Local Sites Ratification Report 2014

Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) and Regionally Important Geological Sites (RIGS)

COMPILED BY ENVIRONMENTAL RECORDS CENTRE FEBRUARY 2015

THE HERTFORDSHIRE LOCAL WILDLIFE SITES PARTNERSHIP IS MANAGED BY THE HERTS AND MIDDLESEX WILDLIFE TRUST WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE HERTFORDSHIRE ENVIRONMENTAL RECORDS CENTRE, HERTS COUNTY COUNCIL, NATURAL ENGLAND, THE DEPARTMENT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND RURAL AFFAIRS, THE COUNTRYSIDE MANAGEMENT SERVICE, THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, LEE VALLEY REGIONAL PARK AUTHORITY, THE CHILTERNS CONSERVATION BOARD AND THE FARMING AND WILDLIFE ADVISORY GROUP. THE HERTFORDSHIRE LOCAL WILDLIFE SITES PARTNERSHIP FORMS PART OF THE HERTFORDSHIRE LOCAL NATURE PARTNERSHIP.

Summary

The annual Local Sites ratification meeting was held on 14th October 2014, between Herts Environmental Records Centre, Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, Hertfordshire County Council and Natural England.

Four new sites ratified and three site de-ratified. These are updated in the January 2015 GIS layer.

 4 new Local Wildlife Sites were ratified.  3 Local Wildlife Sites were de-selected  0 RIGS were selected or de-selected.

New Local Wildlife Sites

Grid Filecode Name Reference Area (Ha) District Comment Field Adjacent to 45/098 TL317154 1.69 East Herts Species Bullsmill Lane Archer's Spring 59/095 TL299134 2.57 East Herts Ancient Woodland Conifer Plantation Westbrook Hay Golf 65/012 Course Bourne End TL021052 61.01 Neutral grassland Golf Course Former Halsey 10.61356 65/098/01 TL042089 Dacorum Neutral grassland School Playing Field 2

De-selected Local Wildlife Sites

Grid Filecode Name Reference Area (Ha) District Comment Bishop's Stortford Area meeting criteria too 35/002/01 Golf Course TL510210 5.79 East Herts small. Grassland Site no longer on AWI and Upper White Stubbs 71/026/01 TL337067 1.68 East Herts does not meet woodland Wood criteria. Maxwell Hillside Area meeting criteria too 86/036 TQ200966 3.376485 Park small and fragmented.

Summary of new and de-selected Local Wildlife Sites by District.

District De-selected New Local Local Wildlife Other updates Overall change Wildlife Sites Sites

Broxbourne 0 0 0 0 Dacorum 2 0 0 2 East Herts 2 -2 0 0 Hertsmere 0 -1 0 -1 North Herts 0 0 0 0 St Albans 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 Three Rivers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Welwyn/Hatfield 0 0 0 0 Hertfordshire total 4 -3 0 1

Numbers and areas (Ha) of local site – Local Wildlife Sites and RIGS

Herts Environmental Records Centre has also checked and updated the boundaries of around 800 Local Wildlife Sites this year. The boundaries are updated to Master Map quality; areas of building or hard road are removed and boundaries are made more consistent with survey documentation where appropriate. This is reflected in small changes in area of many sites, and large proportional change in area of a few sites.

Number of Area (Ha) of Number of Area (Ha) of Total Area District LWS LWS RIGS RIGS of local sites Broxbourne 78 472.39 0 0 472.39 Dacorum 233 2026.33 4 77.72 2104.05 East Herts 544 3413.99 0 0 3413.99 Hertsmere 109 805.85 3 8.82 814.67 North Herts 318 1771.74 11 150.96 1922.7 St Albans 186 1420.96 2 0.96 1421.92 Stevenage 38 100.35 1 0.23 100.58 Three Rivers 137 1322.48 0 0 1322.48 Watford 27 246.93 0 0 246.93 Welwyn/Hatfield 192 1651.35 0 0 1651.35 Hertfordshire total 18112 13232.37 21 238.69 13471.06

1 43.014 Stocking Springs Wood, formerly just in district. The boundary has been updated to match the survey documents and Master Map and the boundary is within St. Albans district as well as Welwyn Hatfield. This adds to St. Albans number of LWS but not to the overall total. 2 Total is lower than sum of district counts as some sites have significant area in two districts.