Banter 97: Duxford Biodiversity Initiatives, with Gillian Heath

Gillian presented on the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit, which aims to expand Parish Online to more councils, and shared a detailed case study of Duxford's biodiversity initiatives

Video Timeline: (min:sec)

00:00 – 28:04 Presentation
28:05- 53:30 (end) Q & A

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Presentation:

27MB

Biodiversity Action - a Duxford Parish Case Study Oct25.pptx

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Slide 14 of the presentation contains some useful links - they are reproduced here for your convenience:

Local Nature Recovery Toolkit

Duxford Biodiversity Strategy 08Jun23

How to make your garden wilder

How to increase the biodiversity in your garden

Building a Nature Recovery Network to bring back Britain's wildlife

Supporting Nature's Recovery

How to help Nature's recovery whatever size your green space

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Meeting Summary:

Nov 26, 2025 11:50 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536

Quick recap

Gillian presented on the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit, which aims to expand Parish Online to more councils, and shared a detailed case study of Duxford's biodiversity initiatives including various community projects and nature conservation efforts. The discussion concluded with plans for expanding wildlife corridors, enhancing local ecosystems, and improving data collection methods, with participants exploring strategies for community involvement and biodiversity monitoring.

Next steps

• Gillian: Ask Ashley (ecologist in Whittlesford) and Grace (ecologist in Duxford) if they know ecologists in Paul's area who could help with biodiversity surveys for Great Ellingham Parish Council.

• Paul: Obtain a quote for a biodiversity survey for Great Ellingham Parish Council and present it to the council for approval.

• Gillian: Put links to iNaturalist, RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch, and Butterfly Count on the Friends of Duxford Green Spaces website.

• Gillian: Put a link to the Butterfly Conservation group's information about creating butterfly mounds (e.g., "big E" mounds) on the website.

• Graham: Coordinate with Geosphere (Parish Online) regarding permissions to allow data from Parish Online to feed into the collaboration's Xmap/knowledge base map.

• Paul: Explore collaboration with Easton College for student support on biodiversity surveys and projects in Great Ellingham.

Summary

Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit Expansion

Gillian presented Ian's material on the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit, which aims to extend Parish Online to more councils. She discussed Duxford's experience with Parish Online and the work of the Friends of Duxford Green Spaces. The project is being supported by the county council, which has the resources to roll it out county-wide, starting with South Cambridgeshire.

Duxford Biodiversity Strategy Case Study

Gillian presented a case study on biodiversity initiatives in Duxford Parish Council, highlighting their strategy development, volunteer engagement, and funding acquisition. She emphasized the importance of starting small, building a network of supporters, and leveraging available funding opportunities. Gillian also discussed specific projects like No Mo May and the management of verges and hedges to support wildlife, noting the need for balancing aesthetic preferences with biodiversity goals.

Community Wildlife Management Initiatives

Gillian discussed the management of hedges, emphasizing the need to balance bird nesting seasons with safety and line of sight concerns, and proposed a section-by-section cutting approach. She highlighted the success of the Duxford Nature Network, which encourages residents to make their gardens wildlife-friendly, and mentioned the ongoing effort to increase participation. Gillian also reflected on the success of the two nature festivals held in 2023, expressing hope for future events, while acknowledging the effort required for such community initiatives.

Nature Conservation for Youth Engagement

Gillian discussed the importance of engaging young people in nature conservation through school-based initiatives, highlighting a successful river day activity and an allotment biodiversity project led by Ian, which included planting trees and creating dry hedges. She emphasized the need for proper maintenance and monitoring of planted trees and hedges, as well as the importance of involving local ecologists to conduct biodiversity surveys. Gillian also outlined plans to expand wildlife corridors, enhance local river ecosystems, and increase the number of gardens involved in biodiversity efforts, while noting the availability of grants and the need for strategic planning and community involvement.

Nature Recovery Project Success Stories

Gillian shared her experience of establishing a nature recovery project in Duxford, highlighting the success of involving volunteers and school children, and the positive changes observed in community green spaces. She discussed challenges in recruiting volunteers and tracking biodiversity changes, and mentioned plans to improve data collection and public engagement. Participants discussed potential strategies for managing invasive species and encouraging community involvement, with suggestions to collaborate with local councils and use tools like iNaturalist for data collection.

Biodiversity Projects and Monitoring Discussion

Gillian presented on the creation of a chalk mound and pond, explaining its purpose as a habitat for butterflies and the importance of proper construction. The group discussed biodiversity surveys and monitoring, with Gillian offering to connect Paul with ecologists in his area. Frank suggested involving local universities and colleges for biodiversity surveys, which Paul planned to explore with Easton College. Graham demonstrated a mapping tool for tracking community projects, which could help networks collaborate and share information. The conversation ended with a reminder about next week's session on water management.

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Chat:

00:17:29 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Can the pdf be shared please? Thanks. 00:19:41 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Certainly, Kirsten - everything gets published afterwards…. 00:24:54 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Thanks

00:46:29 Dave Faulkner: That was really interesting Gillain - thank you. Need to go as need to leave asap so thanks again

00:51:29 Sarah - Sandbach, Cheshire: Thank you Gillian - so interesting to see what you have done and all the ideas you have presented. Your experiences are very inspiring!

01:01:05 frank deas, Killearn: its not stealing ideas; its benchmarking 01:01:32 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Nah, it’s outright theft and plagiarism…. 01:01:58 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Or, it’s collaboration!

01:04:55 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: https://friendsofduxfordgreenspaces.org/duxfords-nature-network/

01:06:20 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature Recovery Toolkit:

https://naturalcambridgeshire.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Doubling-Nature_Local-nature-recovery-toolkit.pdf

01:06:56 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight:

Map of Parishes undertaking Climate and Environmental activities - in East Anglia (so far):

01:07:47 Sarah - Sandbach, Cheshire: So sorry - I have another meeting at 1pm so will have to go. Very interesting session, thank you. 01:10:37 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Thank you so much Gillian!

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Audiotranscipt: (for AI search engine)

131 00:14:30.650 --> 00:14:35.969 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: So, Jillian, I think we're there at the magic moment. Would you like to go ahead, please, and take charge of the meeting?

132 00:14:36.290 --> 00:14:54.289 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Okay, well, it's lovely that you've joined us, so I will share my screen now. I'm going… what I'm going to do is I'm going to present a presentation that Ian made, to a conference the County was running. In the introduction, we said,

133 00:14:54.420 --> 00:15:00.259 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: at the inaugural meeting of the Nature Recovery from the Ground Up project,

134 00:15:00.450 --> 00:15:04.720 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, we're going to… I'm presenting in…

135 00:15:04.750 --> 00:15:08.540 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: presented it beautifully at the conference. I probably won't match him, but…

136 00:15:08.540 --> 00:15:27.930 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the message will be the same, and it's all about the natural Cambridgeshire toolkit, and we want to extend that into Parish Online. In fact, Duxford has been using Parish Online for it, which I'll talk a bit more about later. And we've also, for many years, had friends of Duxford Green Spaces, which is not

137 00:15:27.930 --> 00:15:31.340 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: parish council, but it's an affiliated organization.

138 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:35.210 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And I'm chair of that as well.

139 00:15:35.510 --> 00:15:39.230 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: vice chair of the parish council,

140 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:42.929 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, I will be presenting Ian's material.

141 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:57.720 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And hoping that we can move forward. There is a lot of councils interested in it, and we're really, really pleased that County have picked up the ball, if you like, and run with it now. Because they've got the manpower and the

142 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:00.410 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Facilities and the equipment.

143 00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:09.189 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and also the will, the time, to really roll this out on a county-wide level. We're starting with South Cairns, of course.

144 00:16:09.610 --> 00:16:11.680 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, I'll share my screen now.

145 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:14.950 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… Shit.

146 00:16:17.470 --> 00:16:18.690 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We knew that it is.

147 00:16:21.020 --> 00:16:22.060 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: It's on its way.

148 00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:24.210 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, I need…

149 00:16:33.170 --> 00:16:34.140 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: No, it's good.

150 00:16:34.830 --> 00:16:36.040 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Can you see that?

151 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:41.070 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yes. You… if you can, you might want to switch into slideshow mode, Julian.

152 00:16:41.070 --> 00:16:46.850 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's a PD… oh, no, it's not, is it? It's a… I'm not sure how to do that.

153 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:54.909 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Actually, you're right, it is a PDF.

154 00:16:54.910 --> 00:16:55.480 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, yeah.

155 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:56.730 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yeah, you're…

156 00:16:57.690 --> 00:17:01.090 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: is all… Make it bigger.

157 00:17:01.250 --> 00:17:02.720 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yeah, there you go.

