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THE
BROOK MEADOW CONSERVATION GROUP
COMMITTEE
MEMBERS (October 2005)
Chairman:
Frances Jannaway, 75 Bosmere Gardens, PO10 7NR
Phone: 01243 430314 E-mail
brettellf@ntlworld.com
Secretary:
Wally Osborne, 545, Southleigh Road, Emsworth. PO10
7TF
Phone: 01243 375433 E-mail
wjn545@homecall.co.uk
Treasurer:
Pam Phillips, 2 The Rookery, PO10 8AH,
Phone: 377791 E-mail:
pam.phillips2@tiscali.co.uk
Ordinary
members: Pat Walsgrove, Jennifer Rye, David Search,
Lyle Mark and Dave Lee.
Elisabeth
Kinloch is an honorary member.
Photo . .
. Committee
meeting at Elisabeth's house -
17.10.04
From
right to left: Pat and Graham Walsgrove, David Search,
Brian Fellows, Wally Osborne, Elisabeth Kinloch and
Frances Jannaway.
Introduction
by Brian Fellows
Brook
Meadow is a wet meadow of about five acres near the
centre of Emsworth, surrounded by woodlands and flanked
by two streams. It is full of birds, insects and wild
flowers and has Water Voles living on the banks of the
river. The meadow was purchased by Havant Borough Council
in July, 1990, they constructed footpaths and put up two
wooden bridges over the river, but did very little with
the meadow itself with the result that it became severely
overgrown with rank vegetation. Not only did this
seriously reduce the attractiveness of the meadow and its
accessibility to the public, but it also diminished its
ecological value and made it look like a site ready for
development.
These
concerns prompted myself and a number of other concerned
local residents to get together to form the Brook Meadow
Conservation Group in September 2000. Our aims were to
restore, protect and conserve the natural environment of
Brook Meadow and its wildlife for the benefit and quiet
enjoyment of the people of Emsworth. There were several
priorities. We had to get organised and start to care for
the site, we had to gain the support of the local
community and we had to get good evidence about the
ecological value of the meadow. Our guiding vision was
that the meadow, with proper care and management, could
become both an important reserve for wildlife and a place
of natural beauty where people would want to walk and
enjoy its openness. It was also our hope that the meadow
would, in the future, become a valuable recreational and
educational resource for our children. Over the past
three year we have made a number of significant advances
towards the fulfilment of these objectives.
With the
help of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers we
set up the group, elected a committee, drafted a
Constitution and opened a bank account. With initial
publicity we quickly attracted members who paid £3
subscription to join the group. A Programme of Action was
drawn up for the year which included monthly committee
meetings, monthly workdays and monthly guided nature
walks during the summer months. We also set up a
voluntary wardening scheme in which members visited the
meadow to note things that needed doing and to record
wildlife. We became formally affiliated to the British
Trust for Conservation Volunteers from whom we obtained
liability insurance for practical work in the meadow.
Conservation
training has been an important part of our activities so
as to ensure that all practical work on the meadow is
conducted responsibly and with proper care for safety.
Several members of the group attended conservation
training courses in Risk Assessment, Leadership,
Emergency First Aid, Wardenship and the use of strimmers.
Thanks to membership subscriptions and a number of
generous donations we assembled an extensive range of
tools. Our major purchase was a BCS Crusader Power Scythe
which we obtained with a grant from the landfill tax.
This is a superb machine and has been put to very good
use in workdays. We also purchased a Stuhl Brushcutter
which has been less useful.
We have
always endeavoured to keep Havant Borough Council on our
side and they have been fully supportive of our project.
They gave us permission to work in the meadow and we are
currently negotiating a formal licence allowing the group
to manage Brook Meadow for the next 15 years. The Council
also provided funding for the cutting of the meadow and
other things, installed a very nice seat and dog and
litter bins.
One of
the issues we have been tussling with is the possibility
of the group becoming a Registered Charity. We are not
sure, but given the level of our income, this may be a
legal requirement. However, we have decided to take the
plunge and apply for charitable status and we have
constructed a new Constitution for the group as required
by the Charity Commission.
Another
issue we have been pursuing concerns the possible
inclusion of Brook Meadow in the Chichester Harbour Area
of Outstanding Natural Beauty. To us, it makes no
ecological sense for the AONB to finish at the A259,
which means that while Slipper Millpond is included, both
Brook Meadow and Peter Pond are excluded. We haven't got
anywhere as yet, but we shall persevere.
