Enjoying A Beautiful Walk - Without the Threat of Chicken City

Sometimes you don't realise what you've got until it's gone. It wasn't like that with the chicken broiler farm applications from Messrs Davies and Hern. We all knew what we would lose if they were to go ahead. Now we can enjoy the countryside knowing that the Planning Inspector could see the devastating impact that the huge scale of these buildings would have on this landscape and Dismissed the Appeal to build four sheds housing 160,000 chickens. This would have resulted in around 1.2 million chickens per year. 

The weather was beautiful today - cold at -1C but clear and great for birdlife that was enjoying the sunshine as much as I was.

Here amongst the comments on the application and the NPPF are views around Upton Snodsbury, North Piddle and Naunton Beauchamp, showing the beautiful landscape that was under threat.

View towards North Piddle Church

I think many of the members of the Wychavon Parishes Action Group (WPAG) would have felt as I did that we were never going to give up on fighting the application. The bullishness of Mr Pick the agent for Mr Davies served only to make us want to defeat it more. Fortunately we could see that his behaviour was typical of his attitude at many of the application sites and his ability to antagonise wherever he goes seems to be a theme. He has won very few friends in this process and his failure (whilst quoting an almost 100% success rate on his website!) is a landmark result.

Reeds at Piddle Lake

North Piddle Lane with Mistletoe covered trees

View from North Piddle Lane towards Bredon Hill

Most Bluetits are hard to get decent photos of!

So many blue tits along the lanes, with their constant chatter

Fieldfares are quite common grazing around the sheep grazing

 

View towards Upton Snodsbury

The view from North Piddle towards Upton Snodsbury - the chicken farm site is about 1/2 way between these two points.

Bullfinch

Bullfinch

Blossom!

Great Tit

The Old House, Naunton Beauchamp

Naunton Beauchamp

Naunton Beauchamp

The first sign of Spring - Snowdrops

Naunton Beauchamp cottage - The Way dating from late 1600s

Naunton Beauchamp Cottage dating from late 1600s

Where the National Planning and Policy Framework (NPPF) was designed to simplify matters of planning it only served to open up interpretations of the rules enabling inappropriate developments to go through as many in the countryside will agree. 

The Wildlife Trusts' concern was that Local Councils' policies needed to be robust and up to date. Whilst great in theory, in practice where local plans were delayed the floodgates were opened up to these developments.  

We are fortunate that in our case that the local Council - Wychavon for whom I have the utmost respect for the professional way that they dealt with this high profile application, took a stand that the NPPF criteria had not been met. And the Planning Inspector agreed.

The Calm Before The Storm - Beautiful Post Christmas Weather for Walking

Blue skies, a bit of frost and lots of birds describes the long walk between Naunton Beauchamp and North Piddle today. 

Most of these photos were taken about half-way between the two villages by a tree that had beautiful low sunlight and the kind of light that you only see around the Winter Solstice. Warm and soft it makes the birds glow (but only if they happen to not be in shadow which they have a habit of doing of course especially if you have a camera in your hand). 

It's about 750m away from the proposed site of the Chicken Broiler Units at Upton Snodsbury. If the proposed application is successful (it's currently with the Planning Inspectorate at Appeal) it can only be imagined what impact the smell of manure and the change to the water clarity of Piddle Brook will have on the otters, birdlife and plantlife that at the moment sustains a wonderful ecosystem.  All that could be lost....in the meantime, I keep taking photos and making the most of what we have right now. 

There's a few birds in there but well-hidden!

A flock of...? Possibly Chaffinch

Buzzard sitting in a hedge (located about 650m from site of proposed Chicken Broiler Units at Upton Snodsbury)

Close-up of Buzzard sitting in a hedge (located about 650m from site of proposed Chicken Broiler Units at Upton Snodsbury)

Buzzard takes off from hedge (located about 650m from site of proposed Chicken Broiler Units at Upton Snodsbury)

Warbler or ? 

Warbler or ? 

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?  Perfect day for a flight.

Chaffinch coming into land

Chaffinch

Chaffinch

Blue Tit

Not sure what this is

Blue tit

Blue Tit

Treecreeper

No Christmas would be complete without one of these 

Treecreeper 

Treecreeper in the tree - they are very small

Checking what this is too...

