JUBILEE YEAR in the AONB As Well As 2012 Being the Queen’S Diamond Jubilee, It’S Also Jubilee Year for Us! Silver Jubilee to Be Precise
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AONB Contacts AONB Manager Paul Jackson [email protected] AONB Officer Liz Bassindale [email protected] Issue 12 October 2012 AONB Assistant Maggie Cochrane (part-time) [email protected] JUBILEE YEAR IN THE AONB As well as 2012 being the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, it’s also Jubilee year for us! Silver Jubilee to be precise. The Mews, Wath Court Hovingham York YO62 4NN Telephone 0845 034 9495 www.howardianhills.org.uk Inside this Issue Page Jubilee year in the AONB 1 Bulmer Bank Annual Report 2011/12 2 As one of the areas of landscape recognised in the late 1940s as being Grants available! 3 worthy of national protection, the formal designation of the Howardian Hills as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was confirmed on 19th October AONB Conference 3 1987. The other areas identified by the Government reports have gone on to Rural:Urban Schools Twinning 4 be England’s National Parks and our sister AONBs, encompassing some of the best known and loved landscapes in the country. B-Lines 5 To mark the occasion, we plan to install 25 natural log seats at locations New bike route leaflets 5 throughout the AONB. We hope to place these at some of the most iconic Junior Ranger Club 6 viewpoints in the area, as well as in some of the hidden corners. We already have some ideas for locations, but if YOU think there’s somewhere that Tell us what you think 6 deserves one of these then please Howardian Hills AONB fact file 6 email [email protected] or ring us on 0845 034 9495. Please remember that we’ll need to ask the landowner’s permission, and they also need to be places Printed on paper from that are accessible by vehicle so sustainably managed forests we can install the seats! Photos: AONB Unit, unless stated otherwise Right: Hall Moor 1 ANNUAL REPORT APRIL 2011 – MARCH 2012 In this regular feature, we tell you about some of the work that the AONB Unit funded or facilitated during the last financial year. Landscape • A team of up to 4 volunteers • Volunteers helped us with at least 20 • 2,462m of hedge planting/gapping-up. worked on path maintenance projects or tasks, equating to over • 195m of field wall restoration. at least every other week. 340 person/days of assistance • 42 new in-field/hedgerow trees and • Litter was removed from at least 12 worth £23,000. 2 copses planted. sites in the AONB, on a regular basis. • Overhead electricity lines undergrounded • The CAN DO Lime & Ice Project Sustainable Development in Crayke. continued into its fourth year. • A bee project at Hovingham • 48 planning applications scrutinised. • Volunteers Condition Surveyed – hives and flower planting. Comments submitted on 22 schemes. all Public Rights of Way in 6 parishes. • Restoration of Scackleton phone box, • Inputting to the Government’s and installation of book-exchange boxes. Landscape/Biodiversity Independent Review Panel on Forestry. • Insulation of Barton-le-Willows village hall. • 2 farmers/land managers advised • A wood burning stove and insulation about Entry Level or Higher Level Communities, Schools in Barton-le-Street village hall. Stewardship. & Education • Preparation of a leaflet of cycle • 1 Higher Level Stewardship Farm • Rural:Urban Schools Twinning Project, routes based around Malton. Environment Plan prepared. our new project to twin primary schools • 1 farmer/land manager advised about in the AONB with ones in Hull/York, Publicity English Woodland Grant Scheme. completed its first full year (16 visits) • Maintained the 14 AONB Gateway Signs. • 6 English Woodland Grant Scheme and 3 of the round two visits. • Obtained at least 33 known press application consultations appraised. • 59 children on 4 Junior Ranger Club mentions for projects/AONB. sessions; activities relating to • Hosted BBC Escape to the Country, Biodiversity biodiversity and landscape for filming at Terrington and Kirkham. • Works to promote knapweed 6-10 year olds. • Heard/saw re-runs of the 6 BBC Radio broomrape on 2 SINCs. • Projects funded in 4 villages. York interviews and Countryfile piece. • Conservation grazing of 8 important • 2 Good Life events. • Used the AONB display sites by Exmoor ponies. • Supported the Ryedale Rural boards at 6 events. • Control of Himalayan balsam along Community Awards. • Attended the Ryedale Show. 5.8km of Wath Beck. • Clearance of rhododendron in Park Wood Fishponds SINC. Income and Expenditure • Management of 8 other SINCs or SSSIs. Income £ Expenditure £ • Supported 5 village/school wildlife Staffing 96,685 enhancement projects. Defra 141,694 • Management works on 44 Special North Yorkshire CC 40,290 Office costs 17,313 Interest Road Verges. Ryedale DC 5,684 Partnership running costs 2,119 Historic Environment Hambleton DC 5,800 Publicity/Research 5,139 • Advice on the management Heritage Lottery Fund 22,750 Management Plan 0 of 5 Scheduled Monuments. (Balance in hand) • Excavation of 2 features by the LEADER 