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LCPRE's first AGM a great success
10 July 2008 We were delighted to see so many members at our first
AGM in spite of the rain. The "business" part of the meeting included a report of the main
events of the past year from the Chairman Andrew Balmford, a financial
report from Treasurer Frank Richards, and the re-election of the present
Committee. Jim Gammie from Natural England gave a presentation on the
provisional SSSI designation, outlining the reasons for its designation and
how it would afford protection to most of the Ely Wildspace area. Members
contributed very generously; funds received will help pay for legal advice
and representation to fight the appeals made against LCPRE's Village Green application
and ECDC's Enforcement Notice. We celebrated with "Chateaux Common", a frisky
little champagne made from elderflowers grown on Ely Common.
 Celebrations as LCPRE recruits 1000th member
19 June, 2008
Following last week’s news that Natural England have provisionally designated Roswell Pits and
much of the area around it a Site of Special Scientific Interest, we had more good
news on Saturday, when we recruited our 1000th member, Mrs Karen Levet pictured
here with her family and with LCPRE Chair Andrew Balmford.
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Members are invited to LCPRE's first AGM, on Wednesday 9 July 2008
13 June, 2008 Members are invited to LCPRE's first Annual General Meeting,
at 7.30 on Wed 9 July, 2008 at Ely Sailing Club. In addition to the formal
business of the evening, staff from Natural England will be there to explain what
exactly the SSSI status means, and of course there'll be food and drink. Further details,
including an agenda for the evening, can be found
here.
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Roswell Pit area notified as Site of Special Scientific Interest
10 June, 2008 We are absolutely delighted by the news that Natural England has provisionally
designated large parts of the Ely Wildspace as a
Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its exceptional wetland wildlife,
as well as for its unusual geology. The SSSI designation process is extremely demanding
- the site must be shown to be outstanding not just locally but nationally - and this is
the first SSSI to receive notification since Natural England was established in 2006.
The designation now offers much of this area - including Roswell Pits, Queen
Adelaide settling ponds, and the flood meadows on the west of the river - greatly
enhanced protection from harmful development.
LCPRE chair Andrew Balmford said "This is a real reason for celebration. Ely can
be fantastically proud that the remaining patches of nature around the city, and the
wildlife they still support, have received this recognition. We now hope to work
with landowners to help them meet the management needs of the SSSI, and with ECDC
and others to ensure that the future of the Wildspace is properly safeguarded in the
local planning process".
The full report from Natural England is available
here .
The BBC news report can be viewed by accessing
this link.
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Poor management threatens wildlife at Ely Common
28 May, 2008
The diversity of species in parts of Ely Common is under threat from excessive
grass cutting. The cutting regime applied by Mr Tyrrell has involved mowing the
grass to such an extent that it has prevented the variety of wild flowers in
this area from flowering and regenerating. In contrast, the adjacent land
owned by the Thomas Parsons Charity immediately to the west of Mr Tyrrell's
part of the Common, is awash with colour from the wild flowers that are thriving there.
These include Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris), Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill (Geranium molle),
Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus), Goose Grass (Galium aparine), Germander speedwell
(Veronica chamaedrys), Hoary Plantain (Plantago media), Stinging nettle
(Urtica dioicia), White Dead Nettle (Lamium album), Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)
Bird's Foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa), Ox- Eye Daisy
(Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), White Clover (Trifolium repens),
Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), to name but a few.
If you would like to object to the damage already done and to encourage better
management of this area, then why not consider writing a letter to the paper
highlighting your concerns.
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Ely Wildspace SpringClean: a load of rubbish!
30 April, 2008
In glorious spring sunshine more than sixty people took part in a Spring Clean of
Ely Wildspace on Saturday 26th April. Teams of litter pickers spread out across
Ely Common, around Roswell pits and along both banks of the river. Along the way
they collected the usual cans and bottles plus a sofa, a trampoline, a motor, a
microwave oven complete with its own box and a can of creosote. The total weight
of the rubbish removed was almost a ton, excluding the sofa. The Litter pickers'
afternoon ended with tea and scones on the Sailing Club lawn.
LCPRE worked with The Wildlife Trust
to organize this Clean Up and were delighted with the response from young and old alike.
Many thanks to all who took part. We are hoping to organize similar events through out the year so that this well loved
and much used area of Ely can be kept litter free.
A special thanks to Veolia, Boots, Superdrug, Travis Perkins, Pecks and Tesco and
The Ely Pound Shop for their support.
