NEWS & PROJECTS
Bittern Countryside Community Interest Company supports the Arnside and Silverdale AONB Partnership
and the Landscape Trust
Dates:
Friday 17th April 2026 at 7pm - Talk and AGM at Arnside Educational Institute, Church Hill.
Your Bittern Countryside Community Interest Company welcomes you to our AGM on April 17th where we will share news of community efforts we are currently engaged in.
We also offer a fascinating insight from local historian Simon Williams into Walduck's Wall, Silverdale, the unsuccessful attempt in the 1870s to reclaim land from the ravages of the sea in Morecambe Bay!
All welcome - Arnside EI, April 17th 2026, 7:00pm
Arnside Educational Institute Hazel Bank, 4 Church Hill, Arnside, Carnforth LA5 0DF
News
We welcome 2 new directors, Steve Porter and Chris Hardy. David Askew and Fiona Allan are resigning as directors but will be acting as advisors in future. We are really grateful for all they have done in the past for the company and look forward to continuing to work with them in their new roles.
Our Marvelous Moths Project with the National Landscape's 6 primary schools has been evaluated. It was deemed a great success by all and will be continued this school year. The evaluation report is available for download here.
We say farewell to Robin Horner who has retired as a Director. He was one of our very first shareholders. We are very gratefull for all the help and advice he has given to the BCCIC over this time.
We have a new director, Sarah Hymas. We are delighted to welcome her onto the Board. She is taking the lead with us to start up a tool share project. One way to use less of the world's resources is to make things more efficient. All of us having a particular tool wrench that we use only once in a blue moon is not as good as a lot of us sharing the same tool whenever we need it.
We hope to have this up and running soon.
We also say goodbye as a director to Malcolm Stevens. We are really grateful for all the input he has put into BCCIC. He will continue to help us in the future.
New Book.
With the Arnside/ Silverdale National Landscape and the Barnes Charitable Trust we have updated and reprinted the booklet on the "Orchards of the Arnside & Silverdale AONB". We have decided that an A5 version is more friendly and many of the entries need revision. The original is on the website on the publications page as a low resolution pdf as is the new updated version. A printed copy is available at the National Landscape office for £5.
The 2025 Annual General Meeting took place on Friday 25th April 2025.
The meeting started at 7pm with a talk by Rachel Marshall* on 'Closing Loops and what it means to create a regenerative economy' followed by the AGM.
* Rachel is the project coordinator of Closing Loops – a new climate action project that has emerged from the FoodFutures partnership. They aim to create community-led approaches to transform waste into a valuable local resource, promote sustainable consumption and support a regenerative, circular food economy in North Lancashire. Her recent research as an academic was focused on looking at how we can produce food more sustainably. She has a PhD in soil science. The aims of Closing Loops fit very well with our philosophy. It was a really interesting talk.
The AGM followed and Peter Haine was elected as a Director and will be our new Secretary. Ken Kitchen has just retired as he will soon be 90 and felt it was time for a rest. Thanks were extended to him for all his hard work.
Resources for Schools and parents
Ever thought of learning about moths? Why not look at our sets of worksheets about our common moths we produced for our local schools. They are available to download from our publications page. We have also produced a set of sheets for schools wanting to run a fruit and fungus foray in the National Landscape. They will soon be available to download here.
Dark Skies Lighting for Yealand School.
It was great to get such positive feedback from the school about the new security lighting provided by the Bittern Sustainable Schools Project. The lighting is proving a great success. You can read all about it on the Friends of the Lake District web site. Jack Ellerby of the Dark Skies Project helped us with the design of the lighting.
https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/News/yealand-school-safeguarding-nature-and-dark-skies
2024 AGM
Our 2024 AGM was held on Friday 26th April. Full details are given in the draft minutes on the reports page.
Our new Chair is Caroline Howard and our new finance director is Ann Kitchen. Thanks were given to Ray Anslow for all the work he has done over the past 3 years as finance director. He has now retired as a Director. A new Project was announced to continue the work done with our Sustainable Schools Programme. It will focus on working with the National Landscape team and our local schools and community organisations with an emphasis on Climate and Wildlife.
The AGM was followed by a talk on "How the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme works in our area by Lucy Barron and Caroline Howard.