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Projects 2010
2009
2008
Working sessions
We are organising monthly working sessions, normally on the 2nd Saturday of the month (except December), from 9.00 until 12:00 hrs.
REMAINING DATES FOR 2010:
None.
We are looking for volunteers to organise each weekend, so please contact Stewart Scott on 01235 868503 or via the contact form.
Saturday 13th November
We worked along the bank of Letcombe brook on the stretch owned by Sovererign Vale, behind the garages at Brookside in East Hanney. Ian, David, Paul, David and Stewart spent the morning collecting up rubbish and amazingly we filled a small skip with parts from a washing machine, remains of a spring mattress, fire extinguisher, corrugated iron, a large bent crow bar, part of a car steering rack, concrete fence post, some concrete cement bags and the usual collection of bottles and cans. A lot of woody material was also collected up ready for shredding and taking away. A very successful session, thanks to everyone.
Saturday 16th October
We had blue sky and sunshine again for our working session. As well as removing some of the very dense clumps of weed from the middle of the stream we collected a toy boat, a galvanised bucket and a good collection of bottles and cans. We also removed a few concrete slabs that may have been part of the old swimming area. We had a good look for Water Vole habitats before we started but could not see anything.
Saturday 25th September
We enjoyed a day of blue sky and sunshine for our working session. The format was different as we were joined for the day by a team from the Thames Valley Probation Community Pay back Service. We worked in two shifts from 9:00 until 12:00 and then from 1pm to 4pm starting at the British Legion and then working down stream to just beyond the iron bridge. As well as the usual weed management we collected a car tyre, 33 cans and 15 glass bottles and assorted sheets of corrugated steel. A camera crew from the Environment Agency took some video and did some interviewing. A big thanks to Alan for making the arrangements with the Thames Valley Probation Service and thanks to the supervisor Deborah, the probation team of David, Sid, John, Tom and Uzykhan and of course our team of Iain, Ian, Patrick, Gez, Max, Hugo, Dee, David, Phillipa, Clive and Stewart.
We are hoping to set up another session with the Community Pay back service next month, before the water gets too cold.
Saturday 21st August
Thanks to the team of Alan, Paul, Dee, David, Ian, David, Bob and Stewart we cleared a number of fallen tree branches and blockages on the Childrey brook at West Hanney. This was the last stretch of the brook between Botney bridge and Gallows bridge that had not been done.
Saturday 10th July
Thanks to everyone who helped; we had an excellent turn out. We removed a significant quantity of Himilayan Balsam from the bank and thinned out some of the dense patches of weed upstream of Lower Mill.
In addition we collected 31 beer/cider/coke cans, 4 glass bottles and 5 plastic bottles plus other assorted junk including an empty 10 litre paint tin, a plastic watering can and a plastic mole!
We also tried out the boat which we used to collect the weed. Thanks to Keith for the photos and to Paul and David for towing the trailer.
[View photo]
Wednesday 16th June, for two weeks - wild flower planting
Thanks to everyone who came and lent a hand removing the nettles and Himalayan Balsam along the bank by the iron bridge. We have now planted about 100 wild flowers consisting of Greater Burnett, Hemp Agrimony, Marsh Marigold, Meadow sweet, Valerian, Purple loosestrife and Fleabane. It was a team effort, but special thanks to Phillipa Manvell who did almost every evening session.
Saturday 12th June
Thanks to the team of Carleen, Steve, David, Ian, Clive, Paul, Micheal, Philippa, Meurig, Jackie, Peter and Stewart. We did some weed management from the iron bridge down stream and the water level dropped from 1ft 11inches to 1 ft 5 inches in those few hours! Carleen did a great job collecting up rubbish and along with some carpet, chicken wire and paving slabs we must have collected about 100 beer cans. We finished slightly early so we could visit the community plan event in the War Memorial Hall.
A special thanks to David for towing the trailer to the village hall carpark.
Saturday 8th May
The team of Ian Green, Peter Mace, Meurig and Jackie Williams, Paul Dyer,Alan Miles, Keith Diment, Iain Bateman and Bob Wilson managed to perform
selective weed clearance on a stretch of Letcombe Brook from Lower Mill to just downstream of Iron Bridge. The amount of weed growth over the past few
weeks has been significant and although Saturday's efforts are plain to see, there is still some way to go in order to keep the situation "in check". Next
month we will therefore continue with this work.
Saturday 10th April
The April working group successfully tackled the urgent removal of a large tree that had very recently fallen right across the brook just downstream of Lower Mill.
Another significant task completed was selective removal of weed from the Iron Bridge upstream to the area at the back of Brookside garages.
As a pair of swans were resident downstream of the Iron Bridge, we did not remove stinging nettles from that area as originally planned.
Many thanks to the team of Philippa and Clive Manvell, Hugo Shelton, Phil Moyes, Paul Dyer, Ian Green, Paul Sayers, Patrick Karney and Alan Miles.
Saturday 13th March
We had a very successful morning. Alan led a team over to Mrs Thompson's and sorted her ditch out and we had a look at the storm water drainage from the Hanney War Memorial Hall.
We found that the storm water from the hall and the roads around Brookside discharges into the stream via a sump located behind the garages. We found that this sump was completely silted up and prevented any flow. Thanks to a team effort and the very helpful neighbour who supplied a pump and electricity we were able to clear the blockage.
Thanks to everyone who came along, a great team effort.
Saturday 13th February
We completed the maintenance of the Childrey Brook at West Hanney. We have now completed the removal of blockages all the way from Botney Bridge to Gallows Bridge. A big thanks to todays team of Clive, Dave, Richard, Ian, Simon, James, Steve, David and Stewart.
We hope that this will reduce the frequency of flooding of the road at Botney Bridge. But if you do see any problems at Botney Bridge in the future please let us know.
Saturday 2nd January
We returned to Childrey brook in West Hanney to collect up and burn some of the tree branches we removed from the brook over the last few sessions.
A big thanks to Simon, James, Tim, Mark, Philip, Geoff, Max, Alan, Stewart and Paul who helped burn up a huge pile of dead fallen tree branches. This has now cleared a large blockage that prevented access to the copse by the brook. We were fortunate to have a cold but dry day with bright sunshine and the ground was dry even after all the recent rain.
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