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Photography competition in the Fens
19 April, 2008
The RSPB, the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge and the Wildlife
Trust have come together to give you the chance to take part a local
photography competition, called 'Fens through a Lens.' Further details can
be found here
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Enforcement notice served on Roswell Pit owner
07 April, 2008
East Cambridgeshire District Council have served an Enforcement Notice on the owner of
Roswell Pit. The notice comes into effect on the 19th May, and it requires the owner to
permanently remove the hardcore, hardstanding and installed services which have been put
on the site. The Enforcement Notice states that the development at Roswell Pit is
contrary to Policies 52,53, 54, 67 and 102 of the East Cambridgeshire District
plan 2000. To see the Enforcement Notice, click here. To see ECDC's press release, click
here.
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The Ely Wildspace SpringClean - Saturday 26th April
07 April 2008
LCPRE are inviting members and non-members to join in with a much needed
litterpick across the Ely Wildspace area. The event will take
place in the early afternoon on Saturday 26th April. We will meet at 2.15 p.m. at the
top of Kiln Lane (off Prickwillow Rd - for a map, click here) and finish at the Ely Sailing Club at Roswell Pit,
where tea and scones will be available. Equipment will be provided.
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Report of the LCPRE members meeting, 10 March 2008
11 March 2008 LCPRE held a very successful members meeting at the Ely Community College
on the 10th March. It was very well attended despite the atrocious weather.
The meeting had a dual purpose of updating the membership on recent developments
and to develop the Ely Wildspace vision.
Major news included the continuing destructive work undertaken by Mr Tyrrell on
Roswell Pit without planning permission and our solicitors advice given to ECDC.
The objections made by Cheffins (on behalf of Mr Tyrrell) and Thomas Parsons to LCPRE’s
application to protect Ely Common as a Village Green, and the proposal to designate
Roswell Pit and surrounding area as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
The aim of the Ely Wildsapce is to protect the remaining habitat patches around
the eastern edge of Ely from harmful development, preserving it for wildlife and
the continued recreational use of Ely’s population. Through small working groups the
membership gave valuable input to, and showed overwhelming support for the Ely Wildspace
vision. The full meeting report is available
here.
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Opportunity to comment on ECDC Improvement Plan
11 March 2008 East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) has initiated
a consultation process on an ‘Improvement Plan’ which aims to provide
improvements in a number of policies and services. This is an important
opportunity to respond to the priorities outlined by the East Cambridgeshire
District Council including issues relating to sustainable development and the
environment in Ely. All responses must be received by 31st March 2008.
Comments can be emailed to performance@eastcambs.gov.uk or posted to
Performance, ECDC, Babylon Bridge, Waterside, Ely, CB7 4AU. They can also be
submitted online through http://www.eastcambs.gov.uk/html/publicconsult.asp
We have highlighted a few points that might be of use when considering your response.
Please click here for further information.
ECDC’s Policy and Resources Committee will be held on Wed 23 April at 4.30 in the
Council Chambers in the Grange. Further information about the Improvement Plan
will be considered at this meeting
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Members’ meeting
We’re holding a members’ meeting to report back on developments at Roswell and
crucially to get LCPRE members’ views on the vision for Ely
Wildspace, from 7.30-9.30pm on Mon 10 March, in Needhams Hall at the City
of Ely Community College.The evening will include a short talk about the
importance of wild spaces by Robert MacFarlane (author of The Wild Places, recently
featured on BBC Radio 4), and an overview by Helen Smith (of the Little Ouse Headwaters
Project) showing how one East Anglian community is already managing to conserve its wild
areas. All members are very welcome – it’s vitally important that we hear your views.
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Continued damage to Roswell Pit
In stark contrast to the sensitive approach being adopted at Queen Adelaide,
work at Roswell has, over the past few months, continued to be needlessly
destructive. Over the summer a kingfisher nest was reportedly destroyed, and
a spectacular water lily bed removed. Since then a new track has been built in the
woods – with no permission from Natural England; other work has continued even
though previous permission has lapsed; several rusting boats have been left on
the Pit; the flower-rich meadow of Ely Common, which had been carefully managed
for over a century, has been severely damaged by being mown far too often; and
most recently, the owner has been served a warrant by the Environment Agency for
dumping household waste (including wire, carpet and plastic) around the edge of
his bank-side concrete plinths
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Queen Adelaide Settling Ponds/Ely Beet Pits
As many local birdwatchers know, these former settling ponds have developed into
exceptionally important wildlife habitat, supporting significant populations of
bitterns, marsh harriers, bearded tits, otters and water voles. However, the
Potter Group, which acquired the site along with the rest of the former beet
factory, faces a serious dilemma: the water is held above ground level but the
bank retaining it is inadequately engineered to meet the requirements of the
Reservoirs Act 1975.
