BPC Blue Hearts in Bleadon

UPDATE 16 JAN 2020 - NSC consultation 'Rewilding in North Somerset' ends 24 Jan 20.

UPDATE 18 AUG 2019 - Mercury article "Readers discuss council-backed 're-wilding' plans"

UPDATE 25 JULY 2019 - Mercury article "Council to adopt re-wilding programme across North Somerset to improve area's biodiversity"

---------------

The following was posted on the Bleadon Acting Together facebook page:

"Bleadon Parish Council Bleadon in Bloom Project - Blue Campaign.

 

Bleadon has entered the Britain in Bloom competition. There is a new scoring criterion which means that community and environment are almost as important as the actual floral exhibitions. Therefore, as part of the project, participants need to be mindful of the local environment.

 

The Blue Campaign is a community nature project, started by Fergus Beely. The idea is that we can each contribute to wild habitats by leaving a piece of our gardens, schools, parks or even road verges uncultivated and letting it grow wild. To signify that you are doing that you can put a stake in the ground with a blue heart on it. This tells other people not to cut that area – that area is left to be as nature intended.

 

Bleadon in Bloom have put Wildflower seeds in many places and particularly along the rhyne edge. This is to support our Butterflies and Bees.

 

The Blue Hearts you can see so far are made by David Sharman. These will soon be accompanied by Blue Hearts made by children from Lympsham School and Rocks with Blue Hearts on them made by children from Westhaven School.

 

We will be creating a map so that people can follow a trail of Blue Hearts through the village.

 

Enjoy – and get in touch with Kirsten Hemingway 815540 to join the Bloomers or the Grass Roots Ecology Movement that will start on 9th June 2019 with Chris Sperring."

BOB Note:

Wild flowers on highway verges would be lovely, I really mean it, and I'm sure, like Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, NSC would love to save their grass cutting budget, however they already no longer maintain highway verges adequately, which is causing safety concerns to pedestrians and cyclists alike. Also the risk of potential flooding issues as the adjacent rhynes become overgrown and blocked. We currently appear to be in the same poor safety situation as in 2014/15 along with associated litter issues 

NSC actually removed shrubs and wild flowers from central reservations throughout WSM, so the only way 'seeding' will happen, and be maintained, is for Parish Council precepts to be increased, which is exactly what NSC wants. But what do Bleadon residents want and how much will it actually cost?

BPC don't publish project information in an easily accessible or transparent way, especially what finances have been allocated vs actual expenditure, what budget heading expenditure comes under vs Reserve allocation/depreciation, grants or donations received, etc but some budget estimates from Oct 2018 can be found in the April 2019 BPC report.

NB: BOB again made NSC and BPC aware of the verge and litter issues in Dec 2018, and was informed that "An order will be passed to the contractor to litter pick the verge at this location. The vegetation will be monitored until the summer". We are yet to receive a response as to when and how the verge and safety issues will addressed.