HES Review of 2006/07
Introduction
This Review highlights the Heritage & Environment Service’s main achievements in 2006/7.
It covers:
Also available are:
Delivering our objectives
Protecting and enhancing the environment – setting the framework
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We helped create a new Green Infrastructure Officer post, funded jointly with Natural England, working to the Bedfordshire and Luton Green Infrastructure Consortium.
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The Green Infrastructure (GI) Officer completed the Bedfordshire and Luton Strategic Green Infrastructure Plan and set up a new GI website in February and March 2007.
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The Service took the lead for the biodiversity, landscape and heritage sections of the Strategic Green Infrastructure Plan and other GI planning work.
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We organised a GI event for Members and senior officers from all Bedfordshire and Luton local authorities in November 2006, and supported the endorsement of the Strategic GI Plan by the South Beds and Luton JPTC and Mid Bedfordshire District Council.
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We arranged two workshops on design and the housing growth with CREATE, the MKSM architecture centre.
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We contributed to the development of Planning and Minerals and Waste Local Development Frameworks by all Bedfordshire local authorities.
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We drafted the environmental and green infrastructure sections of the Council’s Developer Contributions Strategy (adopted March 2007).
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We held three local workshops to refine the Bedford Borough and Mid Bedfordshire Landscape Character Assessments.
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We completed the draft Historic Environment Character Assessment for the Chalk Arc Project area.
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We completed our survey of Bedford’s highway trees, and our annual surveys of trees on priority 1 roads and the 2000 high risk trees.
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480 veteran trees in Bedfordshire were entered on the national Ancient Tree Hunt database.
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We helped create a Biodiversity Action Plan co-ordinator post in partnership with Natural England, the Environment Agency and other local authorities.
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We supported the Biological Record Centre and biodiversity action planning through our partnership with the Wildlife Trust.
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Reports on the historic development of the County’s towns (Extensive Urban Surveys) were made available on a national website.
Protecting and enhancing the environment – sustainable development, management, funding and action
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We responded to consultations on 72 Minerals and Waste and Planning applications dealt with by the County Council (42% of the total).
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We advised the Borough and District Councils, including Luton, on the archaeological implications of 573 planning applications, preparing or approving 72 briefs and project designs, and making 147 monitoring visits.
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We reacted to public and other concern by making 600 inspections of highway trees; 96% of inspections were made within 3 weeks of notification and 72% within 1 week.
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78% of trees identified as high priority were scheduled for work within risk assessment date.
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We supported the Chalk Arc (Green Infrastructure) Project for south Bedfordshire and Luton. (Details on Project outputs are available.)
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We helped create the new Chilterns Gateway Visitor Centre through the project group and planning.
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Hillersden Mansion (Elstow) was taken off English Heritages’ Buildings at Risk Register following an earlier restoration scheme; and work started on a similar scheme at Someries Castle (close to Luton Airport).
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Successful grant applications were put in for environmental stewardship schemes covering 3130 ha of rural land and (subject to decisions) woodland schemes covering 290 ha. 75 Landwise Conservation notes, reports or plans were produced.
Increasing understanding and enjoyment of the heritage and environment, and supporting public participation and action to improve local places
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The Community Tree Project collected 2 million seeds, and grew 10,000 trees and supplied 80,000 plants, reinforcing local genetic character; The Project involved 50 volunteers, 12 schools and 300 schoolchildren.
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The Parish Tree Warden Scheme – involving 82 parishes – planted 750 trees and 8 km of hedging.
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We worked in partnership with Leighton Linslade Town Council to survey all their highway trees (586), maintain half of them and plant 18 trees and 670 shrubs.
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The Section delivered 38 lectures, seminars and other events reaching an audience of 1185; our heritage exhibition was seen by 13,000 people at 35 venues.
High performance, VFM and customer satisfaction
General performance
Value for money
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Our countryside advisory service gained £1.7m in funding for the county through environmental stewardship grants.
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We gained £80k in funding from English Heritage to restore our Heritage Guardianship sites.
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Our biodiversity partnership co-ordinator gained specialises grants worth £18.5k to help deliver biodiversity action and targets.
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Our projects and partnerships continued to give excellent value for money by achieving high funding gearing and high environmental and community outcomes from modest investment.
Customer focus/satisfaction
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100% of phone calls were answered within the corporate target of six rings.
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Audience Development and Access Plans were produced for the HER and a new survey of users and non users was carried out to guide the development of the countryside advisory service.
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96% of users said that our countryside advisory service was good or excellent.
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99% of visitors to the Historic Environment Record (HER) said that the helpfulness of staff was good or very good.
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92% of visitors considered the range of sources and information in the HER to be good or very good.
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We received 31 compliments and no complaints.