158 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:04.010 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And try it.

159 00:17:07.250 --> 00:17:07.940 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Go!

160 00:17:08.460 --> 00:17:11.920 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I can probably get rid of that, can't I? Yes.

161 00:17:12.040 --> 00:17:15.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think that's the best I can do.

162 00:17:15.020 --> 00:17:15.849 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Okay, you're all safe.

163 00:17:16.229 --> 00:17:21.359 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, biodiversity in Action, this is the case study for Duxford Parish Council.

164 00:17:21.659 --> 00:17:26.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We started some years ago. We had been doing it, but not…

165 00:17:27.069 --> 00:17:37.979 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: not, with a name, if you like. And then Ian joined the council, who is really big into biodiversity, and he's… he's…

166 00:17:38.719 --> 00:17:46.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: wrote the biodiversity strategy, which we used a template that was provided by county.

167 00:17:46.989 --> 00:18:02.249 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm not absolutely sure of that. I'll probably find out in this presentation later. I'm sorry, my voice is a bit croaky. I will be coughing a little bit because I've had a cold, but I'm better now, I just can't get rid of this frog in my throat.

168 00:18:02.979 --> 00:18:09.419 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: What we realized very early on is you have to be ambitious, but you also have to be realistic.

169 00:18:10.159 --> 00:18:14.999 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It is difficult to know where to start, especially if you're starting from scratch.

170 00:18:15.159 --> 00:18:27.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But if you start small, and find things that you can do, and then you can put them together and create your strategy, and you will see what works and what doesn't quite quickly.

171 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:36.339 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: we… you… you do get better, one, at fundraising. There's a lot of money out there for green grants.

172 00:18:36.449 --> 00:18:51.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And you need to bring people with you. We have… we're very lucky in Duxeter. We've got 3, 4 businesses that are very keen on biodiversity. They've all got biodiversity managers, and we've liaised with them.

173 00:18:51.339 --> 00:19:00.849 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've liaised with, obviously Friends of Duxford Green Spaces, because it's… it's not all the same people that are in it, but there are a lot of overlaps.

174 00:19:01.159 --> 00:19:05.699 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we've, had nature festivals and things like that, but we…

175 00:19:06.069 --> 00:19:11.999 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Have brought the parishioners with us, and people have seen results, which they're very happy with.

176 00:19:12.479 --> 00:19:21.839 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Volunteers… Ian says, build a merry tribe of helpers. A lot of early projects need volunteer… a lot of projects need volunteer labour.

177 00:19:22.489 --> 00:19:30.949 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's easy to try to build a merry band of helpers. Sometimes it's quite difficult, as we all know, to get a lot of helpers.

178 00:19:31.239 --> 00:19:36.419 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Ian's been very successful on the allotments. There's a slide on that later.

179 00:19:36.669 --> 00:19:41.599 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I found it quite difficult for a brewery field, the community green space. I have

180 00:19:41.809 --> 00:19:46.619 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: A very small core of volunteers, but they're very keen.

181 00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:54.679 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I've had help from some of the businesses for volunteers. SMT, who used to be Volvo, they have a…

182 00:19:54.999 --> 00:20:00.509 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: fact… business on the A505, just before you leave Duxford.

183 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:06.519 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And they usually give us people at least twice a year for either a full day or a half day.

184 00:20:06.629 --> 00:20:09.969 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So it's always worth asking businesses that are local.

185 00:20:11.509 --> 00:20:28.139 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: SCDC have been incredibly helpful. They're very helpful finding funding for us if we're struggling with that, and there are a lot of tools out there to find funding that match your projects now. Action Funder is one of them.

186 00:20:28.139 --> 00:20:36.339 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And CCF, the Community, Cambridgeshire Community Foundation, I think, also looks… will help look for funding.

187 00:20:36.899 --> 00:20:47.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have not managed to build a very good network with adjacent parish councils, but this project is helping with that tremendously.

188 00:20:48.989 --> 00:20:55.449 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Some projects are zero cost. Nomo May is one of them. Nomo May has

189 00:20:55.629 --> 00:20:59.999 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've experienced for and against on No Mow May.

190 00:21:00.139 --> 00:21:12.669 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: it's a great thing to start off with, but really, it needs to be expanded into later than May, because we experienced the,

191 00:21:13.149 --> 00:21:15.479 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The mower's coming in… in…

192 00:21:15.749 --> 00:21:22.509 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: March and April, leaving it for May, but then coming in at the beginning of June again. So…

193 00:21:22.739 --> 00:21:30.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: although you are getting a month with no cutting, it's not really helping the pollinators that much, I've found.

194 00:21:31.169 --> 00:21:39.529 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So we have now asked our contractors to leave wide verges, Uncut for the summer.

195 00:21:39.869 --> 00:21:42.669 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So they mow them in… April?

196 00:21:43.099 --> 00:21:47.749 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And then we ask them to leave them uncut May, June, and July.

197 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:59.229 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And maybe August, too. It depends on the weather. But if it's a wide verge, we get the… the one meter by the curb cut.

198 00:21:59.589 --> 00:22:05.359 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: To make it still look cared for, which keeps the tidy people happy to a certain extent.

199 00:22:05.959 --> 00:22:15.099 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The areas within the village, like the War Memorial, the green, we cut, Over the summer, because

200 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:23.069 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are areas which make the village look good, and usually the residents want those areas cut.

201 00:22:23.189 --> 00:22:29.059 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's… it's a… It's one thing you have to decide on your own parish.

202 00:22:29.169 --> 00:22:44.819 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: on a… on a case-by-case basis, I would say. And some residents are really on board with letting the wildflowers grow, others not so. So the… the best solution we've found is to let some of the verge grow.

203 00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:46.179 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And…

204 00:22:46.519 --> 00:22:53.809 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Cut an area of it, so it looks cared for, but you are leaving a wildflower zone for the pollinators.

205 00:22:55.859 --> 00:22:59.569 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Everybody's got an opinion on it, and it's worth discussing it.

206 00:22:59.709 --> 00:23:06.629 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Especially if you have coffee mornings, or, get-togethers with your volunteers.

207 00:23:06.989 --> 00:23:15.159 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Hedges are one of the most amazing things you can do for wildlife. I didn't know until recently that turtle doves

208 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:20.849 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Will only nest in a hedge that's about 3 meters wide.

209 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:35.749 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And turtle doves are pretty rare. So we are allowing our hedges to grow where we can. Obviously, you've got issues where there are pavements and line of sight, but where we can, we are letting the hedges grow taller and wider.

210 00:23:36.309 --> 00:23:41.969 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The contractors are not so keen, of course, because it means they need longer ladders and longer tools.

211 00:23:42.189 --> 00:23:45.989 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But it is a real win for wildlife.

212 00:23:48.489 --> 00:23:54.889 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we don't allow our contractors to cut the hedge even around the recreation ground.

213 00:23:55.149 --> 00:23:58.419 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: March to August, inclusive.

214 00:23:58.629 --> 00:24:01.219 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Because of the bird nesting season.

215 00:24:01.899 --> 00:24:05.939 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we ask them to leave the berries and the ivy that's,

216 00:24:06.239 --> 00:24:12.069 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Seeding, which is one of the late pollinating plants, into winter if they can.

217 00:24:12.329 --> 00:24:24.279 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But of course, we do need to cut where there's safety issues, where there's line of sight, where brambles are encroaching onto pavements. There's all these things to, consider. Excuse me.

218 00:24:25.549 --> 00:24:33.089 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Hedges that are allowed to grow like this are amazing. They look wonderful. They have loads of berries, and they are full of birds.

219 00:24:33.219 --> 00:24:39.819 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have them on Brewery Field. And yes, we will at some time have to cut them a bit in the future, but

220 00:24:40.209 --> 00:24:41.759 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It will be…

221 00:24:42.419 --> 00:24:54.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: section by section. So we might cut a section of 3 meters one year, leave the rest to grow, cut another section of 3 meters another year. It's a good way of managing wide hedges.

222 00:24:54.869 --> 00:25:02.189 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Gardens. Now, these are… We started off the wildlife garden project

223 00:25:02.369 --> 00:25:07.619 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: at the first Festival of Nature, which was… Not last year.

224 00:25:07.949 --> 00:25:10.289 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's about 2021, I think.

225 00:25:10.839 --> 00:25:14.889 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's the cheapest, quickest, and most effective way.

226 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:19.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: to get wildlife corridors. If you can get gardens that join up.

227 00:25:20.159 --> 00:25:28.679 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: then you will have the most amazing wildlife areas. This picture, I think, is Ian's garden last summer.

228 00:25:30.239 --> 00:25:33.589 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And gardens play a key role. We have…

229 00:25:33.819 --> 00:25:41.409 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have, I will just show you this. I have… This is the next.

