Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Environment Group
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Regular bulletins from the Environment Group can be found in "The Villager Online" Occasional updates also feature on our News page |
The Group has taken on practical projects to improve the village environment, including raising awareness, development of practical skills such as hedge laying, recording traffic and observing and monitoring the birds in their gardens.
In 2000 the Group led the creation of a Millennium Wood to the west of the village. Trees have been selected that will grow to maturity, the ones in between have been thinned. A wildlife project in St James’s churchyard aims, by careful management, to increase biodiversity. Wildlife in the unused part of the Swan Allotments has been monitored, while the plants and animals in Wellsprings Pond are surveyed from time to time, the Pond being managed by the Wellsprings residents. A survey of apples and orchards was carried out---this part of Oxfordshire is well known for fruit growing for 150 years. Some 719 fruit trees were recorded. 425 were apples, including 81 different varieties.
A campaign was mounted in 2011 to raise interest amongst parishioners in installing photo-voltaic panels to generate electricity. Nearly 20 dwellings in the Parish have been equipped with panels to the benefit of the owners and the environment.
The
Group organises two public meetings a year where invited speakers
make presentations on topics of interest. Badgers, Climate Change,
Birds of Prey and Bats have been among the subjects addressed. In
2014 the Second Edition of the Parish Conservation Plan was
published, giving a resume of the Group’s activities since it was
launched in 1996.
For more information and detail of current programmes please follow the menu links to the separate pages.