Dorset County Council has re-opened its Community Innovation fund

Dorset County Council has re-opened its Community Innovation fund to back inventive community projects that can help improve local people’s lives.

There is a total of £75,000 available to Dorset-based community organisations that can show how their project would help achieve the outcomes for local people set out in the county council’s corporate plan.

These are grouped into four key outcomes: making sure people in Dorset are safe, healthy, independent and have a prosperous economy.

The fund aims to support community groups to deliver services that meet local people’s needs.  Successful projects will be those that target people with the greatest needs and reduce demand for the council’s services by giving people the support they need early on.
Groups are invited to bid for grants of up to £8,000. There is also a ‘Micro’ grants fund for smaller amounts of up to £2,000 as the council wants the fund to be able to reach all parts of Dorset’s communities.

Cllr Rebecca Knox, Dorset County Council leader, said
“We want to support community projects that can demonstrate how they support the council’s top priorities for local people.

“For example, as part of our aim to ensure people in Dorset are healthy we want to make sure people adopt healthy lifestyles and lead active lives.

“The important element is that the projects must be resident-driven with evidence of the benefits for people and the contribution they will make to helping improve the lives of people in Dorset.”

Apply for a grant through the Community Innovation Fund, view the application guidance and support materials.
This round of the grant will close on Friday 21 September.
http://d4u.org.uk/XCRNH

Turtle Doves - fastest declining bird species

Despite being mentioned in the Christmas song, the Twelve Days Of Christmas, Turtle doves are absent from the UK at this time of year as they overwinter in sub-saharan Africa.

Most news concerning this beautiful and iconic species is gloomy with the bird being labelled one of our fastest declining bird species. In Wiltshire we are lucky enough to still have some Turtle doves and it one of the species targeted by the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project.

Martin Down National Nature Reserve on the borders of Wiltshire and Dorset is a local stronghold for this bird and a small project has been running here for the last year to try and find out more about why the birds here are faring better than their neighbours. Additional foraging areas were also created by neighbouring farmers as lack of seed food is one of the reasons the birds are declining. With help from the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project, Natural England (NE) and volunteers a pilot study carried out a survey of breeding birds across the reserve last summer.

Volunteer Andy Davis gave an update, ‘The pilot study at Martin Down estimated that there were seven breeding pairs in 2014 and we know at least some breeding attempts were successful as the team ringed two fledglings. It was a very protracted breeding season and birds were still on site well into September. The data we collected currently suggests that the birds had selected the largest, most impenetrable plots of scrub for nesting and that they were distributed across the whole reserve. We can also say that we did not observe any birds feeding within the reserve and that they must forage elsewhere - hopefully the next stage of the project will establish where.”

Thanks to Robert Lloyd of NE, participating farmers and all the volunteers including Andy Davis, Danny Alder and Dr Simon Lane.

Reaching for the Stars!

The Cranborne Chase AONB Partnership is keen to work closely with everyone in and around the AONB to attain ‘Dark Night Sky Reserve’ status.

To that end, the AONB team is holding a seminar on lighting issues and how to help reduce light pollution in and around the AONB on November 6th at The New Remembrance Hall, Charlton, nr Shaftesbury, SP7 0PL - Link to Map

National experts will be on hand with presentations and to guide attendees through informal workshops looking at lighting - good, bad and ugly!

This is certainly not about reducing safety - in fact exactly the opposite: how to improve security and safety whilst saving on energy costs, improving our own health and well-being, offering an increasingly rare opportunity for education, an enhanced experience for visitors, together with an improved environment for our nocturnal wildlife....not to mention the wondrous, amazing views to be had on dark, starry nights......

A CPD certificate is available and the fee is £35 to include an information pack, refreshments and a hearty, local lunch

Note:
The AONB team acknowledges that parish councils are not well funded and would therefore like to offer the opportunity to attend this seminar at a reduced rate of £10 (rather than the full rate of £35). Those parishes already booked will of course only be charged £10 per person accordingly.

The AONB team looks forward to working closely with all 108 parishes within and around the AONB and the team hopes the reduced rate may enable many more parish representatives to attend. We look forward to seeing you on the 6th November at The New Remembrance hall, Charlton, nr Shaftesbury.

For more details and to book your place please go to: http://tiny.cc/3nx2nx. Any queries please email shirleymerrick@cranbornechase.org.uk


With best wishes,
Linda & team

Linda Nunn
Director
Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Shears Building  •  Stone Lane Industrial Estate  •  Wimborne   •  Dorset  •  BH21 1HD
Tel: 01725 517417

Great Dorset Steam Fair

The Great Dorset Steam Fair at Tarrant Hinton near Blandford starts today.  Despite the recent wet weather, the event looks to build on the enormous sucesses of previous years, welcoming many visitors into the Cranborne Chase AONB.

