Minutes:
Wyre Borough Council
Alison Boden, Wyre Borough Council provided an update on the planned programme for Festival Bowland, conservation activity and access works. The Star Gazing event was very successful with over 30 people attending in February. Following the commencement of lockdown, events had to be postponed including the Garstang Walking Festival. From August, all activities that have been run are following the rule of six people, including the health walks. These walks have been welcomed, particularly with those people who feel isolated. Volunteering also had to stop due to COVID-19 and was able to restart it mid-July (again to the rule of six) and work continued with the River Wyre Catchment Partnership on flood management.
Work is also continuing on access improvements on the Wyre Way Upper Catchment and redoing the way marking. It was noted that all contacts with the Rangers and Countryside Services are booked in and registered for Track and Trace and everything is fully planned in advance.
The Ranger Service has also carried out a food hub delivery service and continues to provide this service throughout the Borough including Scorton and Bleasdale and volunteers also helped provide this service as well. Signs and notices were also erected in response to the guidance given by Government and the Service responded to people's non-compliance and members of the public's concerns.
The biggest impact has been the Staycation which has had an increase on visitors to the sites and litter has caused issues and has been removed by staff, volunteers and the Local Authorities as well as other issues, ie fires and people getting lost.
Planning work continues for activities going forward into 2021/2022 in whatever format that may be due to the ongoing pandemic and understanding the limitations and learning from each other about good practice. A huge thank you was noted to the Forest of Bowland Team for their Zoom sessions and delivering great activities.
North Yorkshire County Council
Hugh Clear Hill from North Yorkshire County Council updated the Committee on the Local Government Reorganisation that was taking place in North Yorkshire and that the formal invitation had now been issued by the Secretary of State to the Local Authorities to put forward proposals for a change to Unitary status. There are two models, the County Council's preferred model is the single unitary and the districts are proposing an East/West split. The change could potentially be in place in April 2022. It was noted that the White Paper had been delayed.
RSPB
Jeremy Sutton from RSPB gave an update on Hen Harriers in Bowland. There were eight nests in Bowland this year, seven on the United Utilities Estate and one on the Duchy Estate. Five of the nests in Bowland were successful and produced only six chicks, which possibly was due to the inclement weather at the end of May/early June. A grant application had been submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a Green Recovery Grant for capital works for Curlew in Bowland. If successful it will be a joint project working with the Rivers Trust and the AONB to try and deliver this for Curlew, where farmers and landowners are not in existing Defra schemes.
United Utilities
Matt Upton, United Utilities, gave an update on the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) and is currently working through the programme for this year and up to 2025 on the scheme. It involves a number of objectives including blanket bog restoration work, vegetation management framework and prioritising restoration projects. There are a number of farms on the United Utilities Estate that will be identified to undertake investigations and field surveys which will be carried out before the end of March 2021.
At Fell Wood, Barley, United Utilities need to look at felling the wood and plans need to be drawn up to carry this out. Access and surveys are currently underway to support planning and this is an early indicator of the intentions to fell the wood and look at recreational areas to be put in place as well as replace a large area with native planting and improving biodiversity. Work will continue with stakeholders and the AONB to support those plans.
There has also been a marked increase in anti-social activities over the last six months and particularly throughout the lockdown period, and an increase in vandalism, fly tipping, littering and fires. It was noted however, that things had started to quieten now.
Work is continuing on the Pennine Peat Life Project and a lot of good work has been carried out, however, it has been hampered quite significantly by poor weather and COVID-19, albeit good progress has been made. Materials have been flown in over the summer via helicopter. The latest update from the Project Officer is that they are now a third of the way across the site putting in stone, timber and peat dams primarily and also reprofiling a lot of the gullies and hag edges. There is still quite a significant amount of work to be done as well as a large part already having been completed.
Lancaster City Council
Richard Camp, Lancaster City Council informed the Committee that the Lancaster City Local Plan had undertaken a partial review in terms of climate change of the adopted plan and consultation is underway currently, finishing on 20 November 2020 and there may be plans/policies that overlap the AONB. A Green Infrastructure Strategy is also being developed and looking at how that links into biodiversity net gain and nature recovery networks.