It has
been an important priority to keep everyone closely and
constantly in touch with all that is happening in Brook
Meadow. To this end all group members and various other
interested people (e.g. members of Havant Borough
Council, Hampshire Wildlife Trust, Environment Agency,
local naturalists) receive either a bi-monthly printed
Newsletter or a weekly e-mail Newsletter to keep them
informed about the progress of the conservation project
and about the wildlife on the meadow. More general
publicity has included articles in local newspapers and
periodicals. I have also given many talks about Brook
Meadow and the work of the group to local groups and
societies and have led walks in the meadow for various
natural history societies. We produced a logo for the
group featuring a Water Vole and this is shown on all our
publications, car/window stickers, T-Shirts, etc. Another
important step to publicise the work of the group was the
setting up of a web site which is up-dated regularly with
pictures, news and information about the group and the
wildlife recorded on the meadow. On the site itself, we
installed three Metroguard Signcases at the entrances to
the meadow. These are regularly updated with news and
photographs and are clearly much appreciated by members
of the public. A large permanent interpretation board is
also in the pipe-line with artwork by a local artist.
The group
have also been active in organising local events
including a stall at the Emsworth Show and an
Environmental Art and Nature Hunt day in the meadow as
part of the local Council's "Nine days in May Festival".
These activities generate a considerable amount of
publicity and interest in Brook Meadow and certainly
serve to put Brook Meadow on the local map. To further
our educational aims we have been in touch with many
children's groups and schools. We have had several visits
from the local Wildlife Watch group and a local Brownie
group and in the last year we arranged a formal nature
day for children and parents from an inner city school in
Portsmouth. This was hard work for all concerned, but
extremely worthwhile. We received a very nice letter of
thanks from the school and hope this will be the first of
many such educational events bringing children into the
meadow.
The group
have a zero-tolerance view on litter, in the sense that
we clear it up as soon as it appears. Dog mess has been a
problem, but with education and the involvement of dog
owners in caring for the meadow we are winning the battle
and the doggie bins are being well used! Generally,
vandalism has not been a severe problem in Brook Meadow,
except for our poor picnic table which got totally
wrecked in an astonishing act of sheer wilful violence.
The table was a good idea which went badly wrong.
Families did use it, but it also became a magnet for
crowds of drinking youths and we were not sorry to see
the back of it. We still have the problem of noisy
parties of youths, particularly on Friday and Saturday
evenings, and clearing up vodka bottles and beer cans has
been a regular job. We have good relationships with the
two local beat bobbies who are aware of Brook Meadow's
problems.
Regarding
the management of the site we get the helpful advice of
advisors from the Hampshire Wildlife Trust. There are
three main areas for management, grassland, woodland and
waterways. The key feature of the grassland management is
the removal of each annual year's growth, to reduce the
nutrients in the soil and to discourage the growth of
coarse vegetation. For this work we employ a contractor
and this year, for the first time, we found one who was
not only prepared to cut the meadow, but also to remove
all the cuttings from the site. Previously, we had to
pile them up around the edges with the danger of them
catching fire, as happened one year. Grazing by cattle
was a possible option that was considered, but after much
thought and discussion we decided not to go ahead with
the idea. BTCV did not recommend that community groups
like ours take on grazing and security and vandalism were
obvious problems in an urban setting added to the need
for constant monitoring. Also, fencing would impose undue
restrictions on free access to the meadow as a public
open space.
Generally,
we leave the woodland to look after itself, except for
clearing fallen branches and monitoring for any dangerous
trees or branches. These are dealt with by the Council's
tree officer. The two waterways are generally the
responsibility of the Environment Agency though the
conservation group does monitor them and keep them
flowing and clear of rubbish. We have also been concerned
to protect the habitat of the Water Voles and with this
in mind we negotiate with the EA before their annual
clearance to cut just one bank and to leave some
in-channel plant growth as cover and food for the Water
Voles.
One of
the main the prime objectives of the group has been to
establish the ecological value of Brook Meadow and an
important step towards this was end its formal
designation as a Site of Importance for Nature
Conservation (SINC). This status not only helps to
safeguard the meadow from development, but it also makes
our conservation group eligible for advice and grant aid
to assist in its management.
With the
help of local naturalists, we have been busy doing
wildlife surveys and now have a fairly comprehensive
picture of the birds and plants which inhabit the meadow
(insects etc are a different matter). We are particularly
vigilant in monitoring and caring for our resident
population of Water Voles which are a highly endangered
species. Over the years we have received valuable advice
on management firstly from Debbie Miller the Habitat
Management Advisor with Hampshire County Council and more
recently from Clare Bishop of the Hampshire Wildlife
Trust. We are currently drafting a management plan for
the meadow to support our application for the status as a
Local Nature Reserve (LNR).
