… including a Brighling Follies walk

The High Weald AONB unit is running another walking festival following the success of last year’s one.  The full list of walks can be accessed here.

I note in particular that there is a “Brightling Follies” walk on Tuesday 17 September, starting at 10.00am from Darwell Hole car park. (Map ref: TQ 695 195).  Distance / duration: 7½ miles / 3½ to 4 hours.  Difficulty: Leisurely, Dogs on leads welcome, bring packed lunch if required, accompanied children (7+) welcome. 

Another one that appealed to me is “Orchards and Forest – spotting some rare trees” starting from John’s Cross (school) car park at 10:00 am on Sunday 15th September.

On Monday 19th August, starting at 6:00 pm in the Village Hall, there will be a special meeting of Brightling Parish Council, to consider planning application planning application RR/2019/1682/P (“Outline: To demolish Edlins Farm House and adjacent barn. Build a house on the existing foundations of the present residential part of the barn.”)

This will be the only item on the agenda.  Please note the earlier than usual start time.  Like all parish council meetings, this is open to the public, who are given an opportunity to speak.

We have to have a special meeting if we are to consider this planning application, because the next regular meeting is not until the end of September, which will be too late to comment.

tomorrow evening, 9th August BBC south east news from 6. 30 p.m. (probably nearer 6.45) an interview with Huw Merriman supporting our venture, and Geoffrey and Jane being interviewed.  Concentrate, because it will probably be only 2 minutes, so no time to top up that glass.

Our proposals to correct the naming of roads in Brightling were submitted to the Rother street naming officer (yes there is such a person) in June and are under consideration.

Among other things, this (if it goes through) will split the road currently known to Rother as Hollingrove Road into Hollingrove Hill and Hollingrove Lane. A recent study found that a house on a “Lane” is worth £33,000 more than a house on a “Road”, so that change alone has created at least half a million pounds of additional value (please do not write to point out the obvious logical flaw; clearly the whole calculation is rubbish!)

These changes – if they go through – are unlikely to change anyone’s address. Addresses are a matter for the Post Office and the basic entity being identified by an address is an individual property – a point of delivery for letters. Rother, on the other hand, are naming roads as a whole, not individual properties, for the purposes of maps, notices of road closure and so on. In fact, for most properties in Brightling the official Post Office address does not include the road name at all; they tend to be of the form “Dunroamin, Brightling, Robertsbridge TN32 5XX” – which is fine for the Post Office but not much help in actually finding the place unless you have one of those new-fangled satnav things, and not always even then. The two exceptions are the road from Rectory Hill down to Darwell Hole, which is known to the Post Office as Battle Road Brightling and to Rother as Cackle Street; and the B2096, which is known to the Post Office as Battle Road, Dallington (even the parts that are in Brightling) and to Rother as Battle Road.  Please note we have not proposed any changes to the naming of either of these roads, there being no obvious way to resolve the anomalies.

An important message from our Tree Warden

The small pastures of the High Weald AONB were once an integral part of its forest landscape providing habitat for the flowers and grasses that gave the area its unique character. These grassland habitats are also the main and, in some cases, the only food sources for many species of small mammal and insect.

Some of these plant and animal species’ names start ‘Common…’ but now the prefix seems odd because so many of them have become rare and endangered.

Most open pastureland in the AONB has been ‘improved’ for hay crops and grazing animals over the years by re-seeding, fertilisers and herbicides rendering it hostile to wild flowers and making our roadside verges the last vestiges of the High Weald grassland habitat.

If we aren’t to lose the plant and animal species that depend on natural grassland for their very existence, and the beauty of the High Weald’s wild flowers, we need to manage these increasingly rare resources more sympathetically than we have been doing so far.

In essence, except where roadside vegetation needs to be controlled for driver safety and pedestrian access, good management can be summed up in the phrase “Cut once (late-July through to September), clear cuttings”. This encapsulates the need to wait until wild flowers have set seed – but not delay which would allow a thatch of dead vegetation to build up – and to remove the cuttings to keep the fertility of the soil low.

Good management can save you money – a single cut is less expensive than multiple cuts (and releases less CO2 into the environment)!

There is an excellent (free) booklet available from Plantlife called The Good Verge Guide that gives a great deal of sensible, interesting and valuable information and guidance. All landowners with a roadside boundary owe it to the beautiful landscape in which we all live to look through it and think about the best way to manage our parishes’ roadside verges. Let’s keep the ‘ONB’ in AONB!

https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/our-work/publications/good-verge-guide-different-approach-managing-our-waysides-and-verges

Doug Edworthy, our tree warden, writes:

What’s all the fuss about Ash Dieback? A few trees will lose their leaves and die, so what. Why should I worry?

Well, if you own land where Ash trees grow, and none of them pose a danger to public highways, rights of way or to buildings then you’re right – you have little need to worry. In fact when they die (and almost all of them certainly will over the next year or so) those standing, and eventually fallen, dead trees will be a valuable habitat and food source for the birds, small mammals, fungi and very importantly our increasingly rare saproxylic insects like Stag Beetles that depend on old, dead wood.

However, if any of your Ash trees are close to a road, public footpath, bridleway or building then the situation is very different. To avoid risks posed by falling trees or branches they will need to be pruned or felled and the resulting timber and brash managed appropriately – all at the landowner’s cost.

The advice I’ve been given by professional arborists is that very soon many Ash trees will become too brittle for an arborist to climb to reduce in size or fell the tree. Instead, other access methods will be needed such as the hire of mobile powered access platforms or ‘cherry pickers’ and operators.

For example: –

• [A] This year; Ash tree still safe to climb: Arborist at around £200-350/day and, if next to a road, the cost and inconvenience of organising traffic management with East Sussex Highways.
• [B] Next year; Ash tree unsafe to climb: Arborist at around £200-350/day, powered access platform at £250/week and £200 transportation costs, IPAF-certificated operator at £300/day and, if next to a road, the cost and inconvenience of organising traffic management with East Sussex Highways.

So what’s my best course of action?

• 1) Where a tree might pose a risk as it dies, this year get professional advice from an arboricultural expert who has Professional Indemnity Insurance and who is prepared to give their opinion, in writing, about the risks involved.
• 2) This year or early next year, for trees already posing an unacceptable risk, employ a reputable arborist to reduce or fell the tree and manage the brash. If it’s left in an appropriate place the timber from the felled trunk and large boughs provides a valuable habitat for saproxylics.

If you’d like further information please contact our Parish Tree Champion, Doug Edworthy. 07711 090925 or treewarden@dallington.org.uk

The next meeting of Brightling Parish Council will be at 7:30 pm on Monday 15^th July in Brightling Village Hall.  Like all our meetings, this is open to the public, who can listen and also ask questions and raise topics for discussion. 

At this meeting there will be a talk and discussion on the pyramid project (see separate item) so I do hope to see as many members of the public as possible.