230 00:25:42.229 --> 00:25:48.299 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: slide, Duxford Nature Networks. I wonder if I can just increase… oh, that's better.

231 00:25:51.989 --> 00:25:58.169 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: This is my duck's… my. It's my, because I drew the map on Parish Online. Thank you very much.

232 00:25:58.359 --> 00:26:05.609 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's really made such a difference. It looks much more professional now. I was doing it on

233 00:26:05.919 --> 00:26:12.159 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: printed sheets and colouring in with highlighters, so this is just amazing. This is Duxford.

234 00:26:12.629 --> 00:26:21.439 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are… are… ready-made, if you like, wildlife corridors. This is the railway line, and this is the river.

235 00:26:22.179 --> 00:26:31.249 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So I've put them in as green. And the idea… the big areas, this is Brewery Field, this is the allotment gardens.

236 00:26:32.559 --> 00:26:34.939 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The other areas are privately owned.

237 00:26:35.099 --> 00:26:44.509 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The recreation ground should be in green as well, because although it has a lot of manicured areas, we have certain wildlife areas on it.

238 00:26:44.879 --> 00:26:50.169 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: For people to add their own garden to these, this map.

239 00:26:50.479 --> 00:26:59.169 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We ask, then, to do a number of things, and this is my Friends of Duxford Green Spaces

240 00:26:59.299 --> 00:27:06.179 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: network, website. And this is the page for Duxford Nature Network.

241 00:27:06.769 --> 00:27:13.719 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Have you signed up your garden? And we have information here. We have some nice pictures.

242 00:27:14.189 --> 00:27:22.519 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And advice of what you need to make your garden wildlife friendly. So we've got water, We've got food.

243 00:27:23.979 --> 00:27:27.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've got habitat and shelter, management of your garden.

244 00:27:28.709 --> 00:27:35.759 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, there's information, there's also link to information from the Wildlife Trust.

245 00:27:37.779 --> 00:27:43.469 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… We don't say they can only sign their garden up.

246 00:27:44.099 --> 00:27:45.539 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: if,

247 00:27:49.719 --> 00:27:54.639 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: To get back to… How do I get rid of that box?

248 00:27:57.239 --> 00:27:59.939 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Can you see that box I'm trying to get?

249 00:28:00.199 --> 00:28:02.099 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: One of my kids.

250 00:28:03.449 --> 00:28:07.759 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Okay… Yeah.

251 00:28:09.179 --> 00:28:17.529 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We don't… we don't say you can only put your garden on the map if you do every single one of those things. That wouldn't be fair.

252 00:28:17.699 --> 00:28:29.299 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And a lot of them might not be able to. One won't have a hole in the fence, for instance, because they have a small dog, or a cat, and they don't want them to get out.

253 00:28:29.479 --> 00:28:40.979 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: One, won't… says, well, I… I can't have a pond because I've got children. So we… we say, as long as you're doing a lot of those things, you can…

254 00:28:41.109 --> 00:28:57.169 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: put your garden on the map, and in Parish Online, I am actually annotating what they've ticked when they sign their gardens up. So I'm keeping a database of who has got what, even though it's not necessarily visible on the map.

255 00:28:58.739 --> 00:29:02.459 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've got 42 at the moment, and

256 00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:09.569 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We hope to have a lot more soon. I need to be a little bit more proactive getting people to sign up now.

257 00:29:10.989 --> 00:29:13.339 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature festivals, we've had two.

258 00:29:13.819 --> 00:29:17.829 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Here we are, May 2023 and September 24.

259 00:29:18.419 --> 00:29:19.529 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the thought.

260 00:29:19.909 --> 00:29:22.419 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, that's probably right.

261 00:29:23.339 --> 00:29:30.689 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We would like to have another one, of course. It was… they both were very successful. Pippa supported them, our MP.

262 00:29:30.929 --> 00:29:39.799 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Very, very well, and we were incredibly lucky with the weather on both days, which helps, of course.

263 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:41.869 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But…

264 00:29:42.349 --> 00:29:52.449 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature festivals, as any village event, take a lot of work and a lot of effort. So, I'm sure we will have another one at some point, but whether it'll be

265 00:29:53.459 --> 00:29:55.619 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nec… ni- next year?

266 00:29:55.759 --> 00:29:58.809 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Or what… what date it might be.

267 00:29:59.239 --> 00:30:00.279 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm sorry.

268 00:30:04.819 --> 00:30:06.969 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: That is to be decided.

269 00:30:08.709 --> 00:30:15.139 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It really… we got the school involved, and this is… this is one thing that I think…

270 00:30:15.259 --> 00:30:17.009 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: is very important.

271 00:30:18.389 --> 00:30:25.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The youngsters can be in danger of losing contact with nature, but also, if you get your youngsters involved.

272 00:30:25.629 --> 00:30:42.799 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And start teaching them all the good stuff, and how to get your wildlife garden friendly, then they go home and badger the parents, which is a win-win situation, because it becomes a circular way of just improving biodiversity.

273 00:30:43.169 --> 00:30:47.639 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We've got two councillors, Ian and Heather, who liaise with the school.

274 00:30:47.749 --> 00:30:51.479 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the school has their own eco-group and garden group.

275 00:30:51.699 --> 00:30:58.249 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And Ian and Heather did a river day. They came out in small groups. It's a primary school.

276 00:30:58.479 --> 00:31:08.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, went to the talk stream, and it's a tribute of the grantor, I think.

277 00:31:08.869 --> 00:31:10.209 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And,

278 00:31:11.349 --> 00:31:21.009 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: collected… counted river fly, which are tiny little insects within the river. It was a very… they loved it. They said it was the best thing that had happened that summer.

279 00:31:21.949 --> 00:31:29.949 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The allotment Biodiversity project was led by Ian, and he applied for a grant. It was a community chest grant.

280 00:31:30.269 --> 00:31:33.729 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the parish council max-funded it.

281 00:31:34.479 --> 00:31:41.589 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And with that money, I think it was, Oh, is that 50%?

282 00:31:42.469 --> 00:31:46.349 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: No, no, I think… I think they had about 4,000 in the end.

283 00:31:47.229 --> 00:31:57.489 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But you can see, in here, he planted 70 trees that we had a lot of volunteers helping that day, because the allotmenteers were all benefiting as well.

284 00:31:57.679 --> 00:32:14.549 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They created a very large section of dry hedge, which has since been expanded hugely around the allotments, because the allotmenteers have realized that it's a really good way of getting rid of all the twigs and things that they normally had to either burn or take to the tip.

285 00:32:14.949 --> 00:32:20.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They installed bird boxes, planted bulbs, and lots of hedge plants.

286 00:32:20.359 --> 00:32:22.449 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The, the volunteers…

287 00:32:22.629 --> 00:32:32.259 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: were amazing. They… they spent a lot of time doing this. These pictures show this is the dry hedge before anything was fitted into it.

288 00:32:32.539 --> 00:32:38.129 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And on… This one, you can see a dry hedge.

289 00:32:38.549 --> 00:32:39.499 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Here.

290 00:32:39.709 --> 00:32:46.279 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Which has everything in it already, so, should I keep getting that.

291 00:32:46.449 --> 00:32:47.409 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Silly.

292 00:32:54.289 --> 00:33:05.579 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Ian also was very, successful in applying for a £10,000 grant from the Rural England Prosperity Fund.

293 00:33:05.789 --> 00:33:07.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And with this, we…

294 00:33:08.089 --> 00:33:16.009 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: planted… I have to say, Ian did most of the work with his family, but we planted 160 beech

295 00:33:16.689 --> 00:33:19.089 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: reaches 400 holly.

296 00:33:19.249 --> 00:33:24.459 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And 2,000 bulbs, mostly native daffodils and English bluebells.

297 00:33:25.059 --> 00:33:33.319 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The hedge species will attract butterflies, and they were all chosen, especially, to support biodiversity.

298 00:33:34.179 --> 00:33:38.229 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We then had the driest summer ever, I think,

299 00:33:38.509 --> 00:33:48.749 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, there was a lot of watering to be done. It's one thing that you have to consider if you are going to plant trees, shrubs, especially,

300 00:33:49.559 --> 00:33:54.579 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: reasonable… well, actually, even the whips. They all need watering if it's dry.

301 00:33:54.989 --> 00:33:57.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And large trees that need a lot of water.

302 00:33:58.199 --> 00:34:16.289 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Even if they've been, planted with a root ball, they will not survive a dry summer without… after moving for the first year, at least. And really, you need to keep watering them, we've realized on Brewery Field for about 3 or 4 years minimum.