10,479 Sustainable Development 10,264 Yearsley Moor Archaeology Fund Project volunteers. Natural Environment projects 30,793 • Ryedale DC LEADER scheme funded restoration of Listed gate pillars at Historic Environment projects 10,512 Whitwell and Welburn, 6 village name Enjoying the AONB 6,453 signs and 2 traditional direction signs. Young People (JRC, etc) 248 • Restoration of 5 more traditional direction signs. Young People (Schools 19,024 Twinning) Enjoying the AONB Brought forward 37,698 Carried forward 50,140 • Fingerpost signs, gates and bridges HLF carried forward 15,705 were installed/maintained at various locations throughout the AONB. £264,395 £264,395 • 6 guided walks/evening talks, (Resources from grant 289,689 attended by 153 people. recipients) Total Value of AONB Unit Activity £554,084 2 GRANTS AVAILABLE! The AONB Project Fund is a grant scheme to support projects which conserve and enhance the landscape, cultural heritage, communities or biodiversity within the AONB. Grants are usually in the range of £100 to £2,000 and normally provide up to 50% funding. In exceptional circumstances higher value grants and grants of up to 100% can be given. Previous projects supported by this funding. For match funding purposes fund include hedge planting, stone volunteer time can be included. wall restoration, wood pasture creation, village name sign repair/replacement, SDF has supported a diverse range Stone wall repairs near Newburgh installation of barn owl boxes and of projects including: village and repairs to Listed Buildings at Risk. school wildlife areas, a hydro-power scheme, eco-renovation of community The AONB Sustainable Development buildings, setting up community Fund (SDF) is a grant scheme which allotments, education programmes supports projects that promote focussing on sustainable living and sustainable living in the AONB. the local environment and a mobility It assists projects which benefit vehicle at The Arboretum Trust, the environment, communities Castle Howard. or economy of the area. Grants are normally £100 to £10,000. If you have an idea which you think SDF can provide up to 75% funding, might be eligible for support from or in exceptional circumstances one of these funds please look up to 100%. Local authorities and at the AONB website for further public bodies can apply for 50% information or call the AONB office. SDF – community beehives in Hovingham NATIONAL CONFERENCE VISITS In the morning the delegates completed the Monumental Landscape Tour with curator Dr. Christopher Ridgway. THE HOWARDIAN HILLS The tour looked The National Association for AONBs held its at how the Earls of Carlisle 14th Annual Conference – ‘Managing Nature on shaped this part a Landscape Scale’ – in York in July, in conjunction of the Howardian with the Howardian Hills, Lincolnshire Wolds, Hills landscape Nidderdale and North Pennines AONB Partnerships. with grand structures such The UK’s natural environment underpins economic as the Pyramid, prosperity, health and wellbeing and the conference Mausoleum looked at how AONB partnerships and National Park and Temple Authorities work at both a local and a national level, of the Four Winds. After lunch in the Courtyard Café to conserve and enhance the natural environment. delegates visited some of the Estate’s woodlands with The 150 delegates heard keynote speakers including Forestry Manager Nick Cooke, to see where conifers Richard Benyon MP (Defra Minister), local landowner have been replaced with native broadleaved trees. William Worsley and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust CEO Gamekeeper Wyne Bennett also explained how the Rob Stoneman. Estate’s farmland is managed to produce wild pheasants On the middle day of the Conference Castle Howard and grey partridge, using strips of crops to cater for welcomed delegates. Hannah Jones, Visitor Services the birds’ needs and limiting the use of pesticides. Manager at Castle Howard, writes: After a hectic day the delegates gathered for a Castle Howard works closely with the Howardian Hills well-deserved afternoon tea in the Courtyard Café. AONB team, on a variety of projects covering both the The day proved very informative for the delegates and natural and historic features on the estate. So when they left Castle Howard with a much wider understanding we were approached to develop a field trip for the of its particular environmental issues, and the work conference we were very happy to do so. which continues to maintain such a landscape. 3 RURAL:URBAN SCHOOLS TWINNING This year has seen the second round of the Rural:Urban Schools Twinning Project run in partnership with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The project is funded by LEADER and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Last year we introduced 9 primary schools from York and Hull to 9 twin primary schools in the AONB, with the children guiding each other around their school and local area. The twinning partners stay the same for the 4 years of the project and the same cohort of children take part to enable them to develop friendships.