To receive a verbal presentation from Charlotte Carter of the Country Management Service.
Decision:
Charlotte Carter, Countryside Management Service (CMS), gave a verbal presentation regarding the work that they undertook and some of the projects they were involved in..
The Chairman thanked Ms Carter for her interesting presentation.
RESOLVED: That the Countryside Management Service be requested to organise a walk around Pryors Wood and the District Park and that all Councillors from NHDC and Great Ashby Community Council be invited to attend.
REASON FOR DECISION: To promote the work done by the Countryside Management Service in North Hertfordshire.
Minutes:
Charlotte Carter, Countryside Management Service (CMS), advised that CMS was part of Hertfordshire County Council’s Environment Department. It had been in operation for 42 years and was part funded by District and Borough Councils.
CMS worked with communities in Hertfordshire helping them to care for their local environment.
Activities could be divided into three areas being:
The Land Management Team
The Land Management Team was responsible for producing Management Plans for Hertfordshire’s green infrastructure such as nature reserves, green spaces, redundant railway lines, rivers and the rights of way network.
They worked to secure funding from external sources including Lottery Funding, development off-setting and landfill communities cap.
The Land Management Team also managed contracts to mange habitat and access improvement works in green spaces.
The Communities Team
Project officers from the Communities Team worked with volunteers to conduct many of the actions contained in the Management Plan, including habitat and access improvement works.
Hertfordshire Health Walks
The Hertfordshire Health Walk project officers co-ordinated approximately 300 Health Walk Leaders, who then enabled thousands of walkers to enjoy their local green spaces therefore gaining the mental and health wellbeing benefits of experiencing the outdoors and being active.
Volunteering and working with the local community was central to the work undertaken by CMS.
Councillors were kept informed of the work undertaken by CMS by attending meetings such as this one.
CMS conducted guided walks around the sites that they managed, which were open to Councillors and usually open to the general public, which helped them to inform people about the work that was happening in their green spaces and gain some understanding about the importance of the site for ecology as well as the historical context of the site.
CMS had three groups of midweek volunteers who undertook conservation activities such as installing boardwalks, cutting back scrub, and planting trees, including a group that visited all of the North Herts owned sites.
There were 25 “Friends of” groups who were the eyes and ears regarding the green spaces, which was a great help to the landowners, which was usually the Local Authority. These groups also undertook some practical work as well.
The rights of way volunteers undertook surveys of the footpaths and bridleways across the District, assess the condition and flag up any work required and undertake some of the work required.
Management Plans were developed using a set process that involved the community during the development of the plan.
The Green Space Action Plans were map based plans which set out the aims and objectives for the management of a site over a 5 year period and detailed how those aims and objectives would be achieved.
The development of each plan started with a briefing document, which would be sent out to Councillors. This document outlined the background of and the core aspirations for the site and gave stakeholders the opportunity to feed into the Management Plan by making comments about the content, which would be considered when developing the draft Management Plan.
The draft Management Plan gave more detail about how the aspirations mentioned in the briefing document would be achieved. This document would then be sent out for consultation, which was available to members of the public as well as stakeholders.
The final Management Plan was drawn up following that consultation and therefore shouldn’t contain any information that wasn’t already known about.
This process was a great way to get people involved and to help them understand what was happening in their local environment.
In respect of Pryors Wood, Great Ashby, the Management Plan had been through the briefing stage and one of the main aspirations for this site was to integrate and fully connect Priors Wood into the wider District Park.
This site was previously managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, but was now under the management of NHDC and one of the aims was to make it clear to visitors that they were on an NHDC owned site and the connection with the District Park.
Members asked how they worked with the different District throughout Hertfordshire
Ms Carter advised that CMS worked in partnership with the District and Borough Councils and worked together with them to develop the management plans
The Service Manager – Grounds Maintenance advised that CMS was one of NHDC’s key partners for maintaining the more environmentally sensitive sites and were a resource of technical expertise.
