Banter 129: 22Jul26 Nature Recovery from the Ground Up, with Sandy Skelton
community-led nature recovery plans, aligned with the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, Parish Online mapping software, community engagement, challenges of data sharing, capturing local knowledge
Video Timeline:
00:00 - 17:50 Presentation 17:50 - 58:01 (end) Q & A
Presentation:
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Meeting Summary:
Jul 22, 2026 11:50 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536
Quick recap
The meeting featured a presentation by Sandy Skelton on the "Nature Recovery from the Ground Up" project in Cambridgeshire. Sandy explained the project's aim to support community-led nature recovery plans, aligned with the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, and detailed the use of Parish Online mapping software to share data and facilitate collaboration between parish councils, community groups, and higher-tier authorities. She discussed the project's approach to community engagement, the challenges of data sharing, and the importance of capturing local knowledge. Participants, including Graham, Stuart, Frank, Jane, and David, asked questions about public involvement, urban engagement, and the integration of biodiversity data into planning processes. The discussion also touched on the broader challenges of balancing nature recovery with development pressures and the need for open data access.
Next steps
Graham
Invite organizations and parishes to contribute their templates, ideas, and experiences to the "pathways" project.
Sandy
Share the link to the Wildlife Trust Garden Accreditation Scheme with Stuart.
Work with Instar (the artists) to develop a community engagement pack, incorporating physical maps and targeting specific audiences.
Review and update the guidance document on the project website by the end of March.
Continue to make the case for extending the project posts beyond March 2028 to weather the local government reorganisation.
Input into Graham's "pathways" project as requested.
Summary: LNRS from the Ground Up:
Nature Recovery Project Presentation
Sandy Skelton presented the Nature Recovery from the Ground Up project, which aims to support communities in creating locally meaningful nature recovery plans aligned with the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The project, funded through Cambridgeshire County Council's Just Transition Fund, works with parish councils and community groups to identify needs and develop plans through cluster meetings and peer learning. Sandy explained their collaboration with Parish Online to trial mapping software that allows sharing and overlaying of data sets to ensure evidence-based community nature recovery plans.
Parish Online Pilot Update
Sandy presented an update on the Parish Online pilot, which aims to evaluate progress in delivering the Local Nature Recovery Strategy while supporting data sharing across different government tiers during uncertain local authority restructuring. The pilot includes reference layers from national and local sources, collaborative layers for community input, and integration with national schemes like SwiftMapper and National Education Nature Parks. Sandy also discussed the success of wildlife-friendly garden networking and webinar series covering topics like verge management and specific project types, noting variable attendance but significant later sharing of recorded sessions.
Community Engagement Project Presentation
Sandy presented on a community engagement project in Cambridgeshire focusing on 20 parishes, where they first engaged with active community members and parish councils before planning to expand public involvement. The project uses an asset-based community development approach and has commissioned artists to create an engaging community engagement pack that incorporates physical maps and creative elements to make consultations more appealing. Stuart expressed interest in Essex's LNRS work and asked about public engagement strategies, to which Sandy explained their method of starting with active community members before broader outreach.
Community Engagement Strategy Discussion
Sandy explained how she identified active community members in the area by using Google searches, contacting parish councils and district ecologists, and engaging with local environmental networks including Wildlife Trust and Natural Cambridgeshire. She discussed the importance of targeting both children and families in nature engagement activities, while also involving adults in priority setting and planning discussions. Sandy mentioned that the layers she created for parish mapping are now available nationally on Parish Online for others to use.
Local Nature Recovery Framework Discussion
Jane, who chairs the Climate Action Network in Milton Keynes and serves as a parish councillor, discussed challenges in coordinating local nature recovery initiatives and requested guidance on creating an overarching framework or playbook to connect various community efforts. Sandy advised that building collaborative networks and trust takes time, suggesting that rather than creating something new, Jane should consider aligning with existing initiatives like Natural England's Nature Towns and Cities accreditation program. Graham mentioned their work on developing pathways based on experiences from organizations that have already implemented nature recovery projects, inviting contributions from experienced groups to create templates and guidance for others.
Local Council Development Challenges
Graham and Sandy discussed the challenges of filtering relevant information for different types of local councils, emphasizing the need for practical, evidence-based guidance on community projects like setting up community land trusts and wind turbines. Frank shared experiences from Scotland regarding balancing housing development with agricultural land and biodiversity conservation, highlighting the complexity of managing competing priorities. Sandy explained the challenges in Cambridgeshire, where large-scale growth plans and national infrastructure projects complicate local decision-making, but stressed the importance of incorporating local knowledge and nature-based solutions into development. The discussion concluded with David inquiring about Sandy's work in Cambridge and its potential application to Oxford City parishes.
Nature Recovery in Urban Areas
Sandy discussed the challenges of engaging people with nature recovery in urban areas and explained their approach of working with existing active groups while developing the Nature's Towns and Cities accreditation. She mentioned plans to work with schools, churchyards, and garden networks to promote nature throughout the city alongside priority areas identified by the Cambridge Nature Network. Sandy also addressed parish council involvement, noting that many were already doing some nature recovery work, and described their guidance document with actions for parishes to assess and improve their nature plans.
Biodiversity Data Integration Challenges
Jane discussed challenges with integrating biodiversity data from reports into GIS maps and suggested using AI for automatic summarization and mapping. She also raised concerns about the timing of community projects, like a recently planted orchard, and emphasized the need for better coordination and communication of best practices from biodiversity assessments. Sandy explained the challenges of data sharing due to the business model of environmental record centers, highlighting the need to balance open data access with the financial sustainability of these organizations.
Community Nature Projects Discussion
Sandy discussed her work on community nature projects in Cambridge, including efforts to promote wildflower planting and no-mow May initiatives. She explained that her position was created through a Just Transition Fund following the council's climate and nature emergency declaration, and noted that the posts have been extended to March 2025. The group discussed the importance of open data access and environmental records, with Jane suggesting the need for an open data law similar to a freedom of information act. Graham announced that next week's meeting would focus on nature recovery in a specific geographic area.
Chat:
00:17:06 Sandy Skelton: Nature Recovery - From the Ground Up | Cambridgeshire County Council
00:42:51 Sandy Skelton: Wildlife Gardening Award Scheme | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants
01:04:12 Sandy Skelton: Preparing a CNRP - NR-FGU - Mar26 - Google Docs
01:10:32 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Can the government licence to access Ordnance Survey data be extended to include environmental records with central Government funding?
Audio-transcript:
97 00:17:55.260 --> 00:18:19.689 Sandy Skelton: So I'm Sandy Skelton, I'm the Community Nature Project Officer at Cambridgeshire County Council, and I am going to tell you a bit about the Nature Recovery from the Ground Up project. So the aim of the project is to support communities, to prepare community nature recovery plans that are locally meaningful and informed by the local
98 00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:22.000 Sandy Skelton: Nature Recovery Strategy.
99 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:38.069 Sandy Skelton: For us in Cambridgeshire, that strategy was published in December 2025. It's at the combined authority level, so that means that it's for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough together.
100 00:18:38.190 --> 00:19:03.190 Sandy Skelton: Since then, Natural Cambridgeshire have been commissioned to lead on the implementation of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy, so it's important to be clear that this project is kind of part of that wider effort, but that there's additional things going on in Cambridgeshire, led by Natural Cambridgeshire. So, Cambridgeshire County Council was a supporting authority on the original
101 00:19:03.190 --> 00:19:06.610 Sandy Skelton: preparation of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
102 00:19:06.610 --> 00:19:14.750 Sandy Skelton: And this project is funded through… internally through, Cambridgeshire County Council's Just Transition Fund.
103 00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:34.730 Sandy Skelton: the… we… my colleagues… so the… the project funds two officers, my colleague and I, and we came into post in summer 2025, so we've been doing a little bit of work… of this work alongside the LNRS being adopted.
104 00:19:34.730 --> 00:19:43.839 Sandy Skelton: And we're now working with Natural Cambridgeshire to ensure that everything kind of feeds in and joins up. So that's just a bit of context.
105 00:19:44.360 --> 00:20:01.250 Sandy Skelton: A lot of what we do with the project is about, listening, active listening, and going out and identifying what the needs are in the communities. It's a co-creation project, which is one of those words that,
106 00:20:01.250 --> 00:20:19.920 Sandy Skelton: You should never use in a community context, because it puts lots of people off. But it is helpful to… to say that, the idea is that these plans very much come up from the community, rather than having the strategic, sort of, view of, of
107 00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:22.809 Sandy Skelton: What the priorities are, for…
108 00:20:23.030 --> 00:20:26.180 Sandy Skelton: At the parish level. It's about,
109 00:20:26.340 --> 00:20:30.799 Sandy Skelton: Ensuring that that strategic priority is interpreted locally.