The steam fair has attracted thousands over the years in what is reputedly the largest collection of steam and vintage equipment to be seen anywhere in the world.

The show regularly attracts around 200,000 visitors, becoming the fifth largest population centre in Dorset.  What these visitors will see as they travel to the show is one of the most stunning historic landscapes of the Cranborne Chase.

Neolithic Long Barrow on Bokerley Down
Copyright Jim Champion

History

The road from Salisbury features wide ranging views as well as numerous neolithic remains.  Long Barrows are some of the earliest monumental features forming communal burial places for often disarticulated bone from multiple individuals. There are 39 long barrows known within the AONB.

You will also pass The Dorset Cursus as you travel along the A354.  With a date of around 3,300 BC, it is a nationally important Neolithic monument consisting of a of a pair of parallel banks (1.5 m tall) running about 82 m apart, with external ditches.

To find out more about the historical significance of the AONB, see the dedicated website:
www.historiclandscape.co.uk
This website provides an introduction to the history and archaeology of the fascinating landscape of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It also provides an introduction to historic landscape characterisation and explores how the AONB is conserving and enhancing this special heritage through Historic Environment Action Plans.

Landscape

Tarrant Hinton itself is set in a Chalk River Valley, with the River Tarrant being a tributory of the Stour and Avon.  The Tarrant rises in the heart of Cranborne Chase before flowing for about ten kilometres across the chalk.

Linear villages are a feature of these tributary valleys.

Most of the valley sides are shallow and have been exploited for the cultivation of arable crops or improved pasture.  However, some of the steeper valley sides still support unimproved chalk grassland or woodland. Linear villages are a feature of these tributary valleys, containing cottages of locally distinctive materials, most notably red brick and flint with thatch.

The rest of the site of the Steam Fair is in a landscape type known as the 'Southern Downland Belt' - a large scale open landscape of broad rolling hills forming a gentle chalk dipslope.  It is a colourful landscape being rich with a range of arable crops and associated seasonal changes.  There are few settlements, with farm buildings being sacttered at low density throughout the area.

Villages of the Tarrant Valley

The eight Tarrant Valley villages all bear the name of the river:

• Tarrant Gunville: the source of the river is in the grounds of Gunville House, now demolished
• Tarrant Hinton: a village at a crossroads, with a parish church
• Tarrant Launceston: a hamlet with a 3-arched 17th-century bridge.
• Tarrant Monkton: a village with a parish church
• Tarrant Rawston: a very small settlement
• Tarrant Rushton: a village with a parish church. Near here was a World War II RAF airfield.
• Tarrant Keyneston: this is the largest village of the eight; has a parish church
• Tarrant Crawford, the final settlement, lies at the confluence of the rivers Tarrant and Stour. Here there is the church of St Mary the Virgin and Tarrant Abbey farm, where once stood a nunnery. There is also a vineyard here.

We hope that many of the visitors to the Steam Fair will enjoy travelling through the interesting and varied landscape of this part of the AONB, and perhaps visit some of the local villages and sites of interest while they are here.  The 'Discover the Area' section of our website has lots of details regarding what is on offer:
http://www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk/discover/discover.htm

The AONB Partnership aims for Dark Night Sky status

The AONB Partnership has a new and clear objective to apply for ‘dark night sky status’ by the end of 2016 (you may have spotted a clue in the cover of the newly published AONB Management Plan 2014-19).

Photo: B Mizon

The vast, dark skies twinkling with a myriad of the tiniest stars covers much of the AONB. The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) states on its web site:

‘Once a source of wonder--and one half of the entire planet’s natural environment—the star-filled nights of just a few years ago are vanishing in a yellow haze. Human-produced light pollution not only mars our view of the stars; poor lighting threatens astronomy, disrupts ecosystems, affects human circadian rhythms, and wastes energy to the tune of $2.2 billion per year in the U.S. alone’.

In the UK, the British Astronomical Association's Campaign for Dark Skies is all about restoring our natural, starry skies by reducing inefficient lighting.