Naunton Beauchamp Church - St Bartholomew's

Sparrow

For more information on the proposed chicken broiler units at Upton Snodbury visit www.no-chicken-farm.org

Crane Flies - To Live and Die

Better known in the UK as Daddy Long Legs, Crane Flies are everywhere at the moment - providing some swallows with the opportunity for hunting and demonstrating impressive aerial acrobatics. 

Crane flies only live for a short time - maybe up to two weeks. Their main purpose is to mate and then die.  

The swallows are gathering in large flocks of 60-70 in the fields close to Piddle Brook. In the late summer sunlight last weekend there were at least that number on adjacent telephone and power lines swooping down and demonstrating an effortlessness of flight that was impressive. With so many targets maybe it was easy. 

For the swallows this is a pretty critical time for storing energy prior to migrating later this month and October. http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/swallow/migration.aspx

Aside from the crane flies and swallows which due to bad light and speed are pretty hard to capture, here are a few of the latest pictures from the Piddle Brook area. 

This Buzzard took off from a tree close by and I just managed to get this shot in before it disappeared. From the Footpath alongside Piddle Brook between Naunton Beauchamp and North Piddle. 

Buzzard 

View towards Upton Snodsbury and the site of the proposed Chicken Farm

Upton Snodsbury Church from Piddle Brook

The sloes are particularly good this year. They only grow on the old wood of the blackthorn bushes which are abundant in the hedgerows around this part of Worcestershire.

Nearly time to make some Sloe Gin!

Traditional Worcestershire Cowboy and Log Cabin with the Malvern Hills in the background

Light shining above Naunton Beauchamp

Biodiversity Says It All

The striking thing about walking through Piddle Brook Meadows isn't that the marketing people got it all wrong and indeed with a name like Piddle Brook you might wonder what possible delights await...it's that these fields epitomise for me what we have lost. 

There are still great example around. Some friends recently went to Highgrove where Prince Charles has been working on establishing his own Wildflower Meadows and with his Coronation Meadows celebrating 60 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth 2nd rightfully establishes meadows as a key resource that quite frankly has been significantly under-valued.

Yellowhammer

Meadowsweet

I was lucky enough to work for several years as an scuba diving instructor and divemaster. Taking people for tours underwater meant a good working knowledge of the topography of the site but more importantly where you could find the good stuff - the little Spotted Drums, Morays and the feeding stations with little cleaning shrimp that would willingly do a little manicure picking up the loose skin from around your fingernails! These are what the paying customers had come to see.

 What was more fascinating was what happened when you went a bit further than the average diver could easily fin in a dive or did an anchor drop when most operators stuck to the fixed buoys. Suddenly you found even more fish! They had all escaped to a little haven where the divers didn't go. To a certain extent that is what seems to happen in the few places we have left as wildlife reserves but which aren't frequently visited. The less we have the more likely it is that these havens will have more human  visitors than the wildlife are happy to hangout with. I free truly privileged to live somewhere where the biodiversity is quite frankly stunning. Long may it continue.

We heard last week that the application for a chicken farm in close proximity to Piddle Brook Meadows has been withdrawn.  It may only be temporary, in which case, if it is re-submitted we will judge the new application from the same applicant or another on its merits.  However, whatever happens everyone should be aware of just what might be lost if developments that are inappropriate are made in this area. 

Our local biodiversity might be lost forever.

These photos were all taken on a single 35 minute morning walk in July.

Juvenile Goldfinches

Whitethroat?

Closeup of Juvenile Goldfinch

Closeup of Juvenile Goldfinch

Possible Reed Bunting or something else!

Whinchat (Male) 

Whinchat

Yellowhammer

Yellowhammer

Yellowhammer

View of Upton Snodsbury Church from Piddle Meadows

Dappy Hog

Greenfinch

Piddle Brook from the Bridge over the road into Naunton Beauchamp

Whilst planners might be content with a few wildlilfe "corridors" it is possible that for the wildlife itself there needs to be some critical mass to make them effective.  Biodiversity is key.