110 00:20:30.910 --> 00:20:43.520 Sandy Skelton: and, meets the needs of the community. So the first thing we did for the project was actually go around and do a listening exercise, listening to what the needs were within the parishes.
111 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:59.520 Sandy Skelton: One thing I should say, when I say community, so we didn't call them parish-level plans because we have, towns as well, and because we're working in Cambridge City as well, so there's wards there, so we have a different approach.
112 00:20:59.590 --> 00:21:12.050 Sandy Skelton: For the city, and so for that reason, they're… we're referring to them as community nature recovery plans, but you might see them as parish plans. It's predominantly at the parish level.
113 00:21:12.460 --> 00:21:30.220 Sandy Skelton: And so these are some of the examples of needs that have come up from our initial round of meetings. We ran an offers and needs market at the first round of meetings, which was really, really helpful, partly because it helped to surface
114 00:21:30.220 --> 00:21:38.230 Sandy Skelton: A lot of offers as well, and so we were able to match people up, kind of, in the room, which was really helpful.
115 00:21:38.440 --> 00:21:39.690 Sandy Skelton: I'm…
116 00:21:41.560 --> 00:21:58.259 Sandy Skelton: we… I was just looking for the slide, which I don't have here, which is the one that I would like to show you, which is the kind of different types of resources and the different… so our approach, is to, work with the parish councils
117 00:21:58.650 --> 00:22:01.660 Sandy Skelton: So parish councils and community groups.
118 00:22:01.760 --> 00:22:06.140 Sandy Skelton: And to convene these cluster meetings
119 00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:20.520 Sandy Skelton: Within pretty much district clusters, but there's a couple of sub-clusters as well, and very much focus on peer learning. We also have a lot of resources on our website, so I've shared the link to our website.
120 00:22:20.520 --> 00:22:29.030 Sandy Skelton: And so there we have quite simple resources, so some Google Sheets where we point to existing
121 00:22:29.030 --> 00:22:41.269 Sandy Skelton: Guides and, different types of templates that already exist that community groups would find useful in furthering, community-led nature recovery.
122 00:22:41.300 --> 00:22:50.440 Sandy Skelton: We also have a shared funding list where we list out different funding opportunities, and we run a webinar series
123 00:22:51.050 --> 00:23:02.970 Sandy Skelton: What else do we do? Cluster media, yeah, and then… and so within that wider context of doing a lot of different things, one of the things that we're doing is, we have a collaboration with Parish Online.
124 00:23:03.050 --> 00:23:12.260 Sandy Skelton: And so the next slide is about that. So this is… so I don't know what… how… how closely, whether people…
125 00:23:12.290 --> 00:23:18.520 Sandy Skelton: are aware of Parish Online. They, run a… they have a mapping software.
126 00:23:18.520 --> 00:23:32.599 Sandy Skelton: that is, at the parish level to help put together, neighbourhood plans and manage all sorts of parish business. They also have a corporate GIS system called XMAP,
127 00:23:32.600 --> 00:23:47.439 Sandy Skelton: And, what we're doing in Cambridgeshire is trialling the use of this, software, this tool, to share data across different layers of government. So, we have,
128 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:50.980 Sandy Skelton: We want to make sure that the community
129 00:23:51.520 --> 00:24:02.700 Sandy Skelton: Nature Recovery Plans are evidence-based, so we want to share data, say, on the strategic priorities in the local nature recovery strategy and other things.
130 00:24:02.750 --> 00:24:22.560 Sandy Skelton: Then we want to, allow parish councils and community groups to overlay different data sets, so there's not necessarily the mapping capability, within the parish councils to be able to see different data sets at the same time. So there's a tool… that's a tool to do that.
131 00:24:22.560 --> 00:24:31.769 Sandy Skelton: We want a ground truth dataset, so that's really important, because often the, the view of a parish from higher-tier authorities
132 00:24:31.770 --> 00:24:41.460 Sandy Skelton: Isn't what's there on the ground, and so we want to be able to capture that local knowledge and feed back into the higher tier authorities.
133 00:24:41.560 --> 00:24:48.049 Sandy Skelton: We want to inspire learning across parishes, so we want parishes to be able to see what other parishes are doing.
134 00:24:48.450 --> 00:24:51.729 Sandy Skelton: And we want to evaluate progress.
135 00:24:51.810 --> 00:25:08.719 Sandy Skelton: In delivering the local nature recovery strategy and celebrate successes. That will, you know, feed into this wider, more, kind of, official work from Natural Cambridgeshire, but as a project, you know, we want to make sure that we're contributing to that.
136 00:25:08.760 --> 00:25:25.830 Sandy Skelton: And importantly, in the context of local government reform, I don't know if you're aware, but, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was one of, I think, two areas where central government couldn't make a decision last week over
137 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:35.159 Sandy Skelton: the future unitary authorities. So, at the moment, we're still unsure about what our structure is going to be going forward.
138 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:48.789 Sandy Skelton: But we… so we want to test the use of this tool as a way to make sure that, data is held safely as we move, kind of, to this… to the new authorities.
139 00:25:48.930 --> 00:25:59.269 Sandy Skelton: So… as part of the, Parish Online pilot, we're sharing data in different ways.
140 00:25:59.270 --> 00:26:12.380 Sandy Skelton: And this slide kind of shows a bit of how we're doing that. So on the left, you can see different tiers of government, or different levels, from national to the individual.
141 00:26:12.420 --> 00:26:17.759 Sandy Skelton: And then there's different ways that we're sharing information, sharing data.
142 00:26:17.810 --> 00:26:22.770 Sandy Skelton: Across those. So the first is reference layers.
143 00:26:22.770 --> 00:26:38.010 Sandy Skelton: So these are layers that people who are using the tool can then switch on and off, depending on what they're interested in. There's lots of national layers in there, so from the Environment Agency, from Natural England.
144 00:26:38.030 --> 00:26:50.209 Sandy Skelton: And what we're looking at is adding local layers to that. So we've added, with the permission of the combined authority, the local nature recovery strategy areas of
145 00:26:50.300 --> 00:26:57.190 Sandy Skelton: particular importance for biodiversity and areas of biodiversity potential, so that's all in there.
146 00:26:57.660 --> 00:27:14.220 Sandy Skelton: And, we've also started adding data from about, county farms, so the location of farms owned by the county council, that's helpful for parishes to know if they're wanting to collaborate with farmers.
147 00:27:14.290 --> 00:27:32.640 Sandy Skelton: To… on projects, so we're starting to build up the types of reference layers that we're putting into Parish Online. Then, for… on the, sort of, collaborative layers, so this is,
148 00:27:32.780 --> 00:27:37.900 Sandy Skelton: About getting information back from the parish councils and the community groups.
149 00:27:37.900 --> 00:27:55.799 Sandy Skelton: First thing to say there is that that covers parish councils and community groups, partly because our listening exercise showed that a lot of this work isn't actually led by the parish councils, it's led by very active community members, sometimes community groups.
150 00:27:55.800 --> 00:28:08.850 Sandy Skelton: sort of constituted groups, sometimes just a couple of individuals, and so that it was really important to make sure that those community groups could also get access to the tool.
151 00:28:09.110 --> 00:28:23.470 Sandy Skelton: And so, we asked for a subcontractor license to be created, so that… so that that's possible, and that is… is now possible. So that means that through this subcontractor license process.
152 00:28:23.470 --> 00:28:36.540 Sandy Skelton: community groups are able to get access, through their parish council, to… to the tool. The collaborative layers that we're currently asking them to
153 00:28:36.580 --> 00:28:43.110 Sandy Skelton: populate, are a corrections layer, so that's to do with the ground truth thing.
154 00:28:43.500 --> 00:28:45.220 Sandy Skelton: Of the reference layers.
155 00:28:45.330 --> 00:28:51.689 Sandy Skelton: A concerns layer, which links back to our local nature recovery strategy.
156 00:28:51.850 --> 00:28:56.860 Sandy Skelton: For things like invasive species, runoff, those sorts of things.