303 00:34:16.989 --> 00:34:24.889 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Our trees are now surviving on brewery field quite well, the large ones, without any further… intervention.

304 00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.889 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are our longer ambition.

305 00:34:29.049 --> 00:34:38.079 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and our strategic objectives. We want to really make the wildlife corridors, so link the gardens, link the green spaces.

306 00:34:38.309 --> 00:34:43.959 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have two protected road verges, which have been very poorly managed in the past.

307 00:34:44.179 --> 00:34:51.289 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We're now liaising with highways, who were… are still responsible for mowing them.

308 00:34:51.529 --> 00:34:58.009 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They knew, the correct way to mow them, but the contractors that they employed weren't mowing them correctly.

309 00:34:58.119 --> 00:35:04.229 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: These are now being properly monitored, and we're hoping that we will recover some of the rare plants.

310 00:35:04.409 --> 00:35:09.669 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: some have been lost, but there are still a number in the verges.

311 00:35:10.049 --> 00:35:16.319 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's very, very worthwhile getting an ecologist involved. We're very lucky to have an ecologist

312 00:35:16.769 --> 00:35:26.809 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: involved with this project, particularly. Her name is Grace, and she is monitoring the verges for us.

313 00:35:28.089 --> 00:35:32.579 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And coming up with a plan for all our public green spaces.

314 00:35:33.619 --> 00:35:46.559 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Our village roadside verges, we are mowing much better now. We're not mowing the wide ones in the summer, and we're trying to get them to mow much later, towards the autumn.

315 00:35:47.249 --> 00:35:52.599 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We do try to liaise with the contractors so that we can get a

316 00:35:53.169 --> 00:35:58.619 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Survey, so that we can survey before they cut in the autumn.

317 00:35:58.739 --> 00:36:11.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Because then we can really monitor how many new species and good pollinating plants we've got on the verges. I think getting experts involved to monitor

318 00:36:11.259 --> 00:36:19.529 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and do biodiversity surveys is worth it. And most local ecologies are very… ecologists are very keen to help.

319 00:36:19.669 --> 00:36:29.689 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I also have Ashley in Whittlesford, who helps me… helped me tremendously on Brewery Field, and still does the biodiversity surveys for me on there.

320 00:36:30.899 --> 00:36:38.959 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We want to move from 42 gardens to 150 gardens, and we want to enhance the local river.

321 00:36:39.319 --> 00:36:41.819 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We have a very beautiful

322 00:36:42.059 --> 00:36:46.949 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: chalk stream running along the side of Duxford near the railway line.

323 00:36:47.169 --> 00:36:50.999 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We want to… we've got… we've planted a lot of new hedges.

324 00:36:51.139 --> 00:36:58.029 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We probably aren't applying for any free hedging plants this year.

325 00:36:58.279 --> 00:37:08.279 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We used to… we have done that every year, but we're running out of space to put them at the moment, as they have to go on public accessible land.

326 00:37:08.699 --> 00:37:10.129 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Pull 3 trees.

327 00:37:11.099 --> 00:37:18.199 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But we are still looking to replenish existing hedges and,

328 00:37:18.469 --> 00:37:22.109 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Maybe plant new ones if we can work out ways to put them.

329 00:37:23.099 --> 00:37:27.719 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We will plant 500 new trees. We've planted… this last year, we…

330 00:37:28.149 --> 00:37:47.319 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: worked with our tree surgeon, Mercer, and they planted 15 very large trees around the village. And the parish council agreed to a 3-year maintenance project for those trees, because they will need, and they did this summer, need watering weekly.

331 00:37:47.449 --> 00:38:01.599 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: masses of water. And luckily, the parish council agreed to fund that maintenance. Otherwise, I think we would have lost those trees. It's always something to consider, that when you plant, you have to

332 00:38:02.179 --> 00:38:04.329 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Maintain as well.

333 00:38:05.649 --> 00:38:14.509 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: a new wildflower meadow we would love to plant. We haven't really got the site for that at the moment. We are thinking of…

334 00:38:15.729 --> 00:38:20.999 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We are thinking of, patches of meadow.

335 00:38:21.189 --> 00:38:32.749 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: like, large patches of meadow on Brewery Field that we will plant up, maybe with plug plants. I have the money in Friends of Duxford Green Spaces I can use for that, and I will apply for grants as well.

336 00:38:33.809 --> 00:38:34.819 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: on…

337 00:38:35.389 --> 00:38:43.869 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: A new idea, which we've just… it's not on this slide, is, on Brewery Field, I have a mound next to the pond.

338 00:38:44.739 --> 00:38:48.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And when we created the mound, we… the…

339 00:38:48.449 --> 00:38:55.239 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Builders brought in a lot of chalk, and also some topsoil to make the mound bigger.

340 00:38:55.999 --> 00:38:57.119 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: we…

341 00:38:57.229 --> 00:39:16.549 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Had we… in hindsight, we should have kept the torque face on the south side, because then we are so talky here. We would have had a lovely torque south-facing mound. I'm going to try and get some money to scrape the topsoil off that side of the mound and put it at the back of the mound.

342 00:39:16.589 --> 00:39:20.609 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So that we do have a nice chalk face on the mound.

343 00:39:20.729 --> 00:39:26.869 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We want to put new Swift and House Martin boxes, and lots of bird and bat boxes up.

344 00:39:27.579 --> 00:39:32.799 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And any specific projects or ideas that neighbours come up with?

345 00:39:34.619 --> 00:39:45.099 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: This slide, This map was drawn up by Jean Kelly from Hildersham.

346 00:39:45.849 --> 00:40:02.969 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And she wrote to every parish in South Thames in 2023-24 and coded this map. There's no key on this slide, but I will, put it in the notes. The grey means she didn't get an answer.

347 00:40:03.319 --> 00:40:07.909 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: She… she was asking these questions.

348 00:40:08.079 --> 00:40:14.429 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the light green knows they're aware of a need, but they haven't finalized a plan yet.

349 00:40:14.549 --> 00:40:25.389 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the mid-green, they've got a plan, but they're only just starting on implementation, and the dark green means that we're advanced implementation, as we are in Duxford.

350 00:40:25.639 --> 00:40:35.239 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the grade doesn't mean they've done nothing. It just means we don't have any information. But the idea of this, toolkit and this,

351 00:40:36.099 --> 00:40:42.419 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Nature Recovery Programme is that we will have a full picture of all the councils.

352 00:40:42.729 --> 00:40:46.709 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And as Ian says, just start, and the magic will happen.

353 00:40:47.529 --> 00:40:55.529 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Oh, it wasn't Ian. If you brew your own cauldron, magic will surely happen. Dara McNulty.

354 00:40:56.069 --> 00:41:00.319 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And he's put some links on here. I will share this, obviously.

355 00:41:00.609 --> 00:41:09.219 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the links, and I will also put, the link to Duxford's Nature Network on

356 00:41:09.659 --> 00:41:11.749 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Lessons learned so far.

357 00:41:13.059 --> 00:41:14.449 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It is…

358 00:41:14.659 --> 00:41:23.699 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: it does… it might seem a bit daunting to start with, especially when you start thinking of how I'm going to map it and keep all this information, but…

359 00:41:23.879 --> 00:41:27.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The people that are experts in it will help.

360 00:41:28.379 --> 00:41:35.389 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And with the strategy, template provided, it makes it a lot easier.

361 00:41:36.139 --> 00:41:42.979 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: If you talk to as many people as you can, your businesses, your parishioners, Your counsellors, your friends.

362 00:41:43.519 --> 00:41:50.079 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And try to create a nature network in some way, then people will become involved.

363 00:41:52.489 --> 00:42:02.629 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Ian says, have a destination in mind. It's true. If you plan something, and have a strategy, then it helps to focus on how to get there.

364 00:42:03.089 --> 00:42:07.299 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Volunteers are key. You will have some.

365 00:42:08.009 --> 00:42:11.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But in Duxford, there are a lot of

366 00:42:12.049 --> 00:42:25.509 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: People that are keen to help, but the young people have jobs and families, and a lot of the older people are getting very old now and don't have the energy or necessarily the enthusiasm for

367 00:42:25.929 --> 00:42:28.479 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Some hard work outside.

368 00:42:28.839 --> 00:42:36.219 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But there's always something people can do, even if they're just good at the techy stuff. I mean, do the parish online work, things like that.

369 00:42:37.029 --> 00:42:49.549 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: The chances to get grants are very good. It's pretty… it can be a bit of a fuss and quite onerous applying for money, but once you've done it a couple of times, you've got the words for the next one, basically.

370 00:42:49.819 --> 00:42:55.149 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And there is an awful lot of money out there in the form of green grants.

371 00:42:55.969 --> 00:43:06.439 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Often, on public land, it's more, easy, because if the parish council own the land, it'll be much easier to get approval.