The Grounds Maintenance Team were urban park managers and they were very reliant on CMS regarding the more sensitive maintenance of green areas.
Green Space Action Plans were in place for many areas including Oughtonhead Common, Purwell Meadows and Norton Common and these could be accessed via the NHDC website. These demonstrated the types of work being undertaken including boundary maintenance and the introduction of the grazing of cattle.
NHDC was working to be more environmentally friendly in the work undertaken, whilst also managing the costs. Involving the public and volunteers was a key factor and CMS was a key partner in managing that process.
Councillor Gray, Executive Member for Leisure, endorsed the work undertaken by CMS and the partnership working between them and NHDC Grounds Maintenance. She informed Members that the Great Ashby Distract Park was a wonderful area to visit.
Members suggested that CMS be requested to organise a walk through Pryors Wood and the District Park and that all Councillors from NHDC and Great Ashby Community Council be invited.
Ms Carter advised that CMS undertook many guided walks and that some of these were combined with special events such as the introduction of grazing at a site.
A Member commented that, particularly on Oughtonhead Common, the introduction of grazing cattle had meant the installation of unsightly barbed wire fencing, which had been placed in very visible areas rather than in tree or bush lines that may reduce the visual impact. She also commented that the river had changed over the years to the extent that people could no longer get to the water’s edge.
Ms Carter advised that the fencing had been placed in that location in order to increase the amount of grassland under favourable management.
The Service Manager-Grounds Maintenance advised that a lot of public consultation had been undertaken regarding the placement of the fencing and that consultation highlighted that there was some concern expressed that people would be enclosed within the cattle grazing area. The current location of the fencing enabled the maximum area for grazing, whilst taking into account the comments received.
More cattle would be placed on Oughtonhead Common and as the effect of that grazing takes place, the ecology of the area would change.
In respect of the rivet running alongside Woolgrove Road, a Member commented that this was now covered with wild watercress and the water was no longer visible.
The Service Manager – Grounds Maintenance informed Members that the project currently being undertaken in that location was to constrict the width of the water course and allowing the vegetation to increase was deliberate. The river passing Walsworth Common was a chalk stream, one of only 200 in the world, and was very ecologically sensitive. The watercourse had become so wide that there was very slow or no water flow, this affected the purpose of the chalk stream which was to create and clean the riverbed to expose the chalk. The flow could only be increased by narrowing the width of the stream and this had been achieved by creating flow deflectors to attempt to recreate the meandering effect of the stream. One of the benefits of the vegetation was that, in periods of heavy rainfall or flood, the flow of water would be slowed allowing it to percolate into the surrounding ground water table therefore helping to reduce the risk of flooding downstream.
The habitat in that area was improving and diversifying and the stream will no longer be a wide stagnant pool of water with no life, but will become a flowing watercourse that meanders through the riverbed and be full of life and diversity.
A walk and talk event was held sometime ago in this area and residents expressed that they were very keen to encourage biodiversity and it was pleasing to be able report that a few fish have already returned to the water course and there had been evidence of water voles and otters. This area would continue to be managed and cleaned out when required.
A Member noted the return of fauna in the area and that this was continuing to be encouraged and queried whether there was any regime of predator management. In respect of litter on Oughtonhead Common he queried whether there was a litter picking programme,
The Service Manager- Grounds Maintenance advised that John O’Conners litter picked along the bridle way, reports of illegal camping, barbeques etc were responded to and monitoring regimes were increased during school holiday periods. The team also worked closely with volunteers, without whom the site would deteriorate. The volunteer did an amazing amount of work and were fastidious.
In respect of predator management, the water course was being monitored for mink, which so far had not been sighted. If mink were sighted, there was a process in place to deal with them.
The Chairman thanked Ms Carter for her interesting presentation.
RESOLVED: That the Countryside Management Service be requested to organise a walk around Pryors Wood and the District Park and that all Councillors from NHDC and Great Ashby Community Council be invited to attend.
REASON FOR DECISION: To promote the work done by the Countryside Management Service in North Hertfordshire.