157 00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:15.320 Sandy Skelton: An engaged landowner layer, which is really helpful for that early project planning, and also really important because one of our key indicators is land managed for nature, and so it's helpful to be able to
158 00:29:15.570 --> 00:29:24.029 Sandy Skelton: capture land that is just managed for nature without there being a particular project or something, funding bid associated with it.
159 00:29:24.190 --> 00:29:38.350 Sandy Skelton: And then a community, oh, not community, just general, nature recovery projects layer, where you can, again, link back to our different local nature recovery strategy priorities.
160 00:29:38.910 --> 00:29:53.230 Sandy Skelton: Then we have this, topic-specific initiatives. So this is… what we were finding was that there are national schemes where groups are encouraged to put their data
161 00:29:53.270 --> 00:30:01.580 Sandy Skelton: into a national map, and it's usually topic-specific, so a great example of that is Swift Mapper, which is
162 00:30:01.580 --> 00:30:15.790 Sandy Skelton: run by the RSPB, and our worry there was that if we start encouraging groups to put data on SWIFT boxes, so SWIFTs are a priority species in our LNRS,
163 00:30:15.790 --> 00:30:18.420 Sandy Skelton: And we were concerned that if we start
164 00:30:18.420 --> 00:30:36.950 Sandy Skelton: encouraging them to put data directly into Parrish Online, that, they wouldn't be putting it into the national data set, and that it would cause confusion, and if the pilot didn't continue, then, you know, we would be… that data would be lost.
165 00:30:36.950 --> 00:30:51.089 Sandy Skelton: So instead, what we've done is, Parish Online have actually agreed to periodically import that data, and so it means that we can continue to promote the national schemes,
166 00:30:51.610 --> 00:31:06.900 Sandy Skelton: and then, pull… pull data into Parish Online, which feels like a more kind of collaborative, way to do that. We've done that so far for Swift Mapper, and for National Education Nature Parks, which is
167 00:31:07.180 --> 00:31:11.800 Sandy Skelton: run by the Royal Horticultural Society.
168 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:21.869 Sandy Skelton: And is a national scheme, government funded about habitat mapping in schools, so we're able to get the national.
169 00:31:23.770 --> 00:31:43.680 Sandy Skelton: habitat maps for schools that are engaging with that. And then the final bit part of the slide there on the right, so then informed by all of this stuff, the idea is that communities then put together their recovery plans, nature recovery plans, and then they can print those as PDFs.
170 00:31:44.080 --> 00:31:59.789 Sandy Skelton: The mapping parts of it, and can also do these, Zoomable public maps if they want to, and that's then, you know, they can share that with individuals and… and with the other higher tier authorities.
171 00:32:00.010 --> 00:32:19.549 Sandy Skelton: A couple more slides, can't remember what's coming up, so let's see. This is, about the use cases, so just so that you can see, so one thing that's, taken off is the idea of a wildlife-friendly garden network. This is a really great
172 00:32:19.570 --> 00:32:31.090 Sandy Skelton: kind of, starter to get things going, because what happens a lot is that, communities are concerned about, you know, not being able to engage
173 00:32:31.190 --> 00:32:41.470 Sandy Skelton: large landowners within the parish, and that can take some time to kind of build that up. And so, what's helpful here is that,
174 00:32:41.710 --> 00:32:49.510 Sandy Skelton: By encouraging people to pledge that they're… that… to have a wildlife-friendly garden, that.
175 00:32:49.510 --> 00:33:05.499 Sandy Skelton: We can then map out the gardens in Parish Online and start to see how those small bits add up, and then you can also use that to kind of encourage the larger landowners, show them how much momentum there is locally.
176 00:33:05.570 --> 00:33:23.450 Sandy Skelton: and point to Lawton principles, so bigger, better, more joined up, which is the sort of underlying principle of the local nature recovery strategy. The Wildlife Trust have a garden accreditation scheme, so what we're doing is we're pointing to that.
177 00:33:23.450 --> 00:33:31.860 Sandy Skelton: So that there's, you know, some guidance there on, on, on what a wildlife-friendly garden is, and
178 00:33:32.060 --> 00:33:34.220 Sandy Skelton: What you're sort of pledging for.
179 00:33:34.260 --> 00:33:47.869 Sandy Skelton: This is about our webinars, so again, responding to questions that are coming up at our cluster meetings, we're, running a series of webinars.
180 00:33:47.870 --> 00:34:04.689 Sandy Skelton: This was just a graph on how many we're getting, so we're finding that the attendance is quite variable, and also for ones that we thought were going to be really popular, sometimes we have quite low attendance. But we just took this back to our methodology group, and they…
181 00:34:04.690 --> 00:34:12.119 Sandy Skelton: reassured us that quite a lot of people are sharing the… so we record them and,
182 00:34:12.409 --> 00:34:23.930 Sandy Skelton: And they mentioned that quite a lot are sharing them, later. Apologies for the title on the slide. These are… sorry, these are thrown together, quickly,
183 00:34:24.130 --> 00:34:32.099 Sandy Skelton: But you can see that the reason why I wanted to include it is less about the numbers, but more just the sort of topics. So we've had.
184 00:34:32.100 --> 00:34:55.099 Sandy Skelton: the very popular one has been where we've brought Highways colleagues along as well to have a group discussion about managing verges for biodiversity. That was very popular, and it was a very fruitful discussion, although it's a… it's a kind of very thorny issue, so it's not like we're going to address that, really quickly, but it's helpful. I think it was a helpful webinar.
185 00:34:55.260 --> 00:34:59.239 Sandy Skelton: We've had some technical ones on Parish Online.
186 00:34:59.510 --> 00:35:09.680 Sandy Skelton: introduction to the local nature recovery strategy, some stuff on specific types of projects, so about rain gardens, churchyards.
187 00:35:09.680 --> 00:35:21.689 Sandy Skelton: And then some stuff on the, kind of, the more… the processes, so the Section 106 in Somersham, and also, a community land purchase in Abbey Field, so these are more.
188 00:35:21.950 --> 00:35:22.700 Sandy Skelton: Mmm…
189 00:35:23.290 --> 00:35:32.889 Sandy Skelton: Ambitious projects that some parishes are going for, and trying to kind of capture what they've done so that it might inspire others.
190 00:35:33.020 --> 00:35:43.660 Sandy Skelton: So that's it for now, and I'll stop sharing the slides, and then happy to have a bit of a group conversation around that.
191 00:36:00.190 --> 00:36:04.109 Sandy Skelton: Oh, I can't hear you! Are you on mute, Graeme?
192 00:36:20.650 --> 00:36:22.129 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: You're on mute, Graham.
193 00:36:32.470 --> 00:36:34.879 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: forever, isn't it?
194 00:36:35.050 --> 00:36:39.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Screw, I'm not a technological person, and we never understand what we're doing.
195 00:36:40.140 --> 00:36:54.560 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Sandy, let me just say that A was a marvellous discussion, thank you, and B, what is the course that all of your counsellors have gone on to teach them to be
196 00:36:54.560 --> 00:37:05.680 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: friendly, and listening, and cooperative, and learning, and collaborating and assisting, because I think most of the parishes online here would like to move to Cambridgeshire to join in like that. It's,
197 00:37:05.680 --> 00:37:11.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: We don't always get that sort of response at county or unitary level, so it's brilliant to come across. Thank you.
198 00:37:11.700 --> 00:37:13.710 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Very much.
199 00:37:14.140 --> 00:37:32.280 Sandy Skelton: On that, I should… I should mention that… so I'm… I'm new in post, and I came from a… from working for a… for a local charity, and I… I… I'm a member of, Cambridge Climate Leaders, and so I think part of that is,
200 00:37:32.820 --> 00:37:46.800 Sandy Skelton: having that experience of working with communities, and that these posts are really important at local authorities to bring that knowledge, and I am finding that colleagues are receptive to it, but it is a really important…
201 00:37:46.950 --> 00:37:54.600 Sandy Skelton: part of what we're doing, and it is difficult sometimes. So, say, with procurement and, you know, there are various
202 00:37:54.710 --> 00:38:07.410 Sandy Skelton: ways that, local authorities are set up that… that makes that harder, but I think it's… it is really important… it's an important, bigger point about how… how we do this type of work.
203 00:38:08.070 --> 00:38:22.909 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Well, it is, because I do a lot of work with Parish Online, and persuading councils at a higher level to export their data to Parish Online is remarkably hard work, I guess because most of them don't know that parishes have that facility.
204 00:38:23.790 --> 00:38:24.220 Sandy Skelton: Yeah.
