NEW!

Regular reporting by

WINSHAM PARISH COUNCIL

Winsham Parish Council wish to keep readers regularly updated on their deliberations about matters of interest to residents of the parish.

Many elements of the council's work are administrative, and of little interest, other than the council and the parish clerk do the work efficiently and effectively, while keeping the cost to the precept to a level that realistically makes this possible.

Other items are of course frequently appearing on the agenda for their meetings, and these sometimes need more detailed treatment so that readers can appreciate the different perspectives surrounding the discussions.

However the need for brevity is always with us, and for some these reports may not provide the detail they would like. For these the opportunity to talk to a parish councillor is always there, and when the Covid -19 crisis recedes, no doubt the monthly surgeries will recommence.

These reports will also feature in the Joint Parish Magazine, which will be a benefit to all those who prefer the printed word to its digital alternative, or do not have broadband.

To facilitate easy access to current and past parish council reports, a separate web page  has been set up, accessed from this page. See below:

Parish Council Report

 To visit Winsham Parish Council  web site to see official Minutes of the meeting,

see links from the web site table-simply scroll down. 

NEW ' Nature Area'  for Winsham to be located near cemetery... but volunteer help is needed!

A short briefing from Winsham Parish Council on the ‘nature area’ plans behind Balsom Close and the Western Way new-build.

The company building the new houses along Western Way have kindly donated the area between these houses and Pooles Lane to the parish council; the part closest to the houses is going to be a car park (with part of it fenced off to be a play area) and the rest, some 0.6 acre in area, currently with spoil heaps from the building and, towards the southern end, with established trees, a hedge and lots of weeds.

The council intends to turn this into a nature area, with paths running through it for walkers. We have asked for a grant from the Somerset Climate Emergency Community Fund to allow us to fence off the area and to try and create a small range of habitats here. The Fund has a range of goals, and some of these we have incorporated into our grant application: 

1.                 Reduce the reliance on car travel locally, encouraging walking 

2.                 Support biodiversity and ecological adaptation and resilience 

3.                 Carbon capture and storage (including tree planting and other sequestration initiatives)

4.                 Help the environment to mitigate against, and adapt to, the impacts of climate change (e.g. Hedgerow Planting) 

Our goal is to change an area of what is currently almost waste land into an area with meadow, hedgerows and trees with footpaths running through. We hope to support biodiversity by planting both hedgerows along the perimeters, and trees throughout the area, and areas of meadow in the centre.

Biodiversity will be increased through the provision of these several habitats, merging into each other: the meadow with areas of wildflowers, grasses and bare ground will encourage insect life including pollinators, as well as providing sites for, and supporting the local violet oil beetle populations known to occur in the area (and impacted by the house development); hedgerows along the perimeter of the site, planted on banks and flanked by damp ditches, will provide habitat for small mammals including rare ones such as dormouse (recorded in the area), and through planting of specific shrubs, will encourage rare butterflies such as brown hairstreak, while the ditches will provide habitat for reptiles and amphibians; planting of trees in copses of oak, ash, hazel (to be coppiced) and birch will provide habitat for birds, insects and small mammals. Nest boxes for birds, dormice and butterflies will be placed in these trees and hedgerow shrubs; one or two log piles and wood stacks will add more habitat for insects and the like. We hope our local school will be involved in supplying and maintaining “insect hotels”.

Access will be from the north-west, where there will be a gate from the car park onto the footpath that already runs from Western Way to the cemetery; and we are considering a second gate on the southern side, where Pooles Lane turns into the footpath towards Ammerham.

While we hope that some of the cost will come out of the grant (should we get it, that is) we are also hoping for volunteer labour once we get started – this might be summer 2021.