John Clare Countryside Vision
Parish Nature Recovery Plans:
Update, April 2021
Road Verges
After a meeting to discuss management of road verges in the JCC countryside, a JCC Verges Working Group was set up in October 2020. The group, which includes representatives from Peterborough City Council, the Wildlife Trusts (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire / Lincolnshire) and interested parishes, has met three times. Positive outcomes for the group include:
- Creation of a GIS map by Peterborough City Council which shows current management regimes and can be accessed by all members of the group.
- Aragon to undertake an additional spring cut and remove arisings on sections of two County Wildlife Site verges (Barnack and Highfield Road, Bainton) to try and address the negative impacts of nutrient enrichment and climate change. Funding has been secured by PCC for 2021, and will hopefully continue in 2022/23.
- Preparation of a simple but robust monitoring scheme to assess the impacts of this management change, with survey to be undertaken by volunteers after suitable training in June/July 2021.
- Input to verge related projects included in the Nature Recovery Plans of Barnack, Bainton, Glinton, Peakirk and Maxey.
- A much closer relationship between the various organisations which will potentially allow greater use of volunteers to improve verge management within the JCC area, particularly within village envelopes.
Ailsworth
Ailsworth Parish Council have recently planted the first 70 Hawthorn whips of their Nature Recovery Plan, to fill in some gaps in the hedges surrounding the Recreation ground. As keen naturalists, APC have already installed several birds and bat boxes in the Rec’ from an earlier, non-related campaign, and now have several other projects in their Nature Recovery Plan to increase local biodiversity that will roll out over the coming months.
Bainton and Ashton
- Bainton and Ashton Parish Council who manage the mowing of the village verges and green spaces will continue mowing regimes introduced last summer in the centre of Bainton. Generally, this means reduced mowing to encourage spring and summer wildflowers, tailored to the flora of each area. New mowing regimes in Ashton to encourage wildflowers.
- Participating in the JCC Verges Sub-group. Additional spring cut with arisings removed has been agreed by Peterborough City Council on two trial sections of Highfield Road County Wildlife Site to try to reverse the decline in diversity of the limestone grassland flora. We will be participating in flora survey in the summer to monitor.
- Developing the Washdyke Thank You Nature Area is progressing slowly mainly due to Covid restrictions. We will be adding small plants that we have grown overwinter from reserved seed, into the areas that were seeded with wildflowers last autumn.
- Sites have been found for swift nest boxes from JCC including close to existing colony. Two swift boxes have been made by a Bainton family and put up on their property nearby.
- Discussions with Chris French from Welland Rivers Trust to develop ideas for incorporating the water environment into the NRP.
- Exploring re-generative re-pollarding of heritage pollard willows in Ashton.
- Bainton and Ashton Nature Recover Facebook Group, flyer delivered to each household in February and newsletters planned. Hoping to organise some small scale low key events this summer.
- Promoting wildlife gardening and Langdyke Community Nature Reserve.
- A sensitive management regime has been agreed for flora on the Buttercross with help from Sarah Lambert.
Barnack
Although handicapped by COVID-19 restrictions, the Barnack Nature Recovery Team has been active in 2021. Wildflower seed has been sown in two grassy areas in the village. Four swift nest boxes have been installed. The response to our online garden wildlife questionnaire has been slow, so we have printed flyers for delivery throughout Barnack and Pilsgate, to remind residents about it. Four videos have gone live on the Langdyke Countryside Trust website, encouraging people to regard their gardens as havens for wildlife and covering topics such as bird boxes, dead wood and the Langdyke Community Nature Reserve. We have attended virtual meetings with Peterborough City Council about road verge management, and will be helping to monitor the trial of an extra spring cut to clear winter growth from protected verges, giving the less aggressive wild flowers a better chance to flourish.
Castor
The Nature Recovery Plan team supported by CPC have been busy with their plans and have started with the introduction of bird and bat boxes within a Coppice at Castor Allotments. There is a mixture of boxes to encourage House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Robin, Startling and Pied Wagtail. Within this fenced area of parish land the digging out of a new pond is well under way. C They are also working on creating a new wildlife pond in the glade, and a 5 metre dry stone wall next to the pond, with purpose-built tunnels and ‘hidey holes’ leading into the new mound of soil from the pond, for amphibians and invertebrates to over winter. The wildflower area of the Community Allotments has now been planted up with one year old plants, and the pond dug there by Langdyke volunteers in Autumn 2019 has now had its first frogspawn. Chickens will also be introduced at a later stage. PECT have kindly surveyed the area and given advice how to manage the fallen trees to encourage wildlife. We also plan a strip of land within the same area to seed wildflowers later in the year.
