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Gritting Update – Fri 1 Dec

Tonight it was Dom and Matt who teamed up to grit the hill for us so our grateful thanks to them for doing so. Another member of the team tested the hill for us this morning – at 05.15 and told the rest of us at 05.23! He said it was fine so I didn’t update everyone.

However, we are seriously short of people who have a vehicle with a tow bar. People aren’t always available to go out – work, family commitments or illness – please consider offering to help to keep the hill safe to use. You never go out on your own, there’s always a helper.
We’re meeting up at Seven Acre Farm on Sunday Dec 10th at 11am for a recap and training session, do come and see if you could join us. Anne Mayes

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Gritting Update – Thurs 30 Nov

 We are extremely grateful to Andy B and Joe – again – who braved the hill tonight to grit it. Those of us who either got up or tried to this pm will know how tricky it was. I left a meeting in Exeter two hours early just after 3pm – as usual much to the amusement of others who could see no reason to do so.
Despite all the grit Andy and Joe have spread, any more snow or run off may well leave icy patches, so please take care.
However, we are seriously short of people who have a vehicle with a tow bar. People aren’t always available to go out – work, family commitments or illness – please consider offering to help to keep the hill safe to use. You never go out on your own, there’s always a helper.
We’re meeting up at Seven Acre Farm on Sunday Dec 10th at 11am for a recap and training session, do come and see if you could join us. Anne Mayes

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Wildlife Warden Update

December’s wildlife challenge – let the ivy grow

Playing second fiddle to holly in the famous Christmas carol and often maligned for causing damage to trees, ivy should not be underestimated in terms of its importance for wildlife.  Though ivy can undermine a damaged tree, it should not cause an issue for a healthy one where it grows up and alongside it with the ivy’s roots in the soil.  The ivy clings to the tree reaching to the light so that it can flower.  The flowers and berries come at a vital time for insects and birds as they are available later than many others, so bridge the hunger gap.

Ivy flowers in autumn after many blooms are on the way out and on a bright day can be abuzz with bees, flies, wasps, hoverflies and late butterflies.  The berries that start forming before Christmas are ready to eat in January/ February and are a highly nutritious calorie packed meal at exactly the right time in the year when they are needed by birds and small mammals.  Blackbirds, blackcaps, thrushes and redwings will all flock to feast on bountiful ivy.  Other than that, has it any benefits?  Yes, many!  A dense thicket provides great nesting opportunity for birds and also hibernating habitat for insects.  Many caterpillars will eat the plant, including those of the holly blue butterfly and yellow-barred brindle moths.

I hope this convinces you of the qualities of ivy and this month’s challenge is if you see it in a tree or a hedge to let it grow, allowing it to provide all these benefits, or if you are looking for a climber in your garden consider planting some.  It is also, to my mind, a beautiful plant – if you have a lot of it, maybe celebrate it this Christmas by making a wreath out of some strands of it, possibly incorporating it into a Christmas wreath for the birds.

Tree hub- free trees available!

February’s challenge was to plant a tree.  We are now at a good time of year for planting trees again so if you have a little bit of space in your garden, or know someone who does and would like one, why not consider planting a tree that can provide pollen and a food source for years to come.  I am pleased to say that we will be running a tree hub on 20th January in the Woodland Park where we will be giving out free broadleaf tree whips. This is part of the Devon Wildlife Trust Saving Devon’s Treescapes scheme and thank you to David Price and The Bridford Trust for agreeing for us to run this from the Woodland Park.  There will be further details in January’s Unity.

wildlifewarden@bridfordvillage.co.uk

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Gritting Update – Wed 29 Nov

 Winter has arrived and two of our volunteers went out tonight to grit the hill. Our thanks to Joe and Andy H who braved the cold to do this for us. However, we are seriously short of people who have a vehicle with a tow bar. People aren’t always available to go out – work, family commitments or illness – please consider offering to help to keep the hill safe to use. You never go out on your own, there’s always a helper.
We’re meeting up at Seven Acre Farm on Sunday Dec 10th at 11am for a recap and training session, do come and see if you could join us.Anne Mayes

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Cheriton Bishop & Teign Valley Patient Group

YOUR PATIENT GROUP – GET INVOLVED!

The Patient Group (PG) provides a facility for two way communication between the practice and registered patients. The group can provide feedback to the practice on patient’s needs, concerns and suggestions, and can also constructively challenge how our healthcare is delivered. The group can also develop projects and events to promote good health and lifestyle practice and awareness.

The PG comprises volunteers registered with the practice and members of the professional team. It works very closely with the practice, but is an independent group. We meet 3 to 4 times a year and occasionally more frequently when projects are in progress. The group endeavours to have a membership which represents the population covered by the practice, both demographically and geographically.

The group has been running since 2011, but since the Covid lockdown of 2020 has not been active. We now wish to re-energise and restart the group, and we are looking for new group members. If you wish to be involved, contact Steve Colderick at colderick@btinternet.com to register your interest. Please tell us a little bit about yourself, and any particular areas of interest or skills (but these are not essential, a commitment to active involvement in the group is more important!). Responses by Friday 24th November, and we will contact respondees in early December.