Examples of customer feedback
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and your colleagues …for all your help and assistance during my recent ‘Tourism Tour of Mid Bedfordshire’ as part of Visit Britain’s Tourism Week.”
“I would like to thank you for your fascinating talk and slide show.”
“Fountains Regional Director [said] … that our work schedules, specifications and plans were outstanding and the best they have encountered.”
“Following your intervention on this issue I would like to report that the works were carried out v. professionally and with extreme efficiency with limited fuss and cleanliness – the lads were a credit to themselves.”
“Very many thanks indeed for the full and extremely useful information: the ideal reply.”
“Thank you very much for a really interesting and informative morning. It certainly helps seeing the HER in situ and I think there’ll be more visits and referrals as a result.”
“I am very grateful for such a prompt and thorough reply.”
“Mr Smith …was most please with the quality of the work recently carried out on the two Willow trees … He said that the service he received from the tree section was first class.”
“[Proposing the County Ecologist to this committee] is a very high honour and feather in his as well as the county councils hat.”
“Carol Horton of a farm in Studham … says that Becky was ‘very helpful’.”
Thank you very much for your timely help yesterday … quite a large part of the Milton Keynes East Midlands Growth Agenda rests with this scheme because it unlocks so much housing development.
“Thank you for your thorough [and] informative reply to my enquiry for the history of Leighton Cross, your thoroughness far exceeds the reply which I expected, it is appreciated, the hard work and knowledge that has gone into it.”
“I would just like to say how much I have enjoyed my two weeks work experience working with the team. A big thank you to all of you.”
“With the quantity of paperwork and new environmental legislation [the countryside advisory service] has been an invaluable source for keeping on top of all the requirements. Advice has always been prompt, specific and very useful.”
“An excellent service, professionally done, competent and efficient.”
A year of achievement
April/May
BedsLife (the Biodiversity Action Plan partnership) is at the big Springwatch event at the Marston Vale Forest Centre on June 3. It runs a nature photo trail with a public exhibition to follow, and the trail and whole event is covered extensively on BBC’s Look East and 3 Counties Radio.
Following Heather Webb’s meeting with the Bedfordshire Bird Club, the Club has offered to update the birds section of the Red Data Book on endangered species.
A site visit to Stone Lane Quarry, Heath and Reach, has found impressive results from the landscaping scheme we negotiated and developed in partnership with the Greensand Trust. The planting has been carried out using local stock, by community volunteers and team-building and other groups.
English Heritage gives a £3k grant for a photogrammetric survey of Segenhoe Church, one of our Heritage Guardianship Sites. The survey will be used to help develop future proposals for the restoration and re-use of the building.
June/July
An extensive area of wetland and species-rich grassland sheltered by new tree belts has been created at Dunton Lane Balancing Reservoir, and all of it can be seen from the bridleway running along the edge of the site. It is one of a string of new habitats along the stream on the edge of Biggleswade’s eastern developments. Unfortunately, the reservoir project caused archaeological and other problems so has to be classed as only a qualified success.
DEFRA gives a £1,600 grant for hedgerow surveys in Studham, Whipsnade and Kensworth which will help with farmland and dormouse biodiversity action plans.
Alison Myers talks to the leading professional Landscape Character Network, on “Green Infrastructure Planning - The Consortium Approach ". Her presentation looked at practical examples of using landscape character to improve environmental planning. It was well received by an audience of 50 from a range of backgrounds and organisations and the Network was impressed with what we were achieving in Bedfordshire, particularly with green infrastructure planning.
August/September
3 local workshops are held in Bedford Borough and west and east Mid Bedfordshire to inform the Landscape Character Assessment. These were well-attended and lively, and generated positive feedback. People’s views on what they value most about the landscape and on Assessment’s landscape types and text were incorporated in the District level studies. (These studies went out for wider consultation in September.)
Mike Crawshaw passes his Professional Tree Inspection course and Sam Mellonie passes her Archaeology A Level.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Green Infrastructure Officer (David Hopkins) is appointed. This new post is jointly-funded with Natural England, serves the Bedfordshire and Luton GI Consortium, and is based in the Section.
Partnership funding from the Forestry Commission and others is raised to support a new post dealing with Ancient Woodlands. The post will be hosted by the Section but employed by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group.
October/November
Civic Trust Award assessment visits are made to the new music school building at Bedford School (designed by Eric Parry Architects) and Elstow Middle School (Bedfordshire County Council/Mouchel Parkman).
Hyder is appointed to undertake the landscape assessment of the Chalk Arc project area.
The new biodiversity website www.bedslife.org.uk| is launched and the biodiversity opportunity mapping document, "Rebuilding Biodiversity" is completed and posted on the site.
December/January
Two firsts and other tree news:
All the hedge plants we are supplying to parish tree wardens this winter have for the first time been grown from seed from ancient Bedfordshire woodlands. The seed was collected three years ago by school children and volunteers. 40,000 plants will be coming from the Community Tree Trust, the equivalent of 13km of hedge.