Moving on to another area within the village we will be planting a new hawthorn hedgerow along Splash Lane and in the Autumn heritage trees will be planted on the periphery of parish fields. Some heritage trees will also be planted at other village locations. CPC have commissioned Sarah Lambert to undertake a report to survey fields to the south of Splash Lane so that we can devise a strategy to link these areas botanically with the SSSI by the NVR track and the river.
Deeping Gate
The Parish Council are presently working with Perry Burns (Welland Rivers Trust) to identify a suitable site for a purpose-built Otter Holt on the river we hope this will encourage the Otters to live on the Welland for many years to come.
As part of a longer-term plan, Tony Cook (PECT) has helped us to identify two areas, one near Black Gates and a stretch of riverbank going towards Low Locks where we hope, in the Autumn, to plant 40-50 native trees such as Black Poplar, Hazel, Aspen and Alder along with Hawthorn and Blackthorn.
Etton
The JCC Etton nature recovery plan is supported by the Etton PC. Following our online survey a number of villagers are keen to get involved. So far,
1. A wild flower survey of the churchyard has been conducted and an area has been marked as wild. Some debris will be cleared, wild primroses are being planted and we now will wait to see what grows.
2. There is strong interest in nature in our gardens and hopefully the eight Langdyke reserve. The project has been shared on our Facebook page.
3. There is a project to encourage Hedgehog friendly gardens.
4. Money has been secured and landowners have signed off on plans to plant several hundred meters of new hedgerow at the horse paddocks at the crossroads.
5. Plans are in place to plant wildflower seeds on the south drain and in the Etton orchard and the village green later in the year.
6. Etton is keen to support the Turtle dove project.
Glinton
We have created our draft plan and are focused on three key projects.
Working with a local farmer to create significant new hedgerow, wildflower strips and other areas for wildlife.
Increasing the nature in the village churchyard.
Improving the wildlife value of the verges at the west side of the south end of Lincoln Road, adjacent to the roundabout. This area comprises three sections:
The wide southern part is laid to grass and is bounded by a footpath to the west and has a low barrier adjacent to Lincoln Road. There are some small trees, a good number of wildflowers in the grassland and some mosses & lichens at the edges and on the trees.
The central part is narrower, also laid to grass and with a few small trees. Rosettes of Bee Orchids can be seen here.
The northern part is a narrow triangle, slightly sloping, and facing west. There are more rosettes of Bee Orchids here, along with other wildflowers.
The plan was to cut this area only twice this year, record the flora which arises, and then to decide how to further develop the site. Any other mowing to be restricted to a strip adjacent to the footpath. The first cut has now been done, unfortunately not in accordance with our agreement with the PCC, resulting in some of the Bee Orchid rosettes being mown (they will probably now not flower this year). I was under the impression that a certain amount of ‘taping off’ of the area was to be done to mark out the area and to protect the orchids, but this was not accomplished.
Notice boards are to be installed to keep the public informed as to the change of status of this site.
Projects for future consideration for this particular area include woodland planting among the trees, deadwood habitats and stone pile habitats, nest boxes, bug houses, and a bee bank facing south.
Helpston
A first draft of parish nature recovery plan has been produced and we are waiting for a date to present to the parish council. Key activities are:
- We have produced a draft Helpston Wildlife Survey and aim to get this out in mid-April and encourage people to fill it in before the end of May? https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/GKCYBWG
- Swift and bat boxes – have been purchased through the JCC project and we will be putting these up in April.
- School – we have a nature recovery plan in place and agreed with the school, including wildflower strips, a linear orchard and pond restoration.
- Community day – we are planning a community nature recovery celebration and day of action in September.
- Hedgerow – local farmers have identified three areas where we can plant new hedge lines in the autumn.
- Churchyard and cemetery – we hope to survey both sites in April/May.
- Cuckoo Close – our aim is to create a nature friendly area at the entrance to Cuckoo Close by planting 8-10 fruit trees in two rows immediately to the west of the entrance road and creating an L shaped wildflower strip
- Tree and bulb planting we are identifying places where we could plant trees and spring bulbs around the village focusing on fruit trees, so we create our ‘dispersed’ own village orchard.