Rebuilding the bank would be prohibitively expensive. Instead the owners’ consultants have spent
over a year liaising with the Wildlife Trust, Natural England, the Environment
Agency and RSPB to develop a plan to dewater the main, northern lagoon (so it is
no longer classed as a reservoir) while providing new, below-ground reedbeds and
open water in the south of the site. They submitted
these plans and a full
Environmental Impact Assessment to ECDC in December 2007; importantly these
documents recognise the inter-dependence of the remaining habit fragments in
this area, and hence the importance of securing a long-term future for all of
them.
LCPRE and the statutory consultees believe
these
plans are now close to representing the best possible outcome for the site.
Although there will be unavoidable losses to wildlife habitat over the short
term, we understand that there will be net gains in 5 to10 years’ time, by which
stage the site may be handed over to a local organisation to be managed as a
nature reserve. If it progresses as planned, this project will represent a great
demonstration of effective environmental mitigation.
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Village Green application
LCPRE has applied to Cambridgeshire
County Council to have the whole of Ely Common recognised as a Village Green. In
many ways this would give it the same status as an official common (which many
Ely residents assumed it already had).The application was posted around the site
on 10 January 2008. Objections must be received by 21
February. We hope to hear the outcome of the application shortly after that.
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Developing the Ely Wildspace vision
Since October 2007 we have been meeting with representatives of both the Wildlife Trust and ECDC to develop and
explore the Ely Wildspace vision. LCPRE and the
Wildlife Trust have identified key areas, stretching from the A142 along the
Great Ouse as far as Queen Adelaide, whose protection we believe is vital if the
area’s wildlife and people enjoyment of it are to have a long-term future.
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Certificate of Lawfulness part 2
On 17 August ECDC determined that Mr Tyrrell’s Certificate of Lawfulness
application was “indeterminable”, because the forms were completed incorrectly.
Nevertheless, they offered their informal opinion that the proposal to use the pit
for recreational cruising of boats, and for temporary mooring, would not require
planning permission. The officer signing this advice left ECDC shortly afterwards.
ECDC’s opinion was directly contradictory to LCPRE’s legal advice, which we submitted
to ECDC eight days previously. In our barrister’s opinion, all the individual elements
of the Certificate of Lawfulness application added up to a marina, which under European
law cannot be developed without planning permission and a full Environmental Impact
Assessment. The Environment Agency, the Wildlife Trust, RSPB and Natural England all
submitted similarly robust comments to ECDC that were in agreement with our barrister’s
advice. To date LCPRE has still not received a reply to our comments.
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Application for a Certificate of Lawfulness
On 6 July 2007 Mr Tyrrell, the new owner of the largest pit, applied to
East Cambridgeshire District Council for a Certificate of Lawfulness which,
if granted, will allow him to carry out extensive work and moor unspecified
numbers of motor boats without planning permission.
A Certificate of Lawfulness is a strange device and unlike a Planning
Application is not subject to public objections or comments. The decision is
made by East Cambridgeshire District Council planners and lawyers, who will
judge the application (within eight weeks of receipt) solely on its legal
merits and not on the impact of the proposed development.
The application covers a dozen proposals that
fall into two groups. The first set is about recreational use of motorized
boats on the pit, and providing them with moorings along the bankside and on
pontoons; the proposals are unclear about how many boats are involved. The
second group of proposals concerns managing the land and water, and installing
services, a tea hut, hard standing for a crane, car parking, fencing up to
2m high around the site, and putting an area of hardcore on the Site of
Special Scientific Interest for the storage of plant and machinery.
We believe that these activities together entail a significant change of use
for the site and that as such they should be subject to planning permission.
We believe this change of use and the work itself will have permanent
detrimental effects on the wildlife and amenity values of this special area.
We also note that much of the work – trench-digging, laying of services,
mooring of pontoons - has already been started. In our view a full planning
application enabling everyone to see and comment on the full extent of Mr
Tyrrell's plans would have been a far better option. If you share any of our
concerns please let your local councillors know.
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Tree Preservation Order
On 29 May 2007, ECDC approved LCPRE’s application to have the
remaining woodland around the main Roswell Pit protected by a Tree
Preservation Order. This means that permission is needed before any
more tree work can be undertaken, and work done without permission
could lead to prosecution.
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