205 00:38:24.220 --> 00:38:29.160 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: But it does make such a colossal difference. I mean, I think it's a wonderful product.
206 00:38:29.410 --> 00:38:35.530 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And, so more power to you, and I hope it really shows up as being helpful in your project.
207 00:38:37.330 --> 00:38:39.560 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Stuart, you were raising a question.
208 00:38:40.550 --> 00:38:44.630 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, I'd just like to thank Sandy for a great presentation.
209 00:38:44.890 --> 00:38:47.650 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And, really admire the work you're doing.
210 00:38:47.900 --> 00:38:54.859 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I'm obviously in Essex, and Essex have produced an LNRS, which is quite extensive.
211 00:38:55.330 --> 00:39:01.359 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I'm curious how you go about getting public involvement, engagement.
212 00:39:03.780 --> 00:39:14.869 Sandy Skelton: So, we… we were quite conscious at the start of the project to, in the first instance, engage with the people who were the doers.
213 00:39:14.900 --> 00:39:25.870 Sandy Skelton: As… so the… with the parish councils and… and the kind of doers within communities, rather than going straight to the sort of general public,
214 00:39:25.960 --> 00:39:28.979 Sandy Skelton: And so we did that by…
215 00:39:29.240 --> 00:39:36.729 Sandy Skelton: finding out about existing groups within the target area. So I should say, for this first pilot.
216 00:39:36.730 --> 00:39:55.029 Sandy Skelton: phase, which runs to March 2027, we're focusing on 20 parishes across Cambridgeshire, and so we did a… we looked at, what groups already exist there. So, I guess the approach is… I don't know if you've come across asset-based community development.
217 00:39:55.030 --> 00:40:08.380 Sandy Skelton: But it's basically about building on what's already there, and so the first challenge is to find out what's already there, so that you can then hear what the needs are and build… build on that.
218 00:40:09.560 --> 00:40:26.940 Sandy Skelton: And so we did some… some groundwork trying to identify who was active within the communities, and then started having these cluster meetings. We've just managed to access some funding to commission some artists
219 00:40:27.160 --> 00:40:46.849 Sandy Skelton: They're called Instar, and they're based in Nottingham, and they are going to make a community engagement pack for us. And so that's more than about these individuals that are quite active, then reaching out into the wider community.
220 00:40:46.940 --> 00:41:04.059 Sandy Skelton: And trying to get more enthusiasm and buy-in. So we're working on that at the moment, and the idea there is to incorporate the physical maps, but to make it much more fun, and not like a boring council consultation, and so…
221 00:41:04.660 --> 00:41:07.239 Sandy Skelton: It's with… we're hoping to…
222 00:41:07.340 --> 00:41:19.080 Sandy Skelton: that that link between creativity and nature, might be some glue to pull some more people in as well. And also.
223 00:41:19.590 --> 00:41:34.840 Sandy Skelton: You know, help people create a bit of a splash locally about, you know, what they're passionate about and what they're wanting to do, and just give them that little bit of extra support, to try to find the other people that are interested, because
224 00:41:34.840 --> 00:41:44.810 Sandy Skelton: We know they're out there, and it's just a question of, you know, finding them and convening them, and then
225 00:41:45.100 --> 00:41:52.600 Sandy Skelton: Supporting them to… to kind of, you know, make a plan and move things along locally.
226 00:41:54.980 --> 00:41:58.390 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I'm, I'm, just to follow up,
227 00:41:58.770 --> 00:42:04.390 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Do you know anything about the Wildlife Trust Garden Accreditation Scheme? I have not heard of that before.
228 00:42:05.070 --> 00:42:10.079 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, so it's… I think it's a local scheme, I can find the link,
229 00:42:10.780 --> 00:42:21.250 Sandy Skelton: It's a local scheme for… so our local wildlife trust is, it's BCN, so… Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire.
230 00:42:22.590 --> 00:42:32.160 Sandy Skelton: Not sure about the end, but I'll find you the link. So it has some resources with it, and then you can send off for a little plaque?
231 00:42:32.320 --> 00:42:39.279 Sandy Skelton: To put in your garden. I mean, you pay for the plaque, but it's a nice scheme, because it's,
232 00:42:40.950 --> 00:42:43.189 Sandy Skelton: Here we go, let me find the link.
233 00:42:52.940 --> 00:42:53.990 Sandy Skelton: Bedfordshire.
234 00:42:53.990 --> 00:42:54.560 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Okay.
235 00:42:54.650 --> 00:42:56.460 Sandy Skelton: North Hance, yeah.
236 00:42:56.460 --> 00:42:57.189 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thank you.
237 00:42:59.560 --> 00:43:07.109 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Sandy, you mentioned there that one of the first things you did was find out who is doing… who's active at the moment in the area.
238 00:43:07.110 --> 00:43:07.610 Sandy Skelton: Hmm.
239 00:43:07.610 --> 00:43:09.549 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And how did you find that out?
240 00:43:11.060 --> 00:43:12.500 Sandy Skelton: Google.
241 00:43:13.650 --> 00:43:14.620 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Really?
242 00:43:15.110 --> 00:43:19.959 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: It is interesting. So the local parish councils weren't necessarily the source of the information.
243 00:43:19.960 --> 00:43:36.710 Sandy Skelton: Oh, yeah, also, of course, of course, yeah. So, so, a bit of Google, a bit of, con… so, obviously, con… contacting the parish, councils and the parish clerks, but conscious that they have very full.
244 00:43:36.720 --> 00:43:45.609 Sandy Skelton: you know, plates, and so aren't going to get back to you super quickly. And then also, what was really important was the district
245 00:43:45.610 --> 00:43:50.650 Sandy Skelton: ecologists and district council contacts.
246 00:43:50.650 --> 00:44:07.550 Sandy Skelton: and also local networks, so, climate networks, nature networks, so Natural Cambridgeshire as well, Wildlife Trust. So a lot of the… the… there's various different organisations.
247 00:44:07.560 --> 00:44:14.680 Sandy Skelton: We have Cambridgeshire Acre as well, so lots of different organisations that work with communities,
248 00:44:15.100 --> 00:44:30.639 Sandy Skelton: So asking them about who's active as well. I used to run the Repair Cafe Network in Cambridgeshire, and so that also helps. You know, it's not always about just single issue, because
249 00:44:30.850 --> 00:44:42.509 Sandy Skelton: You know, people do have multiple interests, and so, some of the people that we engage with are, you know, through that network as well.
250 00:44:46.260 --> 00:44:48.340 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yeah, you're thinking that,
251 00:44:49.550 --> 00:45:02.299 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: I mean, David is a member of a motorcycle organization, and I can see them wanting to get out and do what's happening, and of course, there's always children. I imagine they're a major source of assistance, if nothing else.
252 00:45:03.270 --> 00:45:20.860 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? So, the children, and then also younger people, so age comes up quite a lot, so some of the volunteers are older and wanting to engage younger people, and then often through engaging children as well, wanting to engage families.
253 00:45:21.070 --> 00:45:28.429 Sandy Skelton: And I think that's something that's coming up now in specifying our resource kit with the artists.
254 00:45:28.610 --> 00:45:32.239 Sandy Skelton: Is to be very clear about our target audience.
255 00:45:32.320 --> 00:45:51.180 Sandy Skelton: And I think what we're trying to do, and we're just working through it at the moment, is to be clear on what we're trying to achieve through the engagement. So we're not just wanting to go in and run a nice event about nature, and everyone goes away feeling warm and fuzzy, and then nothing happens afterwards.
256 00:45:51.190 --> 00:45:56.199 Sandy Skelton: And so, we… what we're trying to do is…
257 00:45:56.370 --> 00:46:15.890 Sandy Skelton: Do something engaging that… where, say, kids might be involved, but then also, whilst you've got the kids occupied, make sure you're drawing the adults into a conversation about actually getting involved with the more priority-setting and planning side of things.
258 00:46:17.260 --> 00:46:25.410 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yeah, we started a nature recovery, reserve, if you will, in our village, and…
259 00:46:25.410 --> 00:46:40.149 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: your idea of celebrating success, the more that we were able to show people that this was actually going somewhere and was doing something, and it built its own momentum. And if you're doing that across the entire county, then it must really have a powerful effect.
260 00:46:40.150 --> 00:46:41.619 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, and it really…
261 00:46:41.620 --> 00:46:42.330 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: growth.
