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Ford Ecotown

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Walberton Action Group

Tuesday 18 November 2008, 7.30 at Walberton village Hall

Present: Chairman Peter Brown, and 39 people who signed the attendance list, including committee members Emma and Mike Tristram, Peter Hatley, John Heathcote, Vince Cooper, Christine Llewellyn, Geoff Alder, Stephen Sibbald, Wendy and Newton Coen and John Bushrod.    Email addresses were recorded for almost everybody by GA (ET will digitize).  Apologies were received from Alan and Val Allison, John and Ros Kilford, Ciaran Hyde and Gaye Reynolds.

1.   Peter Brown welcomed all and explained that membership of WAG was open to everyone living in the parish of Walberton.   For insurance purposes we need a ‘list of members’ and this included all who were present and had signed the attendance list, plus past attendees and the members of the committee.   The subscription was entirely voluntary – he suggested £5 per individual membership if £10 per household, per year, and asked those who could to take a form and pay by direct debit.

He then read out the aims of WAG which are:

a)      To defend, care for and enhance the natural environment of Walberton

b)      To find ways of improving the quality of life for local people within the Parish of
    Walberton

c)      To encourage the conservation of the best of the built environment

d)      To support a sustainable community.

2.   The minutes of last years AGM were approved.

3.   Peter Brown summarised the Annual Report which had been circulated.   Further reports were given as follows.

- The proposed Ford Ecotown: Peter Hatley gave the latest news on this plan which had been proposed in March by two groups (Ford Airfield Vision Group and Ford Enterprise Hub).   There was a big groundswell of local opposition organised by CAFÉ (Communities Against Ford Ecotown).   In June there was a rally and march in Yapton against the plan.   CAFÉ sent in its major submission against the plan by 30 June which was the deadline given.   They were supported by WAG and the Parish Council.   Both had given money; WAG gave £200 for which CAFÉ were very grateful.   In August the Housing Minister, Caroline Flint, had visited, CAFÉ had sent a deputation to a demonstration at the Houses of Parliament, and a petition of 10,000 signatures was presented to the DCLG (the relevant government department).   She had now been replaced by Margaret Beckett.    In September the developers put forward a revised proposal to take account of new planning guidance.   A new submission by CAFÉ was needed, with a new deadline of January 09.

DCLG will be presenting road shows on 26 November at West Green car park, Littlehampton (by the Windmill Theatre, 10 am to 7 pm), and on 27 November at Yapton Village Hall from 10 till 6.    It is important to make our opposition known at these, also to go on the government websites and object.   One of these is www.direct.gov.uk/en/campaigns/ecotowns.   Details can be found on www.nofordecotown.com.   

- The Parish Landscape Project.    Peter Brown reported that all the new plantings of hedges and trees in this project, which lasted from 2003 to 2005 and gained £30,000 of funding from the Landfill Tax scheme, were doing well and had been maintained as planned.

- The proposed South Downs National Park.    Emma Tristram reported that after two public inquiries, this plan now awaited the Inspector’s second report and the Minister’s final decision.   The Inspector’s report on the first public inquiry had put forward several additions and deletions to the first boundary proposed by the Countryside Commission.   The second inquiry was mainly to hear representations about these, especially his controversial deletion of the Western Weald and several large towns.   One addition he had proposed was at Binsted, where his addition (which was supported by Friends of Binsted Church, CPRE, WAG, the South Downs Campaign and other bodies) would mean that all past proposed routes for the Arundel Bypass would be within the National Park – good news for us as it makes a Bypass through Binsted less likely.

- Walberton Place gates.   Funding had been sought for three years for this restoration work – mending and rehanging the 19^th-century metal gates at the Yapton Lane entrance to Walberton Place nursing home, realigning the roadway to make it safer, and preserving the gate piers with their historic graffiti by American soldiers in WW2.   Southern Cross, the new owners of the nursing home, have offered to pay for the project at a cost of about £20,000, but were not able to proceed with the plan for the present.

