NEWS & PROJECTS
Bittern Countryside Community Interest Company supports the Arnside and Silverdale AONB Partnership
and the Landscape Trust
Dates
Our 2024 AGM will be held on Friday 26th April at 6.30 for 7 at The Holt, RSPB Leighton Moss. It will be followed by a talk on "How the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme works in our area by Lucy Barron and Caroline Howard.
News
At our 2023 AGM it was agreed that we would assist the AONB Partnership in producing and carrying out their new Nature Recovery Strategy. The first action is to work with the Arnside Natural History Society and others in producing a database of landscape types and plant species in the area that we can monitor over 5 years so we can assess how the strategy is working .
Our Fact Sheet 5 on Heat Pumps has been updated and the new version is available on the web site.
Our new Company Secretary is Ken Kitchen who is replacing Mike Smith. Our thanks go to Mike for all the work he has done over the years. Mike has also retired as a Director. This means we have vacancies for a Director. If you have some spare time and want to know more about the role please let us know.
The AONB unit and the BCCIC have got funding for their Bittern Sustainable Schools Programme. They will work in partnership with the primary schools in the AONB. More info will shortly be available and there will be a talk at the 2022 AGM.
Morecambe Bay Partnership are holding a consultation about a possible route from Arnside to Grange via the viaduct. Why not give them your views.
Our fundraising is going well and we hope to start our sustainable schools project in the New Year.
Thank you to all those who attended our AGM on 22nd October. We had a very interesting discussion on Heat Pumps and we hope to have a lecture on them in the spring. Thank you to Martin and Andrew who came to answer questions. Watch this space.
We are delighted to inform you that Ray Anslow has been co-opted onto the Board and will be our new Finance Director for a three year term from April 2021 until March 2024. David Askew will remain as a director.
Thank you, Ray.
Mike Smith has agreed to stay as Secretary until March 2022.
I will stay on as Chair until March 2023 unless we find a replacement before that.
This will mean that we will be able to have a 3 year term for officers so no two officers retire at the same time. Obviously officers can stay on for additonal 3 year terms if they and the Board see fit.
Roger Walton and Bob Hamnett have stepped down as directors.
Our thanks go to David for all his work as Finance Director and Bob and Roger for their many years on the Board. They have been such stalwart supporters of the BCCIC since its inception.
Covid-19
We had to cancel our March 2020 AGM but our financial report and the chairman's report are available
on the REPORTS & DOCUMENTS page.
It is wonderful to see how everyone is pulling together and helping those who are vulnerable.
Look after yourselves and stay safe.
The notice boards in Storth and Sandside part sponsored by the BCCIC are looking good and being well used.
The next villages are the Yealands.
The 21st September saw the 70th Anniversary of the founding of the first AONB and the release of the Glover report which can be downloaded free from the government web site.
We joined the AONB celebrations on the Knott. See September's pictures.
The Landscape Trust Online shop has now opened.
Go to https://shop.landscapetrust.org.uk to order publications etc.
Support the AONB Warton Crag Community Day this Sunday, 7th July
from 10.30 to 3pm.
Meet at Warton Quarry Main Car Park.
Our display on Plastics at the Cemetery Chapel,
Arnside on June 29th and 30th had over 300 visitors.
Thanks to Val Stevens for all her work getting the ideas together.
As our contribution towards the Arnside and Silverdale Art Trail
we shared the venue with the Landscape Trust.
Look at the poster about Alan Ferguson's nurdle hunt on The AONB This Month
Ken Kitchen put on a display of words and images about our wonderful AONB.
Our AGM was held at Leighton Moss on 22nd March 2019 at 7pm
Robin Horner, Area Manager RSPB gave a fascinating talk entitled
‘Working for Wildlife in and around the AONB - an RSPB perspective'
This was followed by the AGM. The Chairman's statement and financial report are on the reports page.
Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust
The Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust have launched their fundraising campaign. They need £100,000.
This is to pay for their new reserve at Coldwell and enable them to manage the reserves sustainably in the coming years. The total raised to date is just over £29,500. There is some way to go. Can you help?
Full information on the appeal and how to give is at www.landscapetrust.org.uk
Solar PV Project update
The solar PV initiative is continuing. Storth School, our first solar school in 2012 continue to be very pleased with their panels. They have generated over 20,000kwh. They sent us the letter below explaining why they are so pleased with them.
The solar panels from the Leeds Childrens Holiday Centre were donated to the Lakeland Trust for Natural Sciences who run Wildlife Oasis on the A6.
The Solar panels at the AONB offices are working well and have generated over 10,000kwh since they were installed in 2015,
Last summer Silverdale Primary School discovered that all their roofs were leaking badly( not just the ones with panels on). The panels had to be removed and put into storage and the roofs patched temporarily. Hopefully the roof problem will be resolved soon and Silverdale will be generating again.
Click to link to our partners' websites at the AONB Partnership or The Landscape Trust