372 00:43:06.849 --> 00:43:09.219 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Then you don't have to…

373 00:43:09.359 --> 00:43:12.309 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Jump through any hopes, because it's yours.

374 00:43:13.779 --> 00:43:18.879 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: it's been a joy to work with Ian on this, and

375 00:43:19.539 --> 00:43:23.579 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, and Heather as well, who's doing a lot with the school.

376 00:43:23.909 --> 00:43:26.899 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think… I think our…

377 00:43:27.359 --> 00:43:30.449 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And something I wanted to show you here.

378 00:43:36.869 --> 00:43:47.179 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: This is from the Nature Recovery Toolkit. This is an evolving document, it's not our document, it's County's document. And…

379 00:43:51.499 --> 00:43:54.489 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit.

380 00:43:55.179 --> 00:44:03.119 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And these… this is some areas that they've put in. So, decide your objective, develop a nature recovery map.

381 00:44:03.509 --> 00:44:07.879 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Develop a timeline, a plan for maintenance, what's next?

382 00:44:09.229 --> 00:44:22.469 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And this is all part of Natural Cambridgeshire. This is a great document. There's a lot of information in there on… on different areas, how to look at different,

383 00:44:23.019 --> 00:44:28.219 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: initiatives to increase Biodiversity in those areas.

384 00:44:28.679 --> 00:44:30.519 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And

385 00:44:30.689 --> 00:44:39.619 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I just can't emphasize enough. I mean, I hope I haven't overloaded you, because there's so much information out there.

386 00:44:39.869 --> 00:44:45.329 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But… I'll stop sharing my screen now, if I can…

387 00:44:50.389 --> 00:44:53.929 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: How to do it… Stop sharing.

388 00:44:54.319 --> 00:45:01.569 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, I hope I haven't overloaded you, and I'm sorry about my voice. I just…

389 00:45:02.919 --> 00:45:06.059 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Wanted to try and get as much information across.

390 00:45:06.389 --> 00:45:16.179 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: and… the parish online map, I can talk about in more detail, but I just thought I'd cover

391 00:45:16.619 --> 00:45:18.399 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the main subjects.

392 00:45:20.040 --> 00:45:20.800 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Any questions?

393 00:45:20.800 --> 00:45:21.650 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: questions.

394 00:45:22.070 --> 00:45:28.670 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: That's really great, Gillian. Thank you so much, because I found it very interesting, that we have

395 00:45:29.670 --> 00:45:35.710 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Magic connections between your 10 lessons learned, or,

396 00:45:35.990 --> 00:45:59.110 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: things that you really found out. We've started a nature recovery or system in Somerset, so the opposite side of the country from you, and have found exactly the same things, that once you get started with a couple of volunteers, then they all start coming out of the woodwork. If you get the school children involved, then the whole enthusiasm level jumps to a whole new high, and as you say, they go back and badger their parents into

397 00:45:59.110 --> 00:46:05.650 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: turning a garden into a wildlife area, or making a corridor for the hedgehogs, or whatever it happens to be. So it does all…

398 00:46:05.790 --> 00:46:25.679 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: pick up a momentum of its own. So, very encouraging to hear that you Easterners are just as good as the Southwesterners, so well done. But thank you very much. I love the Cambridgeshire, the natural Cambridgeshire list of the toolkit. I'll be putting that onto the knowledge base, because it's clearly going to be helpful to a lot of people.

399 00:46:25.680 --> 00:46:31.490 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And, I see there's a whole string of questions, so why don't we start going with them?

400 00:46:31.560 --> 00:46:33.990 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: David, would you like to start, please?

401 00:46:35.490 --> 00:46:36.850 David Newman: Yes, okay.

402 00:46:37.670 --> 00:46:44.269 David Newman: Yeah, so many things, but what I've got are two questions about communication.

403 00:46:45.540 --> 00:46:52.020 David Newman: First one is really technical. I notice you show that, the…

404 00:46:52.700 --> 00:47:00.800 David Newman: website where people could sign up and register their gardens. What software are you using for the websites?

405 00:47:02.670 --> 00:47:07.690 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We are using WordPress, I don't yet have…

406 00:47:07.870 --> 00:47:15.609 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the ability for people to sign up on the website. I've asked them when they want to sign up to email me.

407 00:47:16.500 --> 00:47:21.969 David Newman: Alright, so emails, or I suppose you could also use something like a Google Form, okay, yeah?

408 00:47:21.970 --> 00:47:36.880 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I mean, ideally, I want a website where they can go in, say, I want to sign up my garden, and tick the boxes on the website, and that will go directly into my database, but I am nowhere near that yet.

409 00:47:37.110 --> 00:47:43.189 David Newman: Alright, and the other one is more human side. How do you recruit volunteers?

410 00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:46.100 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: word of mouth.

411 00:47:46.700 --> 00:47:59.019 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I have… my group, Friends of Duxford Green Spaces, I have about 38 members. Duxford has 2,000 people in the village, about 800 households.

412 00:47:59.230 --> 00:48:04.679 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And… Of those 38 members, there are…

413 00:48:06.220 --> 00:48:10.490 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Four, who regularly volunteer with… for me.

414 00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:18.439 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm… I've just seen how dark I look. I'm sorry, I look like I'm sitting in the dark. The sun was coming in

415 00:48:21.580 --> 00:48:22.600 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Maybe.

416 00:48:23.070 --> 00:48:26.980 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's a bit better. And,

417 00:48:28.760 --> 00:48:31.719 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I find it really difficult. I have a…

418 00:48:31.970 --> 00:48:37.349 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Luckily, a very helpful husband, who gets roped into doing an awful lot with me.

419 00:48:37.630 --> 00:48:47.420 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we've got the company who give us people, and I've got 2 or 3 councillors who help, but they can't help every time, because they've got jobs as well.

420 00:48:48.420 --> 00:48:52.910 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's, it's tricky. It's tricky.

421 00:48:53.750 --> 00:48:59.719 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I do find, for Brewery Field, my community green space, the people

422 00:49:00.020 --> 00:49:05.799 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Really are willing to help are the people that live in the street next door, because it's in their own interests.

423 00:49:06.960 --> 00:49:09.169 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: They're looking at that site all the time.

424 00:49:11.620 --> 00:49:13.130 David Newman: Okay. Okay, thanks.

425 00:49:17.410 --> 00:49:19.620 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Okay, let's move on to Stuart, please.

426 00:49:20.510 --> 00:49:23.609 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Hi, thank you. I'd like to thank Julian for…

427 00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:33.770 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: obviously an amazing effort. I think every parish should be looking to you as a guiding light.

428 00:49:34.090 --> 00:49:35.940 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Fantastic.

429 00:49:36.560 --> 00:49:48.600 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: I was just wondering, along the, sort of, BNG, sort of, lines, have you got any, sort of, baseline measurements before you embarked on this?

430 00:49:49.300 --> 00:49:55.410 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: And are you in any way tracking the changes which you hope you've made?

431 00:49:56.440 --> 00:49:57.400 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: we…

432 00:49:57.950 --> 00:50:11.250 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: are probably doing that more now. We've got Grace involved. I certainly do have a record for my community green space on Brewery Field.

433 00:50:11.570 --> 00:50:18.009 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Because… Ashley Arbin, who's the ecologist in Whittlesford, who helped me.

434 00:50:18.470 --> 00:50:26.729 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: He, was on board right from the word go, and he did a biodiversity study when it was still a farmer's field for me.

435 00:50:27.210 --> 00:50:47.209 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And he does regular studies for me now. Surveys, I should say. And he keeps a record of those. And that's another thing I would like to put on the website. I always ask people to send their sightings. I have a Facebook page. I ask people to photograph anything they see and send me a sighting.

436 00:50:47.310 --> 00:50:53.219 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And if they do that, I keep records of it. But Breweryfield is…

437 00:50:53.370 --> 00:51:01.700 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Regularly monitored, and we will definitely have a progression chart for that at some point in the future.

438 00:51:02.070 --> 00:51:10.030 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: There are other public areas in the village, such as the Biggin and the allotments, even.

439 00:51:10.180 --> 00:51:30.179 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And I think they are being surveyed now, but they weren't in the past. So we will, going forward, have… have a record of all the public areas in the village. And I think the Duxford Nature Network, the gardens and the wildlife corridors I'm trying to link up.

440 00:51:30.270 --> 00:51:32.579 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Will be another measure.

441 00:51:32.930 --> 00:51:35.529 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Although very difficult to quantify.

442 00:51:36.670 --> 00:51:45.760 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah, I think it's always good for volunteers to see the results of their work and get some feedback.