There are all manner of benefits from reducing the wasteful, ineffective and inefficient use of lighting. This initiative is certainly not about simply turning off the lights. Benefits include: 

• Improving security (not reducing it) through using better fittings that point light downwards, lighting the area to be protected rather than it straying outwards and upwards producing glare 
• Improving our health – there is much evidence that light at night can cause eyesight and various sleeping problems
• Improving the environment for wildlife – many insects, birds and mammals rely on darkness at night to function properly. Like ourselves, too much light at night disrupts our natural rhythms and behaviour
• Saving money….inefficient lighting is simply a needless waste of money
• Increased opportunities for education, enjoyment and well-being – many people, including children, have little chance of ever seeing and wondering at those star filled skies
• Conserving and enhancing part of our natural environment – as the IDA states above, with half our natural environment being made up of the sky above us, its conservation should be on a par with that at ground level!

The process for applying for dark sky status involves taking light readings, defining a ‘core area’ within the AONB with the darkest skies, a ‘buffer zone’ around that core area, developing and agreeing lighting policies with all those bodies responsible for lighting and gaining the support of AONB communities.

Look out for information on the AONB web site (www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk) in the coming months as the AONB team begins to plan the application for dark sky status.

It is vital that the application is accompanied by written support from parishes, community groups, schools, indeed any organisation that has an interest in helping to conserve the dark night skies of the AONB and bringing the many and various benefits that would follow. During the following months, the AONB team will be contacting everyone we possible can, to determine support for this initiative.

For further Information, see:

www.darksky.org
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/index.html

Plant Trees With Your Community or School with The Woodland Trust

The Woodland Trust have over 4,000 free tree packs to give away to schools, community and youth groups in the autumn.

They would like you to take part in a once-in-a-generation tribute to all those who gave their lives by creating a growing legacy that will stand tall for centuries to come. This is part of a larger scheme which aims to distribute three million free trees over the next four years to help communities, schools and youth groups remember their local heroes.

Click here for full details https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/in-your-community/

Affordable Housing - A Guide for Parish Councils

The Rural Housing Alliance is updating its practical guide, first produced in 2010.


Affordable Homes in Wyndham Place, Tisbury

The guide has proved a great way to allow Parish Councils to begin to understand how they can get much needed affordable homes built in the places they want. The current guide has proved incredibly popular and, with the changes of recent years, the Alliance is keen to ensure that a simple and practical guide is in place to help Parish Councils deliver new homes.

The updated Guide will be published in the autumn of 2014. Register to receive an electronic copy of the guide by emailing Andy Dean at mailto:deanaj@sky.com

Community Shops demonstrate that buying local really does exist

Wren Shop East Knoyle

There were 309 community shops trading at the end of 2013 an increase of 6% over the year. Like for like sales growth was 1.9%. Most shops are in the south and southwest. 95% of shops which were open in 1992 are still in business. The majority of community shops have chosen to register as an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) for the Benefit of the Community. Turnover ranged from £6,500 to £1,103, 653. Sales increased by 1.9% in 2013 - better than the supermarkets! 65% of shops were run both by paid staff and volunteers. 70% of shops had postal services.
The Plunkett Foundation

Cranborne Chase AONB Annual Forum - Your chance to be involved

Online Ticketing for Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Annual Forum 2014 powered by Eventbrite

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

 

It is with great pleasure that I invite you to attend the 2014 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’s Annual Forum.

 

Coffee/tea will be available from 10.00am and the day will finish promptly at 4.30pm.

 

In the morning your AONB team will give a brief report of Partnership achievements during 2013-2014 followed by a brief outline of work to be undertaken during 2014-2015, that helps achieve the aims of the new 2014–2019 Management Plan.

 

One of those aims is to achieve ‘Dark Night Sky status’ for the AONB over the next two to three years. Well-known Dorset astronomer Bob Mizon, UK Co-ordinator, British Astronomical Association Campaign for Dark Skies will be on hand to explain what this all means and how everyone within the AONB can help.

 

After lunch there will be two sessions for delegates to attend:
 

• We have the Mizar Travelling Planetarium with Bob Mizon M.B.E, F.R.A.S. who is one of the most experienced travelling planetarium operators in the UK http://www.mizar-astro.freeserve.co.uk/astro/
• There are various ongoing projects within the AONB to commemorative World War I. Discover what was involved in drawing these projects together, and see the exhibition of maps and photographs.
• http://www.wylyevalley1914.org.uk/               
• http://www.fovantbadges.com/                 
• http://www.sutton-down-badges.com/      

 

Spaces are limited so please book by Monday 23rd June or, alternatively, you can reply by email to shirleymerrick@cranbornechase.org.uk  As lunch is provided please email Shirley if you have any dietary requirements.         

 

If you cannot attend in person, please do consider sending a deputy. Once again, we look forward to meeting you at the New Remembrance Hall, Charlton on 1st July.

 

Yours sincerely,

Linda Nunn 

Director Cranborne Chase AONB