Grove Wood campaign nominated for an award

The campaign to save Grove Wood has been nominated for the VOSCUR Community Campaign for 2009. Five diverse and excellent campaigns from across the city have been nominated, so just being nominated is a real bonus for us.

Sadly, we only found out we had been nominated very recently, so we are not sure how many votes we will have picked up. Anyway, it doesn't matter as we aren't campaigning to win awards, all we care about is saving our lovely wood and getting it in to safe ownership.

Find out more about the awards here: http://www.voscur.org/brispartnership#voscurcampaigns

Grove Wood tree news

At last! Bristol City Council have issued a five day notice to enforce the clearance of the public footpath in Grove Wood and the pruning of the trees that overhang Blackberry Hill.

The five day notice can be viewed here:
http://e2eweb.bristol.gov.uk/PublicAccess/tdc/DcApplication/application_detailview.aspx?caseno=KJA04PDN00K00

Here's what it says: Blackberry Hill/Broom Hill: Tree pruning to provide adequate clearance for vehicles, pedestrians & cyclists using Blackberry Hill.
Grove Wood Public of Way 153: Clearance of fallen trees to free access of public right of way. Covered by Tree Preservation Order No. 1092. (5 Day Notice)

Snuff Mills Action Group has been consulted on the proposal and we agree with the amount of work proposed with a few refinements.

We would like the clearance of the footpath in Grove Wood done with extreme sensitivity to avoid any disturbance of protected kingfishers, otters and bats. We are asking for all logs to be stacked well away from the river and for an ecologist to be on site at all times to ensure the work is done properly.

We have also called for one lime tree on Blackberry Hill to be less severely pruned than proposed and for a couple of elms to also be pruned a little less harshly.

We are confident that with these adaptations the footpath can be cleared and the wonderful trees along Blackberry Hill pruned sensitively without damage to their great beauty.

The five day notice system means that the landowner will be required to undertake this work and if he does not do it within a reasonable time the Council will go and do it for him - and charge him for doing it. Snuff Mills Action Group would like to congratulate Bristol City Council on its much more enlightened attitude to the issues surrounding Grove Wood. Long may it continue.

Garden renovations begin

On Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May over twenty people helped with the replanting of some of the top beds of the garden with new plants to try to brighten it up a bit.

We planted a huge range of summer flowering plants that we hope will really make the garden a cheerful place to visit and enjoy. It will take a while for the new plants to establish, so please help this happen by keeping dogs off the garden and encouraging other dog owners to be equally responsible.

The next stage will be to clear the long top bed and for the Council to help us by removing the invasive plants in the big bed with the cherry tree growing in it. Once all this is done, we will replant these areas in June.

The renovations have been made possible thanks to a grant from the Co-op and money from Bristol City Council and now an additional cheque from John Lewis that arrived this week too. Thank you.