A Few Important Things!
Quite a range of things to report or pass on - a miscellany but I think they are important.
- Contamination / Deterioration of Water Quality in the Sherborne Brook
An eagle eyed Support Group member, Ben P., noticed some unpleasant possible contamination in the Brook, by Wadlands bridge at the Eastern end of the village. With the assistance of our friend "the River Girl" who is equipped and trained to investigate, we followed this upstream. (The River Girl gave up her weekend to help investigate.)
It seems to be worst about 20 or 30 yards downstream from the Turbine Dam. The normal pristine gravel is covered in a grey sludge and there's some unpleasant looking foam. For context there was a sewage leak from a breach in the sewer pipe to the south about 5 years ago near here. The River Girl took some samples and tested for phosphate, nitrates and ammonia. A positive result there would suggest a sewage leak, but we are pleased to report they were all negative.
Nonetheless we informed The Environment Agency, the Windrush Catchment Partnership, the Cotswold Rivers Trust, The Cotswold Fly Fishers who released 4,000 grayling just downstream from here last year, and the National Trust. It will be monitored. The EA suggest it may be as a result of algae forming in the slow moving parts of the lakes, during the recent remarkable hot weather which is washed down over the waterfall. Thanks again to all involved especially Ben P and The River Girl. I think this is a good example of how us locals can help monitor the ecology of the estate in a very positive way, in partnership with other bodies. The Sherborne Brook is acknowledged to be a local exemplar of clean water, so this was quite a worry.
The potential bad news was balanced by the fact that, as I stood looking upstream as the River Girl approached me, a family of five kingfishers flew downstream, missing me by about 4 or 5 ft. I've never seen so many in a group before. Presumably a family that includes three fledglings from this year's hatch. I reckon if you stand on Wadlands Bridge and look about, there's a good chance you'll see at least one of them.
You can see the investigation here. Sign up and follow her on Instagram. She's been a great supporter of the Sherborne Brook Group.
- Thames Water Responses
You may recall that we have raised a number of technical questions with Thames Water regarding the processing of sewage at the Bourton in the Water sewage treatment works. I've had two responses in the last few days. Firstly, Thames Water have asked for an extension from their normal 20 working days to provide an answer, and they have asked to extend that until the 14th of September. When I get those answers, I will pass them. Secondly, and I take this very positively, Thames Water have invited members of the Brook Group and the parish council, and maybe other local parish councils, and maybe one or two other local ecology groups to visit the Bourton-on-the-Water sewage treatment works so that they can answer questions directly. I regard this as a very positive step. I will report back. If you want to come with us, let me know.
- Bibury and Bourton access challenges.
We sit in the middle of a sandwich, in some ways, between the tourist attractions of Bibury and Bourton. Both those communities have a problem, a challenge, if you like, of significant numbers of people, maybe too many, visiting. You may therefore find these two links on to each of them about recent matters in this regard.
Given our own situation in Sherborne, I thought it'd be useful for you to be aware of these matters, all of which relate to excessive access to nearby communities that maybe don't have the infrastructure to support the numbers of visitors.
- Gardens Trust removed as Statutory Body
Many of you will recall from the recent planning dispute here in Sherborne that we received significant support from the Gardens Trust in objecting to the planning application affecting the Grade 2 listed Parkland here in Sherborne. The Gardens Trust visited Sherborne at the Parish Council's invitation a few months ago and received a brief from the parish council and myself. The Gardens Trust have been a statutory body to which all UK planning applications affecting parklands must be submitted to. In recent days, the government have removed that role from the Gardens Trust. I think this is very disappointing. For what it's worth, the National Trust corporately think it's disappointing too. Here is the Gardens Trust Statement.
- Observations
I recently posted that Serena had not seen any deer on the north bank of the brook recently. I'm glad to say that now both Serena and Rosi are frequently observing deer back in this area again. They include some very white pale deer as usual. We're still a couple of months away at least from the rutting season, but keep an eye on the far bank of the brook as you transit down the village road. One of the deer seen might have been a roe deer, unlike the usually white or light-coloured fallow deer. Thanks to Rosi for the picture of one of her many hummingbird hawk moths.
It seems that most of the trees in the area seem to be surviving the drought. The one exception, perhaps, are some beech trees which seem to be losing their leaves very early. Let me know of your observations. It'd be interesting to match the deterioration of species in this remarkable dry spell we're going through.
Let's pray for a little bit of rain.