262 00:46:42.580 --> 00:46:58.640 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, and a really important thing to say is all of the layers we've created are now national layers on Parish Online, so anyone, you know, who wants to use those layers can use them in a similar way.
263 00:46:59.810 --> 00:47:03.460 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Brilliant. Well, let me move on to Jane, who's got a question.
264 00:47:03.610 --> 00:47:05.660 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Or many, hopefully.
265 00:47:06.800 --> 00:47:22.829 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Hello there. Yeah, that was really interesting. I love this, the title of, Nature Recovery from the Ground Up, because nature is one of the things that some of our local activists are saying is missing from, the Milton Keynes, ecosystem.
266 00:47:23.240 --> 00:47:23.680 Sandy Skelton: points.
267 00:47:23.680 --> 00:47:26.370 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: chair the Climate Action Network in Milton.
268 00:47:26.370 --> 00:47:26.750 Sandy Skelton: Okay.
269 00:47:26.750 --> 00:47:29.180 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: and I recently became a parish councillor.
270 00:47:29.310 --> 00:47:43.749 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: And I'm overwhelmed with all… I mean, there's initiatives everywhere. The time taken to actually sort through the ones that are really good, and I think the, you know, the great… the collaboration and great… the Banter sessions are really good for that, but limited time to go through everything.
271 00:47:43.750 --> 00:47:44.130 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Yes.
272 00:47:44.130 --> 00:47:49.480 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: And to, to… Point people to the ones that are most useful for our purposes.
273 00:47:49.730 --> 00:48:03.650 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: But the question I got here is, you know, there's so many things happening during the summer holidays, like there's kids craft groups, and, you know, wouldn't it be great if we could have this overarching theme? So some sort of…
274 00:48:04.390 --> 00:48:07.169 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Some sort of how-to guide.
275 00:48:08.290 --> 00:48:16.599 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: I don't know if that's something that you could be looking at to do after your project ends, you know, how we can take this and, like, a playbook for doing
276 00:48:17.080 --> 00:48:28.869 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: something across, you know, a range of audiences and groups would be fantastic. I mean, we've got so many resources here. I proposed an asset-based,
277 00:48:28.930 --> 00:48:38.960 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Community development approach. But, you know, having the resource to actually bring it together, and then persuading those people to actually join a loose network.
278 00:48:40.170 --> 00:48:42.340 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: So hard,
279 00:48:42.340 --> 00:48:43.190 Sandy Skelton: Yeah.
280 00:48:43.190 --> 00:48:45.480 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: So any advice you've got?
281 00:48:46.630 --> 00:48:54.900 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, it's… it's just no advice. I hear you, we're in the same… same situation. I think… I think what I'm…
282 00:48:55.550 --> 00:48:58.199 Sandy Skelton: Noticing is that it is…
283 00:48:58.350 --> 00:49:17.299 Sandy Skelton: it's slow work, but it's important work, and it's about almost, like, having the confidence to build things up properly. And so, one of the questions I had at the start of our project was, because the project is,
284 00:49:17.640 --> 00:49:30.769 Sandy Skelton: four years on… on paper, but we needed to kind of make the case for the funding, so it wasn't clear whether we're doing a one-year project, or the first year of a four-year project.
285 00:49:30.860 --> 00:49:49.729 Sandy Skelton: And, we've ended up kind of coming out the gates faster than you would if it was a four-year project, because we had to show some stuff. But I think things like finding a way to pull together all the different things that are being recommended to you, and then building trust.
286 00:49:50.100 --> 00:49:54.640 Sandy Skelton: Between the different networks and,
287 00:49:55.970 --> 00:50:10.959 Sandy Skelton: building that collaborative approach, and not just assuming, you know, not just coming in and saying, we're… we're in the network, everyone join in with us. That's slow work, but I think that's what's really needed, and so
288 00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:24.569 Sandy Skelton: recognizing that that's what's needed, not, you know, just a new system to point everyone to. So, I should say that part of… so what we… what was our advice say in the city?
289 00:50:24.570 --> 00:50:34.730 Sandy Skelton: Where it's not parish, so it wasn't clear what our approach should be. We… they recommended that, because,
290 00:50:34.730 --> 00:50:51.259 Sandy Skelton: Cambridge City is going for Natural England Nature Towns and Cities accreditation, so we're just going to get behind that, rather than promote something new. And part of the reason why we started the collaboration with Parish Online was because a quarter of parishes already
291 00:50:51.260 --> 00:50:57.420 Sandy Skelton: subscribed to Parish Online before we started, so it's kind of something that's already happening.
292 00:50:57.740 --> 00:51:00.510 Sandy Skelton: And, and so…
293 00:51:00.850 --> 00:51:14.769 Sandy Skelton: I think that's, that's really important to really notice when you're creating something new. Ask yourself, is something new actually needed, or should I be getting behind something that's
294 00:51:14.990 --> 00:51:16.620 Sandy Skelton: already happening.
295 00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:18.020 Sandy Skelton: I'm…
296 00:51:19.450 --> 00:51:20.800 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Okay, thank you.
297 00:51:21.330 --> 00:51:24.499 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: That's interesting. Lots to think about.
298 00:51:24.500 --> 00:51:26.490 Sandy Skelton: The slots, yeah.
299 00:51:26.690 --> 00:51:50.269 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Jane, just so you know, we've started working in great collaboration on pathways, so here is your path to get from here to there, and it's based upon the experiences of people around. So what we're asking is that those organizations, parishes, councils, whatever, who've already done this, a bit like Sandy is doing at the moment.
300 00:51:50.270 --> 00:51:52.360 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: We'd ask them if they would contribute
301 00:51:52.360 --> 00:52:10.959 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: To our pathways, so that the templates they've got, the ideas that they've had, the things that worked, we would put those into our path, so that, as you say, rather than having to go to 5,000 places to get your ideas, there's one that tries to lead you through the routes that have worked for other people.
302 00:52:11.260 --> 00:52:23.630 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And, you know, it's going to be varying depending whether you're a town council, or a parish council, or even a little meeting or something, because we're all different sizes and in different places. But…
303 00:52:23.630 --> 00:52:35.799 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: You're absolutely right, there's so much information out there that it's very difficult to filter out the bits that you want, as opposed to the drowning and the overload. That's what we're trying to resolve.
304 00:52:35.840 --> 00:52:39.159 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: So, any contributions gratefully accepted.
305 00:52:39.160 --> 00:52:44.289 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, and very… yeah, obviously, we're very happy to input into that in any way we can.
306 00:52:44.290 --> 00:52:58.959 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: If you could, Sanny, yes, because we've got some people who are just setting up their own CIC and doing their own wind turbine and so forth, and we think, well, that's going to be of interest to a lot of people, you know, how do you set up a community land trust or whatever.
307 00:52:59.380 --> 00:53:08.740 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And the government will say, well, here's how you should do it, and then you need the ones who say, well, this is what we've tried, and it's actually quite different.
308 00:53:08.740 --> 00:53:10.120 Sandy Skelton: Yeah.
309 00:53:10.120 --> 00:53:18.259 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: you've got reality-based coming in, and as you said, there's so much need for evidence-based decisions and so forth. Great system.
310 00:53:18.510 --> 00:53:24.350 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Let me just check whether anybody has any more questions. Frank, you're unusually quiet today.
311 00:53:24.730 --> 00:53:35.019 Frank Deas, Killearn: No, I find the whole thing fascinating. I think, obviously, we have a… so, I'm based up in Scotland, so we've got a slightly different structural landscape. We've got,
312 00:53:35.250 --> 00:53:46.099 Frank Deas, Killearn: that we're trying to encompass, but it's always interesting. The basic things of engagement and engagement with communities is much the same, and one of the things that we've done is get together
313 00:53:46.100 --> 00:54:01.319 Frank Deas, Killearn: Our county is Sterling, but it's one of those bizarre counties where 80% of the population is to one side of the motorway, and 80% of the land's to the other side, so we're getting the rural people together and trying to collaborate and work perfectly, and that's going well.
314 00:54:01.520 --> 00:54:07.319 Frank Deas, Killearn: One of the challenges we found, and I don't know, you may have encountered this, or did others in the group may have encountered it.
315 00:54:07.960 --> 00:54:24.780 Frank Deas, Killearn: As we're getting slightly better at thinking about things, when we're doing local development plans and saying, where are we going to build the houses that we all desperately need, we then have this competition between, well, is it active agricultural land, in which case we can't touch it because we should be looking at food sustainability.