- Wildlife gardening – we are actively engaged with the Langdyke eighth reserve project.
Marholm
We have surveyed the village and had a great response. They are all keen to have nature close to home, on village greens, verges, and in their own gardens. We are using our village Facebook to keep people updated.
To date we have put up 2 bat boxes and 5 bird boxes in the trees around the village hall.
The bench is ready to install on the green opposite Marholm farm where we also plan to plant an oak tree and have a flower meadow bed. We plan to do a survey of the churchyard to see what we already have. We plan to engage the pub in order to have more flower beds in their grounds. They are currently closed until May.
Maxey
Towards the end of last year we carried out a survey via the village Facebook page. The majority of those who responded enjoyed seeing wildlife in their gardens, along the River Welland, and on the Maxey Cut and the pits to the north of the Cut.
Within the Parish the majority of respondents would like to see more wildflower meadows, and the village’s roadside verges being maintained in a more wildlife-friendly way. Improving hedgerows and gardens for wildlife was also popular.
We are working on three projects:
Maxey Village Field: We are hoping to add to the diversity in the field by adding wildflower areas and to encourage more insects and butterflies. We are putting up an insect tower and also working on the possibility of a nature trail.
In the autumn we’ll be starting on the regeneration of the hedging by infilling gaps in the hedgerow with native species.
Hedging on Maxey High Street: Working with a local farmer we have started to infill gaps in the hedgerow on the road out of the village towards the church, using a mix of native species.
Maxey Churchyard: We have agreed a number of initiatives with the PCC, which include planting a tree in the north-east corner, increasing the spread of spring flowers in the churchyard, and some wildflower seeding.
Northborough
The nature recovery plan for the school is already under way, and funding has been secured from the Earl Fitzwilliam Trust to ensure it can be delivered.
Peakirk
Peakirk Parish Council is fully committed to reducing our emissions in 2021 and we are receiving help and support from our community to achieve this.
Our ongoing projects for this year include planting trees in hedges and green spaces, establishing a tree seedbank for future planting, taking over management of our allotments to ensure their future, starting the development of a community orchard on the allotment site, changing cutting regimes on grass areas in the village to encourage wild flowers, creating a pollinator area on the Thorney Road corner and a wildflower area at the back of the Village Hall carpark.
We are also working with the Beautiful Burial grounds Project, a national project looking at increasing the biodiversity of churchyards throughout England. They will be holding a workshop in Peakirk church on 24th June.
Our main priority going forward, is better communications between groups, organisations and individuals so that everyone feels included and enthused to join our projects.
Sutton
Sutton Parish Council have recently initiated a grassland management plan devised by Langdyke that will encourage more wildflowers within their 5 acre recreation ground. The first part of the grass was cut, and the ‘arisings’ will be raked up and taken to create suitable areas for grass snakes to lay their eggs in. They also have ideas for removing the thirty or so ‘non-local’ Scots pine ‘nursey’ trees that were shielding the other young trees within the one acre copse that was planted a decade ago, and create woodland glades in their stead.
Thornhaugh
The parish is in the early stage of developing its plans and is looking at places to plant trees and to put up nest boxes. It is also talking to local landowners about opportunities in the wider countryside.
Ufford
We produced a leaflet outlining the national and local basis for the Nature Recovery Project, explaining what we could attempt within our Parish and inviting residents to take part. We distributed this to every house.
We merged the parish maps circulated by Langdyke and marked on all the field boundaries. A local farmer, Nick Vergette, then marked on the map all the field ownerships. So we now know who owns or farms land throughout the Parish.
We interrogated the maps produced by the Ramblers Association showing all the “lost footpaths” which will be lost forever if they are not re-adopted. There were only 3 such paths in Ufford and, after discussion, none was considered worth pursuing.
In February our contractor supplied and planted 20 native species. 12 were placed around the field at the east end of the village in the angle of Lambpit Drift, Marholm Road and Hillside Close and 8 on Bainton Road.
9 bat boxes and 10 nest boxes have been put up in Southey Wood.
We have also produced a competition for children to identify and count butterflies and bees. We have obtained excellent photos of butterflies for inclusion from Butterfly Conservation. Children are also to be provided with seeds to grow sunflowers and shown how to build a basic insect bed. This will be distributed imminently. A bird spotting competition is in train and will follow later in the Spring. In both competitions we will be awarding prizes.