Environmental Forum – Wednesday 21 October 2009

Biodiversity Projects Officer’s Report

Hertfordshire Environmental Forum (HEF) Biodiversity Partnership Group (BPG)

  • There has been no meeting of HEF since the last Environmental Forum.

Hertfordshire Environmental Forum (HEF)

  • Hertfordshire Waste Partnership has put in an application to HEF to support the reorientation of the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership’s successful WasteAware campaign to address the issue of food waste.
  • It is anticipated that the spend for the WasteAware campaign for 2009/10 will be around £40,000. £30,000 is sought from HEF. Additional funding is also being sought from WRAP and the private sector.
  • The funds would be used to develop a new campaign to empower Hertfordshire’s residents to reduce the volume of food waste.
  • The HEF Executive group considered the application and made a recommendation to the Steering Group. Unfortunately when the bid was considered against the criteria it did not form part of any topic groups, not a HEF specific project and therefore did not fit in to any work plan. It was on this basis that the bid was not recommended.
  • The bid would also have used 50% of HEF’s available funds so it was considered too large and would have prevented the funding of other projects.
  • However, an £8,000 bid would be considered by the next Executive. This money would be used to part fund the co-ordinator’s post.

Developing the Wildlife Sites Initiative to respond to the DEFRA Guidance on NI197

  • Since 2007 there have been 198 National Performance Indicators, NI197 (National Indicator 197: Improved Local Biodiversity) is the one which relates to biodiversity.
  • National Indicators were set by the Government and are the only means of measuring national priorities that have been agreed by Government.
  • National Indicators replace the old Best Value Performance Indicators.
  • National Indicators have to be reported on annually and, ideally, show improvement.
  • A top 35 have been set and are eligible for a Performance Reward Grant. NI 197 is not one of these for Hertfordshire but the list is reviewed annually.
  • NI197 is assessed through the percentage of Wildlife Sites where positive conservation management has been or is being implemented in the last five years.
  • This is the first really workable and measurable indicator for biodiversity to exist for local government.
  • As leaders of the Wildlife Sites Partnership, the data for NI197 is being collected for the county by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. Ultimately the County Council has the reporting responsibility for NI197.
  • The table below shows the Local Authority owned Wildlife Sites that are under positive conservation management, as in the baseline survey of 2008/09.

Rickmansworth Festival

The Rickmansworth Festival for 2010 will take place on Saturday 15 May and Sunday 16 May.

Local Nature Reserves (LNRs)

  • Various projects have taken place at the LNRs:
  • We applied for a Green Flag Award for the Aquadrome and Chorleywood House Estate earlier this year.
  • The Green Flag Award scheme is managed by a consortium consisting of Keep Britain Tidy, BTCV and GreenSpace.
  • The Green Flag Award is the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales. The award scheme began in 1996 as a means of recognising and rewarding the best green spaces in the country.
  • Green Flag awards also encourage others to achieve the same high environmental standards, creating a benchmark of excellence in green spaces.
  • The are eight categories upon which the Local Nature Reserves were assessed:
  • A welcoming place
  • Healthy safe and secure
  • Clean and well maintained
  • Sustainability
  • Conservation and heritage
  • Community Involvement
  • Marketing
  • Management
  • We were lucky enough to be rewarded with a Green Flag Awards for both sites. We now have to re-apply on an annual basis.
  • For more information go to:
  • A series of yoga sessions took place at Chorleywood House Estate over the summer. They proved to be very popular with around 40 people attending each session.
  • TRDC won the appeal which the Chorleywood Common Youth Football Club put in against the Council’s decision not to allow an addition three football pitches to be created within the Local Nature Reserve and Wildlife Site that sits within the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) at Chorleywood House Estate.
  • There will be an Apple Day at the Chorleywood Community Orchard within Chorleywood House Estate. The date is Saturday 17 October, 11am – 3pm.
  • There will be an Oxhey Woods Discovery Day held at Oxhey Woods Local Nature Reserve on Sunday 18 October, from 10am. Activities range from a fungal foray led by the Watford Parish Conservation Volunteers to bird box building with the RSPB.
  • A programme of children’s activities, including bat box building, wildflower forays, orienteering and making insect houses took place at the LNRs over summer, as usual.
  • Volunteer Days: The Friends of Croxley Common Moor meet on the second Sunday of each month. The group has started their winter programme of scrub removal.
  • Regular volunteer days are held in Oxhey Woods by Watford Rural Conservation Volunteers as well as the Countryside Management Services (CMS).

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