316 00:54:24.780 --> 00:54:43.469 Frank Deas, Killearn: But if it's not active agricultural land, it's probably very, very important in terms of biodiversity and nature corridors. And it's how both councils and community groups manage that apparent conflict between, we do need to have more houses for people, but we do need to have local agricultural for sustainability, and we do need to have nature networks.
317 00:54:43.470 --> 00:54:45.909 Frank Deas, Killearn: There's not an easy answer.
318 00:54:46.280 --> 00:55:00.700 Frank Deas, Killearn: It's good. What certainly seems to be, from your talk is that Cambridgeshire's accepting it and is giving it a role to someone like you to articulate for and speak up for the nature networks, and the concern I have is that they're often the
319 00:55:00.930 --> 00:55:04.970 Frank Deas, Killearn: the least able to advocate for themselves, so it's good to see it's part of you.
320 00:55:06.830 --> 00:55:17.369 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, and I mean, it's a huge challenge, and there's a… so, in Cambridgeshire, for example, you know, that's, we're,
321 00:55:17.550 --> 00:55:19.159 Sandy Skelton: There's a huge…
322 00:55:19.260 --> 00:55:27.850 Sandy Skelton: growth plan for… for Cambridgeshire. There's actually going to be a development corporation, or is already, to…
323 00:55:27.850 --> 00:55:44.669 Sandy Skelton: take a lot of those decisions to central government, and there are a lot of nationally important infrastructure projects, within the county, and so, there is… there are these competing pressures, and
324 00:55:44.710 --> 00:55:47.420 Sandy Skelton: You know, those decisions are made
325 00:55:48.030 --> 00:56:03.690 Sandy Skelton: above the grade of our project, right? That's not our place, that's a political process as well. I think where this can be helpful is, I think people often think about evidence base as being top-down, whereas the evidence base should also
326 00:56:03.900 --> 00:56:16.370 Sandy Skelton: capture the… the ground-up knowledge, and… and I think that's where we can help. The… the actual decisions about which land is used for what, that's…
327 00:56:16.370 --> 00:56:28.749 Sandy Skelton: Done by others, but… but to capture, you know, the… what's valuable, locally, and to be strategic about.
328 00:56:28.750 --> 00:56:40.889 Sandy Skelton: these decisions is really important, and also not to pitch growth against nature. Growth is based on nature, you know, the whole of, the…
329 00:56:41.160 --> 00:56:51.399 Sandy Skelton: We use nature in order to, input into production, and there are lots, lots of,
330 00:56:51.810 --> 00:57:03.149 Sandy Skelton: opportunities for development that is mindful of nature, and there's lots of evidence that the more we bring nature into, you know, housing developments and
331 00:57:03.420 --> 00:57:05.030 Sandy Skelton: I'm…
332 00:57:05.370 --> 00:57:17.859 Sandy Skelton: even workplaces or hospitals, the greater the impact on wellbeing. And so it's… it's really important that we try to.
333 00:57:17.970 --> 00:57:22.079 Sandy Skelton: Sort of challenge this,
334 00:57:22.540 --> 00:57:29.589 Sandy Skelton: dichotomy between… I mean, but acknowledge that, obviously, that difficult decisions need to be made.
335 00:57:29.730 --> 00:57:39.639 Sandy Skelton: About the use of land, but it's… I wouldn't say, we've solved that.
336 00:57:39.640 --> 00:57:55.669 Frank Deas, Killearn: No, no, and I think, again, there's a challenge or a risk in that. So, in Scottish legislation, we now have a requirement for swift bricks to be part of house building. That's tremendous. More and more developers are putting in things like hedgehog highways and.
337 00:57:55.670 --> 00:57:56.180 Sandy Skelton: Thank you.
338 00:57:56.180 --> 00:58:01.159 Frank Deas, Killearn: So those are all really, really good. Yeah. But do you know what? They're not actually going to…
339 00:58:01.380 --> 00:58:09.670 Frank Deas, Killearn: turn back the clock on the encroachment of wild areas. So where we are is on the kind of borderline for pine martins and red squirrels.
340 00:58:10.080 --> 00:58:22.949 Frank Deas, Killearn: gradually moving south, displacing the gray squirrels, that's all tremendous. But realistically, when you start developing an area, the gray squirrels make a comeback, and the pine markings and red squirrels retreat further north. So it is how you get that balance through.
341 00:58:23.170 --> 00:58:24.300 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, yeah.
342 00:58:26.350 --> 00:58:27.480 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: David, please.
343 00:58:30.210 --> 00:58:34.300 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Hi. I'm… Yes.
344 00:58:34.530 --> 00:58:47.119 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): I'd like to find out a bit more about what you're doing inside Cambridge, because my parish is inside Oxford City. We actually have parishes inside the city for parts of it.
345 00:58:47.350 --> 00:58:54.579 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): And we have Pride in place, and things like that. So I was wondering how you manage
346 00:58:54.910 --> 00:58:56.840 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): To get people engaged.
347 00:58:57.290 --> 00:59:04.279 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): With what is often quite small-scale nature recovery, because you're fitting in little bits around the city.
348 00:59:04.650 --> 00:59:05.510 Sandy Skelton: Hmm.
349 00:59:06.470 --> 00:59:24.089 Sandy Skelton: It's a really good question, and one that we're working on. So, we convened a meeting with all the active groups that we were, you know, promoted to active groups, and we got a lot of pushback on not creating something new,
350 00:59:24.590 --> 00:59:37.190 Sandy Skelton: and this is why we're kind of getting behind this Nature's Towns and Cities accreditation. Another thing that came up was that… about connecting up these
351 00:59:37.340 --> 00:59:55.440 Sandy Skelton: areas that had been identified for nature as sort of priority landscapes outside the city, but then this sort of question of, well, what about the stuff in the middle? And so what we're doing… so what people really wanted to do is do some work with schools,
352 00:59:55.610 --> 01:00:04.969 Sandy Skelton: So we're… we're looking into that, we're looking at different schemes for that. And then, we also… so… so,
353 01:00:05.010 --> 01:00:15.620 Sandy Skelton: the churchyards as well, and the garden networks, and the swifts, so there's… the idea is to… to kind of promote different actions that
354 01:00:15.620 --> 01:00:33.060 Sandy Skelton: really brings nature into the city as well, alongside, so say we have the Cambridge Nature Network, which has some sort of priority areas that, you know, are really important for nature as well, but that we're… in addition to that work.
355 01:00:33.400 --> 01:00:37.490 Sandy Skelton: Kind of promoting nature throughout… throughout the city.
356 01:00:41.600 --> 01:00:42.550 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Okay.
357 01:00:44.440 --> 01:00:47.500 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Oh, and a separate question.
358 01:00:48.040 --> 01:01:00.560 David Newman (Blackbird Leys): Since parish councils have a duty to do in nature recovery, were any of them managing to do anything about that before you started, and how have things changed since then?
359 01:01:01.140 --> 01:01:11.230 Sandy Skelton: That's a good question as well, yes. So, lots of them, lots of them were doing stuff already, but it's mixed, and, and,
360 01:01:11.550 --> 01:01:13.439 Sandy Skelton: I… we…
361 01:01:13.530 --> 01:01:32.160 Sandy Skelton: we would like… one of the first, quest… oh, I should mention, on our website, we've got a bit of a plan. Actually, I should have mentioned that when you mentioned about the pathways as well. So we do have a guidance document that has some actions on it. It's a living document, so we're going to review it,
362 01:01:32.160 --> 01:01:42.250 Sandy Skelton: and update it by the end of March. But one of the first actions on there is actually to assess your existing plans.
363 01:01:42.570 --> 01:01:53.400 Sandy Skelton: And so, you'll see on there, there's a… there's different types of plans, so there's just a sort of nature statement, which some of them have.
364 01:01:53.520 --> 01:02:03.129 Sandy Skelton: And it goes all the way to having, kind of, smart objectives, so specific, measurable, time-bound.
365 01:02:03.280 --> 01:02:10.699 Sandy Skelton: And so I guess what we're encouraging parishes to do, and we are working with
366 01:02:10.950 --> 01:02:14.269 Sandy Skelton: Groups that are across the spectrum, from, kind of.
367 01:02:14.420 --> 01:02:21.350 Sandy Skelton: already doing some stuff to, or already doing lots of stuff to not doing…
368 01:02:21.500 --> 01:02:33.250 Sandy Skelton: not having a group, or not having much activity at all. And so what we're trying to do is encourage everyone to kind of move along a little bit on that scale.
