Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve Management Group SCO48186

Financial Statement 2018/19

We did not have a bank account for this financial year. Our account was approved and opened in May 2019 and we will report all funds processed in the next annual report.

Chair of Claypits Local Nature Reserve Management group

Hamiltonhill Claypits Local Nature Reserve Management Group

Annual Report 2018/19

We made it through our first year! And for all its ups and downs it was a good year. We ran a bike festival, a nature day, a corporate volunteering day, we were involved in the Festival as well as signing up as members of the Canal Coop and building a working relationship with Scottish Canals.

In March 2018 we became established as a charity, though we still have not managed to open a bank account. There were also many delays to the overall nature reserve development project as Scottish Canals awaited the release of the SNH funding that would employ the ranger and start the development of the path network. This has now been released, leading to the sudden shutting of the site in February 2019 to allow works to commence. We look forward to completion of the works in 2020.

However, despite some setbacks, delays and uncertainties there is also a lot to celebrate. We organised a Bike Festival to celebrate the opening of the Yellow Brick Road as our first event and it was great fun. Many thanks to Free Wheel North, Clay Community Church, FOPG and several local businesses for helping make it happen. With zero budget we had a great day! It was also the start of more people using the path, peaking this year at around 3000 users in May which is particularly encouraging.

Thanks also to FOPG and Shiona for their support and partnership this year, both in events and helping the committee get established. They generously paid for several of us to go to a fundraising conference in Edinburgh which I think we all found beneficial. This trip became particularly useful to the LNR when contacts made there by the committee led to the first corporate volunteering day where 100 or so folks came along and helped clear the litter, start the den building area and build the fairy dell. Another successful day.

We’ve also built further on partnerships with other organisations, and had a great day with Froglife, Scottish Waterways Trust and CARG at a nature day in May. Bread on a stick, arts and crafts and a whole host of bugs, beasties and butterflies was great fun for all – even if the ponds had dried up in the heat! It was great being able to enlist the help of a young child to help catch and record the first sighting of a Marsh Pug Moth since 1983, and only the third sighting ever in Glasgow. Many thanks for and these partner organisations for doing a fantastic job of recording the species present around the Claypits LNR.

It’s been great getting involved in the Glasgow Canal Cooperative. Shiona and Paula made the most of a great opportunity to go to Amsterdam on a learning trip, and it was fun being involved in the Canal

Festival. I’m excited by the partnerships and projects that the coop should enable over the coming years.

Looking forward, we currently have the beginnings of one of these partnerships in the pipeline - discussions with the Glasgow Sculpture Studios are ongoing with a desire to setup an artist in residence programme over the next year. Linton has now officially started as Ranger for the LNR and has already made contacts with various schools and nurseries - many thanks to Brian Land, the and Community Connector, for helping make some of these initial contacts for us.

We’ve also now launched our official membership scheme, with a desire to let anyone from the local areas who is interested in the LNR join in with what is happening. Membership is currently set at £1 per family.

It has been a fun year getting the management group established and getting to know everyone who is involved much better. Many thanks go to everyone on the committee for getting us this far – I’m consistently surprised and impressed by the diversity in experience and skills of the people involved. Thanks also to at Scottish Canals for helping us along and being available to meet and talk things through.

Chair of Trustees