Archived decisions

Hampshire County Council

Yateley Common Management Committee Item 6

17 February 2004

Yateley Common Country Park - Site Manager's Report November 2003 to January 2004

Contact : Andy Davidson ( 01252 ) 870425

1. Introduction

2. Travellers

2.1. The travellers finally left the site off Vigo Lane in October 2003. 80 hours of staff time was taken up dealing with this incident and the total cost of clearing up, including staff time, skips, repair of banks and contractors was £8720. This cost, apart from site staff time, was born by the Countryside Service rather than by the Yateley Common site budget.

2.2. In December a party of travellers moved onto a grass verge adjacent to Blackbushe Business Park. It was established that the land they occupied does not form part of the Country Park. Some of the rubbish deposited here however, does lie on land which forms part of the Country Park. This will be cleared in the near future.

3. Fly-tipping

3.1. Several incidents of fly-tipping have occurred. In the main this has been in the Heathlands Cemetery car park and Strood's Pool outer car park.

4. Flooding at the Pinch Point

4.1. A meeting was held with Cllr Collett and Philip Samms of the Highways Department concerning drainage problems following repair works to the A30 near the pinch point. Mr Samms offered to restore blocked drainage ditches in order to try to alleviate some of the problems in this area.

5. Motorcycles

5.1. There seems to have been an increase in the motorbike activity on the West End, particularly on the grassy strips. This has resulted in significant damage to this area. On the weekend of 24^th/25^th January over seven motorbikes and two quad-bikes were active on the site. When approached one motorcyclist said that he thought they were allowed on the site and "the Police never kick them off". We will endeavour to increase the patrolling on this area and ensure that the new signage will make it clear that motorcycles are not permitted.

6. Byelaws and Signage

6.1. We now have some prints of the byelaws. The posting of these will start with the new signs which we intend to start placing on site. We have identified 19 sites for the Yateley Common "D" boards in various forms and we expect to use these for posting the byelaws. Meetings have also been held with Sue Tinkler of the Corporate Graphics Team and an illustrator in order to design the map-board. We have identified four sites where we wish to place these, namely the A30 Pond, Strood's Pool car park, Wyndham's Pool and by the airport terminal building.

7. Rights-of-Way Review

7.1. There has been an extensive consultation on the proposed diversion of a number of bridleways on the common, east of Cricket Hill. Account has already been taken of some of the comments made (for example, it is now proposed to extinguish the bridleway at the rear of the properties in Brandy Bottom) but some of the concerns raised in the consultation exercise are still being addressed.

7.2. The next stage will be to take the final proposals to the Regulatory Committee of Hampshire County Council, in its capacity as Highway Authority. This committee will decide whether or not to make the orders diverting and/or extinguishing the paths. It is unlikely that the Committee will consider the matter before 31 March 2004.

7.3. Assuming that the orders are made, there will be a further opportunity for people to object to the proposals before they become final. If necessary, these objections will be resolved by the holding of a public inquiry.

7.4. However, it is hoped that, by accommodating objections where possible at this, the consultation, stage there will be fewer if any, objections to the final order.

8. Blackbushe Airport

8.1. Following the series of fires during the summer, we were approached by Blackbushe Airport requesting that we cut a 20 metre firebreak between the A30 and the end of the runway. I would be willing to keep the area immediately adjacent to the terminal building clear but believe that a 20 metre firebreak would be excessive. Legal advice is being sought before responding to this request.

9. School Visits

9.1. A summary of use of the Common by schools and other organisations is displayed below.

Year	2000	2001	2002	2003
Schools	7	2	7	12
Other Organisations	1	1	2	8
Students Visiting Common	455	135	323	297
Students Attending Slide Talks/ School Visits	190	0	164	331
Children Attending Summer Events	0	16	100	68

9.2. The increase in numbers of schools using our facilities is very much down to staff conducting school visits during and after Hampshire Wood Week.

9.3. The decrease in numbers attending the summer activities may be in part due to the wet weather during the summer holidays.

9.4. The Site Ranger, Vicky Booth, took part in a Family Learning Day at Frogmore College. Here among other activities, families worked together to build bird boxes. Thirty bird boxes were built and I understand that more could have been built had the materials have been available on the day.

9. Volunteers

10.1. The number of volunteers working on Yateley Common has increased. Alongside of the extremely valuable, long term arrangement with the Yateley Society, we have recently started working with Bracknell Conservation Volunteers and Berkshire Conservation Volunteers.

10.2. These have helped, along with site staff and contractors, to clear part of the scrub we are committed to fell under "Tomorrows Heathland Heritage". We have approximately 1 hectare of the 4 hectares of mixed dense and scattered scrub left to clear.

10. Dendro-dating Oaks at Old Ely

10.1. Several oaks were core-sampled around the Old Ely as part of the Yateley Ancient Oaks Initiative. The specialist taking the core samples commented that the Yews in this same area could be up to 200 years old.

11. Archaeology on Yateley Common

11.1. Carol White, the archaeologist who conducted the successful work on Yateley Common, is seeking to carry out further work in 2004.

12. Fishing on Yateley Common

12.1. Following ongoing problems with fishing in ponds other than Wyndham's Pool, we intend to get the A30 Pond and the Hospital Pond electro-fished. This will have the dual effect by reducing the fish stocks of increasing the invertebrate population of the ponds and making them less attractive to anglers. Permission is being sought from English Nature.

13. Request for Memorial

13.1. I have received a request for a tree to be planted near Wyndham's Pool in memory of gentleman who died last year. He had moved to the area over 30 years ago and regularly walked on the common.

13.2. In past decades a few trees have been planted in memorial of various individuals. These have often been of non-native species, the planting of which would be incompatible with the management of the Common today. In addition memorial plaques have unfortunately been subject to vandalism in the past. This is both upsetting for any relatives and detracts from the appeal of the site. Also we have to be sure that we do not set a precedent, which results in an increase in the number of such requests, as we would certainly not be able to accommodate them all.

13.3. Under the circumstances, should the request be acceptable, a sapling of English Oak Quercus robur could be placed on or around the grassy area above Wyndham's Pool. This would be without any accompanying plaque, allowing it to blend into the surrounding woodland.

RECOMMENDATION

That,

(i) the report be noted

(ii) the planting of a sapling English Oak Quercus roburas set out in the report, be approved.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excluded :

1. Published works.

2. documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

None

4cR020104

Appendix

Spring work programme 2003

This programme is set out against the long term management objectives in the Yateley Common Country Park Executive Management Plan.

Encroachments

Land outside Heath End, Flats Road will be restored once the planning issues have been resolved.

Other opportunities to address encroachments will be taken as and when they arise.

Protect site from development pressures on adjacent land

Ongoing monitoring of planning applications and responding to the appropriate authorities when necessary

Minimise illegal activities

Signage to be erected including byelaws

Review Rights of Way Network

The process of resolving these issues is ongoing.

Manage paths

Work will be carried out to manage paths and bridleways

Provide education service

All requests for educational visits will be accommodated where staff time allows.

School packs to be revised and distributed to school. Summer activities will be planned. Involvement in the Yateley May Fair.

Remove eyesores

Rubbish from recent traveller encampment is to be removed.

Protect archaeological features

Liaise with County Archaeologist and Carol White in preparation for proposed investigation spring/summer 2004

Create/maintain populations of important species

No activities proposed in this period

Restore heathland from scrub and secondary woodland

THH work to be completed

Remove low quality woodland and scrub habitats on the west end of the Common