369 01:02:33.250 --> 01:02:47.659 Sandy Skelton: And also, the reason why we included some groups that were already doing quite a lot is because of the power of peer learning. So we wanted to work closely with them to understand what they've done, why they've done it.
370 01:02:47.860 --> 01:02:50.210 Sandy Skelton: And then,
371 01:02:50.940 --> 01:02:59.780 Sandy Skelton: Ask them to give talks to the other parishes to show, you know, what they've done to kind of encourage others to take part.
372 01:02:59.840 --> 01:03:15.930 Sandy Skelton: So we're definitely not starting from a baseline where no one's doing anything, but sometimes the things that they're doing are just sort of meeting the statutory requirement, but not going beyond that.
373 01:03:16.430 --> 01:03:20.629 Sandy Skelton: And sometimes then, I guess they're not meeting the statutory requirement, they're doing.
374 01:03:23.740 --> 01:03:26.929 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Fascinating stuff. Jane, you've got your hand up again.
375 01:03:29.090 --> 01:03:47.509 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Yes, I have. So, I've got a few questions again. So one of them, you were talking about the data. So, I'm on the planning committee, and last night, had to… well, there was an item, a plan going for approval last night, which, or for comment last night.
376 01:03:47.970 --> 01:04:03.419 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: which had loads of, biodiversity assessments and statements, and just navigating through the whole list of… there were about 6 pages of things you could have looked through, when I did find the biodiversity thing. So this was for a heat network.
377 01:04:03.480 --> 01:04:18.790 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Because we're having a local heat network put in Milton Keynes, and they're going to put the pipework in, basically. So… but this assessment was really interesting, because it sort of identified places in the biodiversity assessment where they'd seen, otter,
378 01:04:18.970 --> 01:04:25.469 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: poo, or I forgot what to call them, but, yeah. So, but, you know, that's embedded in a report.
379 01:04:25.620 --> 01:04:30.450 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: How does that data from that report get put onto that map?
380 01:04:30.610 --> 01:04:34.999 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: You know, because that's really interesting, isn't it? I thought.
381 01:04:35.210 --> 01:04:36.610 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, I mean?
382 01:04:36.700 --> 01:04:42.060 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Yeah, and so I thought, you know, all of those assessments, is there a way of maybe AI?
383 01:04:42.160 --> 01:05:00.600 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: you know, could they get AI summarized and automatically put on a map? That would be a really useful application, it seems to me. Because I've had a look at the local maps. We've got the Books and Milton Keynes local nature recovery strategy, which is on a GIS map.
384 01:05:00.670 --> 01:05:13.559 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: But I don't think it's linked up to the Milton Keynes GIS map of all the parishes, so I can go into the parish map, I can see different layers about resources, but I can't see the local nature recovery on there.
385 01:05:13.560 --> 01:05:14.050 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, yeah.
386 01:05:14.050 --> 01:05:22.209 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: So… and then trying to get… I'm also… I also became chair of the sustainability working group on our council.
387 01:05:22.210 --> 01:05:37.389 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: And we've had one meeting so far, but it's how would I, you know, how would I engage the other little… the few little councillors, you know, how to meaningfully engage them in this mapping would be really good. So these are just, again, things to think of. And then the final point I've got is about…
388 01:05:38.130 --> 01:05:44.309 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: joined up action. So, for example, we just had a community orchard planted.
389 01:05:44.590 --> 01:05:49.910 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: But… and that came via our borough council, but by the time the trees were actually planted.
390 01:05:49.930 --> 01:05:58.419 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: it's… it was June, you know? And now, they're all withering. So, are they going to survive? Because there's a hosepipe ban, we can't water them.
391 01:05:58.420 --> 01:06:01.359 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: You know, if you're gonna plant these things.
392 01:06:01.360 --> 01:06:20.409 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: They need to be done at the right time, and that was the thing that was in the biodiversity assessments, was that they'll have an officer there that says, you… if there's anything that does the trees, you have to do it this time of year. If there's anything that affects that, you do it this time of year. And that, I think, is really… if you could sort of condense that and communicate that to people, to the community.
393 01:06:21.310 --> 01:06:35.459 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Simple way, that could then maybe inform what they do in their gardens, and, you know, what we do about cutting the… telling people that you don't need to cut the lawns, and the community, you know, the verges, and all that sort of thing.
394 01:06:35.590 --> 01:06:41.840 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: So, sorry, I'm just sort of riffing here off the top of my head, but it all seems, you know, having some joined up…
395 01:06:42.550 --> 01:06:51.739 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Thinking about how we message, how we engage with people, and giving them good examples of what's happening from these very expensive assessments that are done.
396 01:06:51.740 --> 01:06:52.960 Sandy Skelton: Yeah.
397 01:06:52.960 --> 01:06:55.050 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: bringing that together, anyway.
398 01:06:55.050 --> 01:07:11.279 Sandy Skelton: It's such an important point, and so, I imagine that that's national, that they're a record center, so we have CPERC, which is the Environmental Records center for Cambridge and Peterborough, so I imagine that you would have an equivalent,
399 01:07:11.710 --> 01:07:18.610 Sandy Skelton: And so they hold the data, so what happens is the developers,
400 01:07:18.820 --> 01:07:36.150 Sandy Skelton: pay to access the data. So it's not that the developers are doing new surveys every time, it's that they access… they pay to access the… that data. And what's difficult is because, obviously, managing that data is
401 01:07:36.250 --> 01:07:47.259 Sandy Skelton: Important work that needs to be paid for, then it makes it difficult for the record centers to share the data openly
402 01:07:47.500 --> 01:07:49.440 Sandy Skelton: with,
403 01:07:49.550 --> 01:07:59.010 Sandy Skelton: other groups, and as you say, it would be so valuable to have that data, and so what… what we're trying to do is to
404 01:07:59.210 --> 01:08:07.650 Sandy Skelton: work with… so we have a, you know, an example is the extent of county wildlife sites. That's a really important part of
405 01:08:07.830 --> 01:08:18.050 Sandy Skelton: The data that, you know, that's what developers are interested in, and so actually even mapping those out is problematic, and so
406 01:08:18.899 --> 01:08:38.170 Sandy Skelton: We're just trying to work through that, and the challenge is to not undermine the business model of these organizations, but then maybe these business models need to change so that… so that you're paying directly for the management of the data, rather than
407 01:08:38.770 --> 01:08:45.430 Sandy Skelton: Indirectly for reports that are derived from the data when there's more efficient ways to use the data, if that makes sense.
408 01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:55.569 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think we need an open data law, like a… like a Freedom of Information, like you need a Freedom of Data Act, almost.
409 01:08:55.970 --> 01:08:56.890 Sandy Skelton: Yo.
410 01:08:57.910 --> 01:09:17.679 Sandy Skelton: Yeah, it's important, but I guess what's difficult is that the data needs to be managed, you know, there needs to be some… with the verification and the… because, you know, that is important work, and so, again, it's like, it's slow work, but it's a really important point you're making about the fact that,
411 01:09:17.899 --> 01:09:25.019 Sandy Skelton: That a lot of different people have a very detailed view of the
412 01:09:25.630 --> 01:09:36.390 Sandy Skelton: natural kind of value of land locally, and that the more we can share that and be aware of it, the better.
413 01:09:37.479 --> 01:09:39.920 Sandy Skelton: But slow work again, sorry.
414 01:09:39.920 --> 01:09:41.010 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: I mean, he…
415 01:09:41.010 --> 01:09:42.470 Sandy Skelton: I really agree with you, yeah.
416 01:09:42.470 --> 01:09:58.239 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: here in Milton Keynes, so, I mean, we're part of the Cambridge-Oxford Ark with, you know, with David and you, and Milton Keynes in the middle. And some years ago, I was involved, when I worked at a local university, I was involved in a smart city project where they had a data hub, and
417 01:09:58.240 --> 01:10:03.529 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: There was this trial of, you know, trying to get people to,
418 01:10:03.530 --> 01:10:13.709 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: upload their data, and then share, you know, have the different sharing protocols where it could be shared for building services on top, or whatever. But it just didn't work out, and it sort.
419 01:10:13.710 --> 01:10:14.390 Sandy Skelton: Yes.
420 01:10:14.390 --> 01:10:19.869 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: gone the other way, hasn't it? Where data is a sort of market… there's a data market.