Also for the first year all seed collected during the previous autumn has been sown in seedbeds at our Clophill Depot. When large enough they will be transplanted to a site in Henlow until they are ready to be planted. We will now be able to make sure that plants go back to the areas where they were collected.
This year the Community Tree Trust is planning to supply 100,000 plants for schemes around the county. The Trust is now reliant on plant sales and we encourage landowners to source local stock from the Trust. An important customer is our partners, the Forest of Marston Vale.
The TRIMS database (for highway trees) is updated with the remaining Bedford trees we are responsible for, making a total of just over 1,700 trees. This brings the total number of trees recorded on the database to 10,969 and meets our target of completing this part of the survey by Christmas. The challenge now is to complete the recommended work to those trees assessed as being a High priority before the end of January 2007.
February/March
The Chilterns AONB Conservation Board gives a grant of £1,125 to update the county chalk grassland data layer.
English Heritage gives a grant of£ 74,583 towards the stabilisation of Someries Castle close to Luton Airport and in Hyde parish. The work will involve the repair of nationally important medieval brickwork and require specialist craft and conservation skills.
A programme of rectified photographic survey work is completed for Someries Castle and St Mary’s Church, Clophill. This will give the basis for archaeological and architectural research to increase our understanding of the monuments and meet English Heritage grant requirements.
We start a partnership with the Churches Conservation Trust to develop educational resources based on the historic monuments managed by the County Council.
The Environment Agency funds a pond survey. This grant allows us to update surveys done in 1976 and 1991 and should be the basis for a ponds action plan.
BBC Three Counties Radio and online, and Leighton Buzzard on Sunday, cover our natural environment indicators report.
We gain £10,745 from Natural England to support a range of activities and demands including a flyer for planners and other local authority officers about dormice, a tree sparrow nest box scheme in north Bedfordshire, and a lowland meadow survey of north Bedfordshire.
The Bedfordshire and Luton Strategic Green Infrastructure Plan is published.
eports on the historical development of Bedfordshire’s towns (Extensive Urban Surveys) are made available on a national website http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?bedsluton_eus_2006|. The Section commissioned Albion Archaeology to undertake assessments of the 12 historic towns on behalf of this and Luton Borough Council. The results highlight the historic interest of the towns and their stories and will inform planning and other decisions.
Natural England gives £2,700 for Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) related projects.
Heather Webb gives a biodiversity opportunity mapping presentation to the Hertfordshire BAP group which is well received. The group asks for more information on our opportunity and habitat mapping, and green infrastructure work.
The media pick up on a Bird Club project at the Council’s property at Yelnow Wood following our press release.
The Strategic Green infrastructure Plan is endorsed by the South Bedfordshire and Luton Joint Planning and Transport Committee.
Becky Ward and Heather Webb are complimented at a hedgerow and biodiversity conference in Birmingham. Rob Wolton (UK hedgerow action plan group and Natural England) commends their hedgerow survey of Studham and says that they’ve done an excellent study and a really interesting summary report. Becky and Heather hopes this gets us more money this year!
Audience Development and Access Plans for the Bedfordshire Historic Environment Record are completed. The Plans were funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and are the first stage in applying for a HLF grant to increase and widen access to the Record including making parts of it available online.
Tim Earthy gives a presentation to the EEDA Design Champions Network event at the Corn Exchange, Bedford. Tim’s talk is focused on improving design and also covers the Bedfordshire Local Authorities Design Forum. The event was positive and will hopefully strengthen partnership working with CREATE, the new MKSM architecture centre.
David Hopkins gives a well-received presentation on green infrastructure to an IDEA away-day at Marston Vale. IDEA is interested in showcasing our GI work as good practice and wants us to work with them to make links with similar work at other local authorities.
David facilitates a workshop on "Empowering Communities" at the BRAF Climate Change conference.
The Strategic GI Plan has been endorsed by Mid Bedfordshire District Council and is being used as evidence to feed into Local Development Frameworks. Encouragingly, there are emerging plans to develop a local GI Plan for Mid Beds.
A Green Infrastructure website is set up – www.bedsandlutongreeninfrastructure.org.uk| - and a leaflet summarising the Strategic GI Plan produced.
The survey of chalk grasslands in the south of the county (funded by the Chilterns Conservation Board) is completed. John Comont and Heather Webb are writing an article on the methodology which has proved a success.
Veteran Willow pollards are saved from bulldozers along the route of the Western Bypass.
The first phase of tree planting opposite Mid Bedfordshire District Council’s offices at Campton has been completed to make up for weaknesses with the original scheme. We have planted 10 large trees and 200 shrubs, and some conifers will be added next winter. We will be maintaining the planting to ensure that it flourishes in the future.