- Trees.   John Heathcote reported that a lot of trees had been planted but there was still scope for planting more.   Suggestions from landowners would be welcome.   Bob Davies had offered young walnut trees if anyone wanted one.   Some large trees had been cut down in Copse Lane.  

4.   Treasurer’s report.   Geoff Alder reported that WAG had begun the year with just under £937.55.   He thanked the Parish Council for their grant of £300.   Maintenance of the Landscape Project plantings by Pro-Forest had cost £520.   £300 had been given to CAFÉ for the anti-Ecotown campaign.   Insurance had cost £190.62, and there was now £288.08 left.    The accounts had been audited by Alan Crook.   They were agreed unanimously and adopted by those present.

5.   Election of Committee.   The present committee members were re-elected en bloc with the exception of Jan Wood, who has decided to stand down.

6.   The Bird Survey: report by David Hart.

Peter Brown thanked the over 40 volunteers who performed the survey in 20 different areas of the parish in the first few months of 2008, also the landowners who allowed access, and David Hart who organised it.   David then gave a detailed talk on the results of the survey.   By far the most important statistic, he said, was: ‘No less than seventeen red listed birds (high conservation concern), and eighteen amber listed birds (medium conservation concern) were found.’   For details of these see his survey, which will be added to these minutes as an attachment. 

    He concluded: ‘Only four species were recorded in all nineteen areas (blackbird, blue tit, magpie and robin) …  which follows the consensus of opinion of recent surveys carried out by the RSPB and the BTO that numbers of some song birds continue to decline.   Also noticeably down were swifts, swallows and martins.   On a more positive note yellow hammers, house sparrows, linnet, song thrush, mistle thrush, skylark and starlings were seen in higher than usual numbers along with sightings of some interesting migrants and the recording of four special species, so it is not all bad news.’   The four special species were lapwings, snipe, tree sparrows, barn owls - and one wryneck, unfortunately killed by a car.

     A map has been produced by the RSPB showing red and amber list species that were seen, and where they were seen in the parish.   This will be sent to all volunteers.

     David showed slides of many of these birds and was thanked for a very interesting talk and for organising a very successful project.   He also thanked his helpers, Mandy and Heather, for helping with the work of going through the survey forms.

Talk by Bill Forse

This was the end of the formal business.   A talk was then given by Bill Forse, the tenant farmer at Pigeon House Farm who also farms land in Barnham, on farming, conservation and public access.

     Bill Forse has worked as a vet and also as a writer – he wrote a book ‘Where there is no vet’, which has been translated into several languages.   His grandfather bought the farm in Barnham and it was used for breeding redpoll cattle and as a dairy farm.  In the 1960s the tenancy of Pigeon House Farm was added and the land used for young stock.   Dairy farming cased in 1997 and the herd was sold.    The land was used to grow sugar beet and maize.   There is now crop rotation between wheat, peas, and oil seed rape, with very few livestock.   There are some patches of grassland, so there are livestock there.

     He sees the future of farming as including care for the environment, recreation, and human access.   The EU agricultural policies now support this.   The post war ‘Treaty of Rome’, meant to deal with food shortages, led to butter and grain ‘mountains’ and some anti-farming feeling.   Now the aims are ‘structural readjustment for social purposes and the environment’.   The Environmental Stewardship Scheme has two levels.   The land at Barnham is at sea level, with lots of wetland, and is suitable for the higher level scheme.   He has also put together a scheme for the Walberton land by increasing public access and encouraging bird life and wild flowers.   He showed slides of some of the flowers – fumitory, scabious.   The land made use of 26 of the EU ‘options’, including wood edges, paths, grass, and mown crop.

     In 2012 the Common Agricultural Policy is to end.   It is hoped that there will be more help for the environment and for structural and social support.

     Bill was thanked for a very interesting talk and for creating the new footpaths.   Peter Brown pointed out that it was unusual to have so much public access.