443 00:51:46.010 --> 00:51:54.819 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah. And I think that goes a long way to encouraging other people to get involved, if they can actually see that they're making a difference.

444 00:51:55.470 --> 00:52:10.269 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And that's very true. But I do have… I mean, every time I'm on brewery field working, people stop me and say, this is the most amazing thing, we can't believe how much it's changed. It was a farmer's field in 2017.

445 00:52:10.270 --> 00:52:10.890 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Yeah.

446 00:52:10.890 --> 00:52:27.749 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And now, and everybody's… and there's a huge amount of dogs on there, and people have put fish in the pond. I mean, it's not perfect, but it's still improving every year, and evolving every year.

447 00:52:28.390 --> 00:52:29.940 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Great. Thanks.

448 00:52:32.240 --> 00:52:33.260 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Rank, please.

449 00:52:37.210 --> 00:52:53.409 frank deas, Killearn: Thanks very much. Excellent, Gillian, really interesting to see how you pulled the network together, and I think it's tremendous, and having that template strategy that you're working against makes so much sense. It's really just sharing a couple of things that we do up here as a group on the verge that tries to pollinate your patches.

450 00:52:53.410 --> 00:52:57.220 frank deas, Killearn: And we started off doing all the primary schools and the high schools.

451 00:52:57.220 --> 00:53:05.220 frank deas, Killearn: What we found as well, because again, volunteers are hard to come by, we've worked with the two local council's community justice teams.

452 00:53:05.220 --> 00:53:17.639 frank deas, Killearn: So, if people need to serve a community justice order doing X number of hours work, they can… they may end up deturfing and rotating a space in a school playground that we can then sew with the pupils, so the heavy lifting's done by

453 00:53:17.640 --> 00:53:32.840 frank deas, Killearn: by people as a semi-voluntary basis, but it means you don't need to go at the same level of volunteers to work the primary school. I think that's worked very well for us. So if you're not doing that, it's maybe something that's worth looking at if you've got a friendly local community justice team.

454 00:53:32.840 --> 00:53:49.280 frank deas, Killearn: And the other one where, in terms of trying to convert areas of the meadows, white areas of the meadows, as well as plug plants. Plug plants, we found, unless you clear quite a big donor site, tend to get swamped. But I'm off tomorrow to do some preparation, for sowing yellow rattle.

455 00:53:49.280 --> 00:54:00.979 frank deas, Killearn: So we do matics and scarifying rakes to create 6-inch squares per square meter in the planned site, and then so the yellow rattle this time of year, it stratifies over winter.

456 00:54:00.980 --> 00:54:19.549 frank deas, Killearn: And hopefully, in a year's time, you're then able to put in other wildflowers and gain the benefits then. But each local area will have its own way of doing things, and the stuff that you've done sounds tremendous, so well done you. The one you've not mentioned, and maybe it's just not a big issue for you, invasive non-natives?

457 00:54:19.610 --> 00:54:36.430 frank deas, Killearn: Do you have much of a challenge with that? Because that's one of our… when we look at nature networks, one of the things we're acutely conscious of is that our rivers are wonderful nature networks, but they're also networks for Pimalayan balsam, and skunk cabbage and giant hogweed. So it's that…

458 00:54:36.430 --> 00:54:41.659 frank deas, Killearn: Double-edged sword, that you're encouraging the good stuff, but try and work out how you can eliminate the bad.

459 00:54:42.060 --> 00:54:49.440 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yeah, we've got Himalay and Boston all along the river. We have, up the road in Hinkston, we have the Welcome Trust.

460 00:54:49.780 --> 00:54:55.670 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And they, they manage their land very well for biodiversity.

461 00:54:55.690 --> 00:55:10.930 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And, we are liaising with them now to remove the Himalayan balsam. We get it removed by our contractor on the small area, which is known as the Biggin, which has a river frontage, but it's just a small area.

462 00:55:10.930 --> 00:55:20.790 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: We need it… and… and the Welcome Trust are on board with that, and they're going to… they're going to, pick up on that and run with it. The community justice…

463 00:55:20.800 --> 00:55:36.350 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: when you said it, I remembered. One of our councillors did use a team of them to plant some trees about 5 years ago, so I've made a note of that to remember that again, because, it's the heavy work sometimes. Yeah. It's just…

464 00:55:36.770 --> 00:55:43.740 frank deas, Killearn: And for them, it's a more fulfilling thing than just doing litter pics or graffiti removal, so… Absolutely. It can work very well.

465 00:55:43.740 --> 00:55:57.649 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the yellow rattle, you're quite right. I had a success on Brewery Field with yellow rattle, because I bought some seed, and I literally just got a garden rake and scraped it so that you could see the.

466 00:55:57.650 --> 00:55:58.550 frank deas, Killearn: Yeah, Arthur.

467 00:55:58.550 --> 00:56:05.779 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: see the earth underneath. We're very, very dry in Duxford. We have our own microclimate. We hardly have any rain.

468 00:56:05.950 --> 00:56:12.010 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And it was successful, and it reseeded itself the following year.

469 00:56:12.230 --> 00:56:26.510 frank deas, Killearn: Well, we find now we've got donor sites we can go to to collect yellow vessel seed to try and develop a fresh site, so if you get that virtue circle going, it's really great. And the last one, I think, getting… I mean, I love the idea of people contributing their gardens and mapping it.

470 00:56:26.510 --> 00:56:43.440 frank deas, Killearn: But we're trying to do something not that dissimilar up here. We're using… I encourage people to use things like iNaturalist and the RSPB, Big Garden Bird Watch and Butterfly Count to get people thinking about tracking, and then equally recording some of those things locally as success stories, to publicize and promote.

471 00:56:43.900 --> 00:57:02.390 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Yes, that's a good idea. In fact, I must put links to them on the website, and I will… I do always put a link on the Facebook page, you know, when the butterfly count's coming up, or the big burger, because I… it… but I… it would be nice to map into that data as well. It's a really good idea.

472 00:57:03.040 --> 00:57:09.090 frank deas, Killearn: But it was… but it's tremendous, and there's lots of things I'm taking away from the presentation that we saw useful for us, so thank you very much.

473 00:57:09.090 --> 00:57:10.259 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Oh, thank you.

474 00:57:10.920 --> 00:57:25.249 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Well done. Now, Graham, I shall ask myself to ask your question, Julian. You mentioned building the mound, and then sorry that you didn't make one… the south face of it, more interwalk. Is there a specific purpose behind the mound?

475 00:57:25.880 --> 00:57:30.209 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: No, the mound… well, the mound started off as the spoil from the pond.

476 00:57:30.210 --> 00:57:31.160 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yes.

477 00:57:31.160 --> 00:57:49.380 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And we always wanted a chalk mound, because it's… it's apparently a very, very, important habitat for a lot of butterflies. And the… we hit… we hit chalk. When you dig in Duxford, you hit chalk when you get to 18 inches, 2 feet, almost solid chalk.

478 00:57:49.640 --> 00:58:00.650 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So we thought, this is going to be great, we're going to have… but then when we dug the pond, even though it's quite a big pond, we had this sort of very slight hill. It wasn't really a mound at all.

479 00:58:00.660 --> 00:58:19.669 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And so we asked the builder who was, helping us to build it. He said, well, I've got a lot of things… he said, I… I can just bring more stuff in from jobs I'm doing. And he… initially, it was more chalk, and it was getting a nice big… but then topsoil came in.

480 00:58:19.670 --> 00:58:23.719 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: And the topsoil… I wasn't around at that time, and…

481 00:58:23.840 --> 00:58:31.840 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Unfortunately, the topsoil ended up being put on top of the chalk, and it really should have been put at the back.

482 00:58:32.310 --> 00:58:38.059 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: To create… to allow the talk face to… to be in the sun.

483 00:58:38.400 --> 00:58:43.319 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: One of the, things we're going to do, they…

484 00:58:43.480 --> 00:58:48.170 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: There's a project where they've created big capital letter E's.

485 00:58:48.810 --> 00:58:53.670 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: So, the three legs are facing the sun, so you've got

486 00:58:53.990 --> 00:59:11.469 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: different shade, and for different times of day, and apparently that's very, very good for butterfly. I think I'll try and find it, and I'll put a link… I think it was on the big… it's the butterfly, conservation group that have that.

487 00:59:11.480 --> 00:59:18.629 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: It's quite interesting, because you get different plants growing, and you get different butterflies on each face.

488 00:59:18.790 --> 00:59:29.130 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm gonna try and get some money. It's gonna be expensive, and also I've got to do it at the right time of year, because I don't want the diggers churning up my community green space.