 

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Bridford Parish Council Agenda November 2023

The Parish Council meeting is on Monday 13th November at 7pm in the Village Hall. The agenda includes

  1. Co-option to Council
  2. Public discussion
  3. Apologies for absence
  4. Declarations of interest
  5. District and councillors reports
  6. Chaiman’s report
  7. Minutes
  8. Village hall
  9. Planning
  10. Finance
  11. Budget
  12. Gritter volunteers
  13. Twinning road signage
  14. Policies
  15. Replacement clerk
  16. Clerks report

 

November agenda 2023

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Wildlife Warden Update – November

November’s wildlife challenge – provide a highway and home for a hedgehog

We are pleased to report a few sightings or signs of hedgehogs in the area. These prickly little animals are under threat in the UK where there are thought to be fewer than 1 million left, so it is great that some of them are still snuffling around the parish.  Gardens, hedgerows, woodlands, grasslands, parks and cemeteries are all good habitats for hedgehogs.   As with many birds and wild animals they can fall victim to a ‘tidying up’ of gardens and the countryside, where there is not enough connected rough grassland, bushy hedgerows and sheltering woodland and scrub for them to live in.  It is vital that these areas are connected as an adult hedgehog can travel between 1 and 2 km per night, with home ranges as large as 20 hectares.  There are a number of ways you can help them:

  • Do not use pesticides in your garden, including slug pellets. Slugs are a vital part of the hedgehog diet so they need plenty of them to stay healthy. Have a hedgehog in your garden and it will help you keep down the slugs naturally.
  • Have you got a fence separating you and your neighbours? Why not make a hole in the fence (13cm x 13cm), or dig a channel beneath it, so that visiting hedgehogs can move through an area without having to go on to roads.
  • Leave a pile of logs and leaves as hedgehogs will use them to nest in with their young and to hibernate in. You could go one step further and build a hedgehog home – see the advice on doing this at building a hedgehog home. 
  • Check an area before mowing/ strimming or burning a bonfire to make sure there are no sleeping hedgehogs in the area.
  • And lastly, create an environment in your garden that attracts the invertebrates that the hedgehog eats, whether this is through planting, leaving some long grass and leaves or making a small pond. Embrace a little natural ‘mess’.

We hope that by taking these actions together we might create an area in which hedgehogs can thrive.  Please do let us know if you see a hedgehog near you.

Hedges

Hedges are now coming into fruit, creating a winter larder of berries for birds and wild animals.  If you have a hedge in your garden or bordering it (if it doesn’t impact road access/ visibility) please consider cutting this back on a 2 or 3 year rotation, targeting different sections each year. The flower buds and fruit often form only on second year growth so by rotating the cycle and leaving some untouched for a year or two you can ensure this vital winter bounty is available.  According to the Wildlife Trusts, hedges cut every three years can produce two and a half times as much blossom and fruit as those cut annually.

wildlifewarden@bridfordvillage.co.uk

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Roadworks Wednesday 11th-13th October Affecting 360 Bus

The roadworks on the valley road between Wednesday 11th and Friday 13th October will affect the 360 bus in the village.

Country Bus have advised that the first two buses of the day (07:15 and 09:25) will run from Bridford. And the last two buses from Exeter – Sidwell St (16:15 and 17:55) will also run to Bridford. However, the two buses in the middle of the day will terminate at Teign House.

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Wildlife Warden Update – October

October’s Wildlife Challenge

Put up a nest box for house martins and swallows

Did you see many house martins and swallows up around Bridford this year? These migratory birds travel from Africa to breed in the UK every year, arriving around March/ April and staying until September/ October.  British swallows spend their winter in South Africa, travelling up across the Sahara, through Morocco and then into Europe across the Pyrenees and up through France.  Surprisingly it is not known for certain where house martins over winter, but it is thought that they might spend it flying over the equatorial forest canopy catching tropical insects.  The journey that both species make to and from the UK is fraught with peril, where they are at threat from storms and starvation on the way.

Once in the UK, they need flying insects to feed on and a nest in which to bring up their young.  Sadly, they are struggling with both of these requirements. Changes in land management over the last 60 years have negatively affected the number of insects in the UK dramatically, this including changes to farming practices, use of pesticides, unsympathetic development of land, pollution of rivers and trends in gardening. Nesting sites have been affected by the way in which houses are built and renovations made and also by a changing climate;  the once predictable April showers that would produce muddy earth with which the birds could make their nests, are no longer so predictable.  There are a number of ways of helping provide more insects which I have been suggesting in these updates, including not using pesticides and embracing a wilder kind of gardening.  Another way of helping the birds though, is by providing a nest and that is this month’s challenge.

Swallows like outbuildings that they can easily access – have you got an open shed, or one that you could put a small hole in (50mm high and 200 mm wide) under the eaves?  If so, you could make a platform from four flat pieces of wood and they will then use this as the basis of their nest. House martins make their nests under the eaves of buildings.  North and east facing walls are ideal and they need to be high enough that they can fly in and out comfortably.  You can buy a nest cup for both breeds that can be placed in the correct area or also there is advice on the RSPB website about how to make these.

Are you living somewhere where there used to be a lot of nests and you would like to recreate these?  If so, please do let us know as we will be looking into funding for buying up some nest boxes.

We of course do not know if swallows and house martins will take up these boxes and it can take some years for the birds to come, however I think it is worth trying to help these vulnerable and hard working birds. We have also heard of a good number of nest boxes being taken up by house martins near to Bridford so we know it has been effective nearby. If the nest boxes are not taken up by these birds, there is also a good chance they make be taken up by sparrows, so helping another species that is currently listed as being in critical decline.

wildlifewarden@bridfordvillage.co.uk