421 01:10:20.510 --> 01:10:36.170 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: it doesn't really help us all, but, maybe that's something this government can, you know, can look at again, and, yeah, make things more open. There's an open data institute, you know, that was part of government, so… and the open data licence, yeah.
422 01:10:36.420 --> 01:10:46.259 Jane Whild - Campbell Park CC, Milton Keynes: It's important if we could… maybe, maybe we could lobby more for that as part of, like, the parish, you know, the, the national association.
423 01:10:47.070 --> 01:11:01.210 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: You know, David's put a comment in the chat about that, but I do feel for you, Jane, that one of the reasons I'm so deeply into digital mapping is that I think it's so much easier to understand things if you can see them.
424 01:11:01.310 --> 01:11:18.569 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: You know, the developers can see where they're planning to go, and then all of a sudden this little patch comes up that says Octopoo found it, or found, or whatever. You know, it helps them to see it if it's all in the same place, and you can turn the layers on and off as necessary, get the best visualization across.
425 01:11:18.700 --> 01:11:20.679 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Frank, you'll go, please.
426 01:11:21.500 --> 01:11:23.090 Frank Deas, Killearn: No, it was really kind of…
427 01:11:23.090 --> 01:11:47.439 Frank Deas, Killearn: building on some things that Jan was saying. I mean, you're absolutely right in terms of tree planting. We've had to kick back against people wanting to plant trees in entirely the wrong time of year, because it was convenient, and it's taken us a long, long time to try and educate the Council that there are two windows for sowing wildflower seeds. You know, you can sow them in fairly early spring, or in late autumn, and that's it. And that's been a several years process.
428 01:11:47.440 --> 01:12:09.099 Frank Deas, Killearn: Because the Council worked to their timetable, and they say, oh, but we've got a meeting coming up, you know, and we'll do it at that meeting. Too late, you know, the window will have closed. And in a sense, delighted to hear from Sam today. I'm part of On the Verge in Sirling, which is one of the original wildfire groups, and I know On the Verge, Cambridge was kind of created in our image, as it were, so…
429 01:12:09.100 --> 01:12:20.169 Frank Deas, Killearn: good to see that it's still going strong and adding to the mix, as Sandy said, adding to what you've already got. Don't try and reinvent things, but bring people into the party and build with them.
430 01:12:20.170 --> 01:12:43.629 Frank Deas, Killearn: But also, I think there's a bit about changing mindsets, so we're getting slightly better at not having neighbors punish other neighbors for no mow May. People seem to accept now that you're leaving your garden for unknown for a couple of months. Some people leave it all summer, and that's even better. So that's been accepted. The one I'm fighting in my particular square at the moment is three of my neighbors have
431 01:12:44.140 --> 01:13:02.670 Frank Deas, Killearn: cut within an inch of their lives through head cheese, and I'm trying to explain to them, you don't cut head cheese in July, you wait until they've gone into full flower. The insects have enjoyed the pollen, everything works, and then you cut them in autumn. And, you know, it's a real uphill struggle to get people to understand
432 01:13:02.670 --> 01:13:05.439 Frank Deas, Killearn: The dangers of cutting hedges at the wrong time of year.
433 01:13:07.720 --> 01:13:08.420 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Wow.
434 01:13:09.650 --> 01:13:27.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Sandy, you've obviously upset the cat amongst the pigeons here, so thank you very much for an invigorating talk. It was really wonderful to hear how your whole area is pulling together in very much a guideline to the rest of us of what can be done.
435 01:13:28.060 --> 01:13:39.190 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: If you found somebody… which led me to one question, was you said you'd recently come into this position. Did the position exist before you, or it wasn't a new one? Yeah.
436 01:13:39.890 --> 01:13:54.810 Sandy Skelton: It did exist, so I applied for the post, we… so we have, funded by this Just Transition Fund, there were two… there were two, community nature posts, and two community energy posts.
437 01:13:55.370 --> 01:14:06.939 Sandy Skelton: And so that came from when the Council declared a climate and nature emergency. They created this fund, and that's where these posts came from.
438 01:14:07.810 --> 01:14:24.809 Sandy Skelton: And so… and it feels like it's a new way… I don't know… I don't know whether in other areas it's been structured like that before, and I guess that will all change as well with the unit trees. At the moment, we just got good news, so our posts have now been extended.
439 01:14:24.810 --> 01:14:33.369 Sandy Skelton: to March 28th, so that means… but unfortunately, we were asking for it to be beyond that, so that we can kind of weather
440 01:14:33.370 --> 01:14:39.079 Sandy Skelton: the LGR, because if you have posts finishing, you know, when…
441 01:14:39.080 --> 01:14:51.910 Sandy Skelton: councils stop existing, then it's kind of harder to… you want to embed them into the new organization, but we'll just continue to make that case, and…
442 01:14:51.910 --> 01:14:59.340 Sandy Skelton: and, you know, see how it goes. And I think, like you say, the more we can collaborate, just show joint successes.
443 01:14:59.360 --> 01:15:02.050 Sandy Skelton: The more we can,
444 01:15:02.320 --> 01:15:07.539 Sandy Skelton: Get momentum behind the project and… and keep building on it, but we'll just keep…
445 01:15:07.890 --> 01:15:10.690 Sandy Skelton: Doing it for as long as we can.
446 01:15:10.990 --> 01:15:17.260 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Thank you so much. I really appreciate your time and your thoughtful presentation. We're very grateful.
447 01:15:17.600 --> 01:15:18.960 Sandy Skelton: Thanks, everyone.
448 01:15:18.960 --> 01:15:21.950 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thank you, I mean, it's a great link, sir, thanks.
449 01:15:21.950 --> 01:15:27.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: Next week, we're also talking about nature recovery, but on a place-based, or…
450 01:15:28.800 --> 01:15:30.229 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: What's the word I'm looking for?
451 01:15:32.230 --> 01:15:45.250 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: A theme-based, sort of area. So rather than just, an overall recovery, they're going to show what's actually happening in that particular location because of the geography of the place.
452 01:15:45.400 --> 01:15:54.100 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: And I think that would be interesting. So do, by all means, come and join us next week. Sandy, thank you so much again, and I wish you all a very good afternoon. Thank you for your time.
453 01:15:54.100 --> 01:15:54.700 Cllr Stuart Withington Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: room.
454 01:15:54.700 --> 01:15:56.510 Sandy Skelton: Thanks, everyone. Bye!
Markdown copy of the presentation:
Nature Recovery – From the Ground Up
Sandy Skelton Community Nature Project Officer
Great Collaboration 22 July 2027
Aim
To support communities in Cambridgeshire to prepare Community Nature Recovery Plans that are:
Locally meaningful
Informed by the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)
Context
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough LNRS published December 2025
Natural Cambridgeshire commissioned by the Combined Authority to lead implementation
Cambridgeshire County Council acted as a Supporting Authority
Project funded through the Just Transition Fund
What Communities Asked For
Examples included:
Advice on buying land and legal issues
Guidance on public footpaths and riparian ownership
A way of measuring the collective impact of many small actions
Help rescuing Protected Road Verges (PRVs)
Joining existing wildlife conservation areas together
Recruiting younger members into community groups
Advice on equipment for river water testing
Co-creation Approach
Using the Double Diamond model (British Design Council, 2005):
Discover
Define
Develop
Deliver
Moving from:
Problem Space
Problem Definition
to
Solution Space
Solution
Delivery Process
Parish cluster meetings
Analysis of cluster meeting outputs
Partner and methodology team meetings
"Crack on!"
Support Offered
Showcase webinar series
Cluster meetings
Shared resources
Website:
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/nature-recovery-from-the-ground-up
The Pilot
Objectives:
Share data across tiers of government
Provide mapping tools for Parish Councils and community groups
Ground-truth datasets using local knowledge
Encourage learning between parishes
Measure progress towards LNRS delivery
Celebrate success
Ensure datasets remain available beyond the project lifetime
Example Data Flows
Reference Layers
Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS)
Collaborative Layers
Corrections
Concerns
Engaged Landowners
Projects
Topic-specific Initiatives
Examples:
National Education Nature Parks
Swift Mapper
Outputs include:
Community Nature Recovery Plan (PDF)
Zoomable public map
Expanding Use Cases
Examples include:
Wildlife-friendly garden networks using the Engaged Landowner layer and Wildlife Trust accreditation
SwiftMapper data imported as a reference layer
National Education Nature Parks habitat mapping imported as a reference layer
Webinars
(Webinar programme placeholder slide.)
Thank You
community.nature@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Last updated