489 00:59:29.380 --> 00:59:45.030 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: We put two ponds into the space I'm working with in Somerset, and I just wondered if there was anything specific about the mounds that you found was particularly useful, but the idea of having separate faces towards the sun sounds like a good one. The letter E, that's a great idea.

490 00:59:45.030 --> 00:59:55.919 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think that's a really good idea. The other thing… the other good thing about a mound next to a pond is you can… when you're building it, you can build a hibernaculum in…

491 00:59:56.080 --> 01:00:09.089 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: the base of it, or lots of hibernacular, which are… I built them with pallets, and old bits of concrete, and old flower pots, and you can use even plastic.

492 01:00:09.560 --> 01:00:18.740 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: broken pots and things, and they're wonderful places for the newts and the invertebrates to overwinter.

493 01:00:19.590 --> 01:00:22.270 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Thank you very much. Paul, on to you, please.

494 01:00:23.190 --> 01:00:37.340 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Yeah, thank you very much. I'm just going to reiterate what a lot of everyone else said. Fantastic presentation, and yeah, admirable work that's been done, so we're certainly going to be emulating that as much as we can, and stealing as many good ideas and good stuff that you've done

495 01:00:37.340 --> 01:00:44.369 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: for Craig Ellingham, with little shame, but lots of recognition for you guys.

496 01:00:44.370 --> 01:00:49.039 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: You're very welcome. We… I've stolen quite a few ideas myself.

497 01:00:49.040 --> 01:01:07.460 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Unfortunately, I can't offer suggestions on what we've achieved, like Frank was able to, and the starting point on where we are with growing, we're fortunate we've got lots of community groups that are going on, and we've got allotment areas, and there's lots of people interested already in doing stuff.

498 01:01:07.460 --> 01:01:15.519 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: But one of the things that we're looking to do to be able to show value to the wider parish

499 01:01:15.520 --> 01:01:25.609 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: that maybe aren't so engaged, and then they will be more supporting of the investment that we're looking to make, is really going to pick up on Stuart's point, is

500 01:01:25.610 --> 01:01:32.019 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: The starting metrics of where we are now, so that we can then monitor to where we're going to be.

501 01:01:32.020 --> 01:01:53.909 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: And I don't know whether that's something that anybody on this call may be able to help with, but with regards to contacts for initial biodiversity surveys, because that's where we're looking to get engaged now, is to find out where we are from a BNG point of view, and then it's something that we can then monitor on an annual basis to show that

502 01:01:53.910 --> 01:02:00.300 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: The work that we're going to put in planning, is always giving value back to the parish.

503 01:02:00.650 --> 01:02:02.470 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: And, being successful.

504 01:02:03.290 --> 01:02:04.570 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think,

505 01:02:05.980 --> 01:02:15.370 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I could ask… I will ask Ashley, who I speak to on a regular basis, because he may well know ecologists in your area that would be happy to help.

506 01:02:15.640 --> 01:02:17.190 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: That'd be fantastic.

507 01:02:17.190 --> 01:02:22.519 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I can, I can, I can also ask Grace, who's in Duxford.

508 01:02:23.150 --> 01:02:37.109 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: That'd be great, and I think that for the great collaboration as well, is I think that if there's a network, people know people that do a similar kind of job, maybe if we could sort of create a kind of directory, as hopefully more people will join in from other areas, and.

509 01:02:37.110 --> 01:02:37.450 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Right.

510 01:02:37.450 --> 01:02:40.130 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: make it more accessible, because I, you know, I…

511 01:02:40.200 --> 01:02:55.970 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: I think it's great that we can, you know, that we can monitor what is being achieved. We're certainly hoping that, as a parish, people will be engaged. Hedgerows definitely is something which I'm looking at, with land as well, to establish a lot more hedgerows.

512 01:02:55.970 --> 01:03:11.239 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: We're already engaged in the free bits, the no-mo maze, and monitoring that, so we're doing all the free bits. We're now getting to the point where we've got to spend a bit of money, so we've got to make sure that we can… we can evidence to the wider parish that it's a good thing to be doing, and effective, so…

513 01:03:11.240 --> 01:03:18.589 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think that's the way forward, definitely, and it may be that you might have to pay for a biodiversity survey.

514 01:03:18.590 --> 01:03:19.190 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Absolutely, yeah.

515 01:03:19.190 --> 01:03:27.220 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: But… but it would be worth it if you do. But in my experience, Ecologists that see

516 01:03:27.390 --> 01:03:45.290 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: how… how important this is, and how… how it's… how enthusiastic people are. I've had… I mean, I haven't paid for a biodiversity survey. I've been so lucky with the help I've… I've had. But if you do have to, it's worth it.

517 01:03:45.720 --> 01:04:04.140 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Yeah, we've got the pre-approval, so there was a vote taken in the last parish council meeting, and the principle of it has been voted on in favor. I've just got to get a quote, if applicable, put in front of people to then sign off on the amount of money, and then hopefully we'll be all systems go, and we can do lots of things, like.

518 01:04:04.140 --> 01:04:26.510 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: plant some more mature trees, and I, I love, I love the green area mapping on that. I think that's such a fantastic idea, almost making it like a gamification version of success for people to really sort of take over. I think it's absolutely fantastic. So, that idea has definitely been made a note of, and, yeah, expected to be stolen sometime soon.

519 01:04:26.510 --> 01:04:27.979 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: If all goes well.

520 01:04:28.660 --> 01:04:33.360 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I'm so pleased you all enjoyed it, thank you. Thank you for all the compliments.

521 01:04:35.500 --> 01:04:36.540 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Thank you very much.

522 01:04:37.570 --> 01:04:39.430 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Very welcome. Frank, you have another thought.

523 01:04:39.430 --> 01:04:46.369 frank deas, Killearn: Just… we're in the very early stages of doing this, but we're hoping to work with our local universities and colleges

524 01:04:46.370 --> 01:05:01.390 frank deas, Killearn: To either look at ecological groups or courses, particularly, that are doing green courses or ecology, to see if we can get students to do some of the biodiversity surveys, because it gives them a live testbed to work on and learn from, and obviously it gives us

525 01:05:01.390 --> 01:05:05.979 frank deas, Killearn: Access to resource, because they'll be supervised by their lecturers.

526 01:05:06.260 --> 01:05:19.179 frank deas, Killearn: So there could be a kind of win-win there. So I'll very much be down to, do you have a college or university local to you that's running the appropriate courses? But that might be another source to look to, to see if you can get some help.

527 01:05:20.080 --> 01:05:23.060 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: That's a good idea. That's a really good idea.

528 01:05:23.730 --> 01:05:34.800 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Let me just… That is good advice, Frank, actually, that's, we've got Easton College near us, just on the outskirts of Norwich, and, that's actually where I'm going to this afternoon, to do exactly that. So, yeah.

529 01:05:35.140 --> 01:05:38.230 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: I'm on your wavelength, Frank, thank you.

530 01:05:38.910 --> 01:05:43.570 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Let me share my screen, however, I just want to show you, something that…

531 01:05:44.020 --> 01:05:46.639 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: we're doing for the great collaboration.

532 01:05:47.100 --> 01:05:50.109 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And bear with me a second.

533 01:06:00.090 --> 01:06:02.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: You'd think this was going to be straightforward, wouldn't you?

534 01:06:06.550 --> 01:06:07.980 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Bear with me a second.

535 01:06:10.310 --> 01:06:16.849 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: I had to restart, reload a Mac the other day, and not everything's come back the way it should have done.

536 01:06:37.450 --> 01:06:39.469 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: There we go, I should do it.

537 01:06:42.650 --> 01:06:43.320 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Hmm.

538 01:06:47.470 --> 01:06:52.549 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: No, I think I'm gonna cheat and put a… link in the…

539 01:06:52.750 --> 01:07:03.169 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: chat, which everybody is very welcome to use. So, what we're doing in that link, and by all means go into it now if you want to, is we've added a map

540 01:07:03.330 --> 01:07:21.940 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: to, the knowledge base in which we're tracking everything that people are doing, and I thought that for Paul, people like you, if you're looking to build networks, and you want to track who in your area is doing this stuff, you can do it with the map that we've got here. So, if you go to the

541 01:07:22.100 --> 01:07:28.379 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: a bit on the top left corner that says layers, or whatever it says. Let me just bear with me what it says.

542 01:07:28.380 --> 01:07:29.590 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Irish projects.

543 01:07:29.870 --> 01:07:41.090 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yes, but if you click on those, then you can select anything that you're interested in. So if you want to know who around you is building a community orchard, for instance, you can just click on that, and they all show up.

544 01:07:41.120 --> 01:07:54.490 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And the same for anything else. So any of the things that you're suggesting, Julian, could go into here, and particularly if you find fellow-minded parishes around you, then they should go in here so that you can all help each other.

