Berwick Wildlife Group

1. Interpretation Panels. FA reported that AONB had agreed funding of 75%. The remainder to be raised in small amounts locally.

2. Bird Counts. JR suggested organising available data back to year 2000, and obtaining data for five-yearly intervals before that from BTO. Agreed.

3. Beach Cleaning. A letter had been received from the British Canoe Union encouraging groups to adopt a stretch of beach to clean at seasonal intervals, reports of findings to be sent to BCU. It was decided to look further into this with a view to BWG adopting Little Beach. A training day is to be held at Bamburgh Pavilion on 24th.Feb., JR offered to attend.

4. Exhibition. MH reported that groups of young people had produced project work based on environmental and wildlife themes studied in the area. An exhibition of the results is currently on display at Berwick Library, and is well worth a visit.

5. Reports on the Future of Berwick. There appears to be a proliferation of reports and surveys currently in circulation, often contradictory and inaccurate.

‘The Vision’/’The Future’ (Phase 1) and ‘History Matters’ which reports separately on Berwick, Tweedmouth and Spittal, will eventually feed into the ‘Core Strategy’/’Emphasis and Momentum’ which is a statutory document. Beyond brief comments on the value of landscape to the future of the area, there were no positive statements on wildlife or the natural environment in the Vision document. The Core Strategy included several references to statutory wildlife sites and biodiversity but the importance of the Estuary and of smaller wildlife sites was not well covered.

Members had read the documents, and some had already attended related workshops. MH and LC had each produced wildlife reports based mainly on their own areas of expertise, and they presented them to the committee. Both were declared to be excellent. FA and JR are to read in detail the reports produced by the consultants and extract relevant points for further discussion. All members comments are to be collated to produce a document which will form BWG’s response, which will be sent to Shona Alexander and Peter Rutherford of BBC, and to Karen Renton who represents the consultants.

Shona Alexander, who has failed to respond to EB’s e-mails, is to be asked to meet with BWG for discussions.

Ross Weddel visited MH and is keen that wildlife people be involved in planning issues. He would also like a tree survey conducted in the town, and the committee felt that this was a possibility for group activity in the summer.

Next Meeting: Thursday 1st. February, 7.00pm Castle Hotel, which will be an extra meeting to collate member’s feedback from the consultation documents.