have always wondered whether we get any visiting our garden – we know we get badgers and foxes (we need to be sure to keep our poultry secure) and they can live alongside. We have yet to spot one but have provided a shelter in a corner of our garden just in case. 

As members of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust we were lucky enough to get a visit from one of their consultants who felt our garden was already very attractive to wildlife and suggested we hold a coffee morning next year to encourage others to take an interest. 

With an old orchard to the rear and hedgerows providing a corridor it seems we are in a good position to be part of a wildlife corridor towards Ploughman’s Wood. We see bats in the garden and apparently our owl box is in a good position – there are tawny owls as we regularly hear them at night. They’re particularly noisy in the autumn when the youngsters are booted out and have to set up their own territory. So now we’ve been given lots of ideas of what else we can do ... there’s nothing like a list to keep us busy!

Life is all about finding a balance – somewhere for us and somewhere for wildlife to flourish. So hopefully our wildlife reserve will help balance out other rather tidy gardens.

As well as giving us all food for thought ...

Paul Smith