Hear from Nadder Community Energy and Wiltshire Council’s new Woodland Officer.
Minutes:
The Board heard from Alan Maryon-Davis, of Nadder Community Energy and Wiltshire Council’s new Woodland Officer, Naomi Styles.
Nadder Community Energy was a community benefit society in Tisbury, founded in 2015. The remit covered Nadder Valley and surrounding areas.
The Non-profit group was run by volunteer directors and was financially supported by private investors. A recent project involved solar panels to heat the local swimming pool. The aims included reducing carbon footprints and increased benefits for the community.
Other Initiatives:
• Green Drinks
• Nadder Green Fair
• Tisbury Electric Car Club
• Domestic Heat Pump pilot project
• Renewable Heating for Schools feasibility project
• Keeping Warm in Winter project
• Great Big Green Week Eco-energy Trail on Sat 1-4pm on 10 June
For further information, visit the website: https://www.nadderce.org.uk/
Questions and comments:
How was the electric car club managed, was there a base with charging points?
Answer: Yes, there were 2 charge points, which were installed after we received funding from the National Lottery.
Naomi Styles – WC Woodland Officer
Naomi was part of a new team which formed 6 weeks ago after the council was awarded grant funding. Part of the teams role was to assist people who were looking for funding towards planning to meet climate targets across the country.
Wiltshire’s Woodland cover:
• For Wiltshire, the target = 435 ha of woodland/yr for the next 30 years
• 1 million trees / an area of woodland the size of Devizes each year.
• Woodland planting 2ha which requires planning permission
• 40% of Wiltshire’s landscape is within the AONB, national park or historic sites
• Large-scale tree planting needs to be carefully considered and sensitively introduced
Warden Tree Planting Scheme
The team were recruiting tree wardens across the county to survey existing trees in their area, identify new places to plant trees and local landowners who may be keen to plant. They would also take part in applying for funding for tree, hedgerow and woodland planting in their community.
Questions and comments:
Was there a large connection between the Planning Tree Protection Officers and these Tree Wardens?
Answer: The wardens would be the people in the communities that volunteer to look after their local trees and the Tree Protection Officers were Council staff, employed to carry out a different role.
If we were looking for land suitable for planting an orchard, would you be the gateway to discussions with the council on using their land?
Answer: Yes, we could assist you with this.
In Alderbury 150 trees were felled to create space for more housing. There was great demand in rural areas for land for development. Did you have plans for initiatives regarding policy development to object to the work on the local plan?
Answer: I am fairly new to post, within the council that work is ongoing. We would also be chasing up the areas where developers had promised to plant trees and hade not carried it out.
It is great to have this team in place at the council, we need the right advice to have the correct trees in the right places. It can be complex and biodiversity net gain was coming in soon. It was a great concept until you look at that metric on small sites. It will be evidence based and variable depending on the site specifics.