545 01:07:54.930 --> 01:07:55.930 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Really good.

546 01:07:55.930 --> 01:08:00.700 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: It's just a matter of clicking on the map and seeing who around you is doing what you're looking to do.

547 01:08:01.490 --> 01:08:02.540 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Fantastic!

548 01:08:02.540 --> 01:08:13.479 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Yeah, well, I want to build on that, so, the more that people can feed information back to me, then the more we can make this helpful, and the more it'll spread across the country in due course.

549 01:08:14.300 --> 01:08:23.429 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: But I hope it'll help you people who are putting networks together to actually get them to help each other by recording where they are and what they're doing.

550 01:08:23.439 --> 01:08:24.349 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: Very good.

551 01:08:24.640 --> 01:08:37.519 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: And you can… you can turn on as many layers at the same time as you wish, but it tends to get much too complicated, so we tend to turn off a layer, and then turn on a layer, and off you go. And Kirsten, I've already triggered a question in you.

552 01:08:37.520 --> 01:08:54.909 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: I'm sorry! I was just… and I might have missed… missed this in the thread. Looking at this, this looks really great. Am I right in thinking that this is… that if you enter things as Gillian has done in Parishes Online, it will feed straight through to this extra map, or are we having to put the data in twice?

553 01:08:55.359 --> 01:08:59.289 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: At the moment, sorry, if it's in…

554 01:08:59.839 --> 01:09:17.079 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Parish Online, we can get it out into Xmap, which is what this map is, but, we probably need to link with you and with Geosphere, the people who make Parish Online, to make sure that you've given your permission for them to put your data in our map, if you see what I mean.

555 01:09:17.099 --> 01:09:18.289 Gillian Heath Duxford PC: I think…

556 01:09:18.289 --> 01:09:35.329 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: That's easily done, it's extremely simple from them, because it's all coming from the same database, but we just need to sort out the permissions so that when I say I want to see everything that Jillian's up to, they're going to say, whoa, hang on a minute, let's make sure we've got Jillian's permission to do that.

557 01:09:36.479 --> 01:09:40.119 Kirsten Newble - Cambridge: Makes sense. I was just trying to save us all repetitively putting things in.

558 01:09:40.120 --> 01:09:46.809 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: It's technically very simple to do, yes, you're absolutely right. It's just a question of the permissions.

559 01:09:47.870 --> 01:09:49.970 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: So, thank… great question, thank you.

560 01:09:50.170 --> 01:09:54.209 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Does anybody else have anything else they want to cover, please?

561 01:09:56.140 --> 01:10:08.039 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Okay, good. Well, Julian, that was a masterpiece. Thank you so much for, particularly for pitching in at short notice without Ian, which was largely a problem of my making, so thank you very much for that.

562 01:10:08.160 --> 01:10:12.260 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Next week, we're going to be talking about water.

563 01:10:12.580 --> 01:10:20.029 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: So, those of you who want to know why water's important, or how you can preserve it, how you can clean it, how you can look after it,

564 01:10:20.130 --> 01:10:27.299 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: to make the next week, he's going to show you all of that, coming from the Gloucester area, Forest of Dean, so…

565 01:10:27.570 --> 01:10:41.449 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: I hope you'll find that very interesting. So, thank you all very much for your time, I hope you enjoyed it, and look forward to seeing you again. And of course, we will publish everything that you've been seeing today. It'll all come up online, and you can get hold of it and download it as you wish.

566 01:10:42.040 --> 01:10:43.860 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration - Isle of Wight: Take care, everybody, thank you very much.

567 01:10:43.860 --> 01:10:44.340 Cllr.Stuart Withington, Gt Dunmow TC, Essex: Thanks, man.

568 01:10:44.540 --> 01:10:46.800 Paul Bonner - Great Ellingham Parish Council: Thank you, everyone. Thank you.

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Markdown of presentation (to index the text therein):

Biodiversity in Action: A Duxford Parish Case Study

Ian Walters — 17th October 2025

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1. How to Start: Be Ambitious but Realistic

• Starting can feel difficult — begin small and low-cost.

• Experiment to see what works.

• Build larger ambitions gradually.

• Keep parishioners informed via local magazine, school, church, and community spaces.

• Build a volunteer group — many early projects rely on volunteer labour.

• Build contacts with grant partners (e.g., SCDC).

• Connect with other Parish Councils to exchange ideas.

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2. No Mow May

• A genuinely zero-cost biodiversity action.

• Simply reduce mowing — allow grass to grow longer.

• Some sensitive areas may still require occasional mowing.

• Extend reduced mowing into June, September, or winter for some areas.

• Creates talking points and raises biodiversity awareness.

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3. Bigger Hedges

• Leaving hedges uncut supports wildlife above and below ground.

• Many hedge-nesting birds are threatened by over-cutting and hedge removal.

• Let hedges grow at least 2 m high and wide.

• Avoid cutting during March–August (nesting season).

• Leave berries through winter.

• Benefit: huge wildlife improvement with minimal effort.

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4. Wildlife Gardens

• The most effective and cheapest action: allow gardens to become wilder.

• Gardens connect habitats across urban spaces.

• They offer safe refuge for wildlife and can support:

  • Pollinating insects

  • Birds

  • Mammals

  • Reptiles

  • Amphibians (ponds help increase habitat variety)

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5. Duxford Nature Network

• Wildlife gardens form corridors across the village.

• Combined with existing corridors (rivers, railway, hedges), they create a rich, connected landscape.

• 42 households have pledged their gardens to the Nature Network.

• Result: wildlife is always within 100 m of a wild space, even in central village areas.

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6. Nature Festivals

• Village-wide nature-themed events.

• Festivals held in May 2023 and September 2024 were very successful.

• Encourage discussion and engagement, especially among young people.

• Community atmosphere amplified by music, good weather, and social activities.

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7. Get Your School Involved

• Children risk losing their connection with nature — yet they shape its future.

• Duxford primary school has Eco and Garden groups.

• Supported by community through educational sessions such as:

  • River Day — 1 July 2025

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8. Allotment Biodiversity Project (2023)

• Supported by a 50% SCDC Community Chest grant (£1,919).

• Parish Council funded the remaining 50%.

• Key achievements:

  • 70 trees planted

  • 400 hedge plants

  • 2 dead-hedge sections

  • 6,900 bulbs

  • 11 bird boxes installed

• Public land simplifies permission.

• Volunteers essential — even a few hours increases community ownership and pride.

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9. Cemetery Biodiversity Project (2024)

• Won a fully funded £10,230 grant from the SCDC Rural England Prosperity Fund.

• Deliverables:

  • 160 Beech

  • 400 Holly

  • 2,000 bulbs

  • 200 mixed hedge species (to support Brimstone & Holly Blue butterflies)

  • 15 mature trees around the village, including hybrid Elm for White-letter Hairstreak butterflies.

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10. Long-Term Ambitions & Strategic Objectives

• Create wildlife corridors throughout and around the village.

• Restore two Protected Road Verges and halt rare chalk flora decline.

• Ensure village verges support wildflowers in spring/early summer.

• Achieve 150 wildlife-friendly gardens.

• Undertake river or flood-plain enhancement project.

• Plant 1,500 m of new or replenished hedges.

• Plant and maintain 500 new trees.

• Develop new meadow sites.

• Install:

  • 50 swift & house martin boxes

  • 100 other bird & bat boxes

• Run target-species conservation projects.

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11. A Regional Vision for Biodiversity Action

• Many parishes are already active; others are just beginning.

• Can these efforts link into a larger network?

• Possibilities:

  • Regional strategies

  • Inter-parish wildlife corridors

  • Expanding colonies of birds, beetles, voles, butterflies, moths

• Aim: share and replicate successful ideas.

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12. Final Notes

“If you brew your own cauldron, magic will surely happen.”

— Dara McAnulty, Diary of a Young Naturalist

Useful Links

• Natural Cambridgeshire Toolkit

• Duxford Biodiversity Strategy

• Rewilding guidance (Rewilding Britain)

• Woodland Trust biodiversity tips

• BCN Wildlife Trust

• NaturePlan

• BBOWT: Helping nature in any green space

• SCDC Biodiversity Duty webinar (28 May 2025)

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13. 10 Lessons Learned — A Journey of Discovery

1. Start small, quick, and low-cost.

2. Build support and momentum; communicate widely.

3. Bring parishioners along on the journey.

4. Have a clear destination — planning becomes easier.

5. Create a strategy where possible.

6. Volunteers are vital — assemble a team.

7. Grants take only weeks; have projects ready.

8. Funding chances are good — ask SCDC for guidance.

9. Grants require an organisation (PC, CIO, Association).

10. Public land is the easiest starting point — permission is fast.