Standing Upfor Nature!
CHARMIAN KENNER explains how we can find out more about vital local environmental issues.
The Unite for Nature group is holding an event for everyone in the Hastings area who wants to protect our natural environment. Standing Up For Nature is on Saturday 2 March from 2-4pm at the Salvation Army Hall, 26 St Andrew’s Square TN34 1SR. The meeting is free, with refreshments provided.
Filsham Reed Beds
Hastings is a beautiful area with coast and countryside close by. Climate change will affect its wildlife and landscape. Our speaker, David EP Dennis, Bexhill Town Council’s Wild Domesday Project Manager, will be talking about the evaluation of wildlife and landscape assets and the threats to them. The talk, with slides, will highlight the three-year project covering Bexhill’s nine wards and how the work being done there can help Hastings. The talk will include important information on rising sea levels, weather and climate, wildlife and marine protection, sewage pollution, dark skies, bathing water quality, plant, bird, insect, and mammal identification and recording, and the critical food-chain pathway.
The talk will also cover grant funding, protection of Galley Hill’s rare bees, threats to ground-nesting birds and Combe Valley, Hastings Country Park and the many Hastings park and woodland areas. It will also look at the planning system and how to assess landscapes if developers wish to build on precious recreational or wildlife-rich areas. There will be an opportunity for questions.
There will also be short contributions from groups campaigning to save green spaces in Hastings, including local residents who oppose the current planning application to build 101 homes on the Horntye Sports Complex. As well as the loss of sports facilities in a central location, this would mean a loss of green space that is home to many small mammals, birds and insects and is a bat foraging site. In addition, four active badger setts have been identified on the site, which would be temporarily or permanently affected by the development. Horntye Fields are alongside Summerfields Nature Reserve, which would become isolated amongst dense housing, significantly reducing habitat and impacting biodiversity.
The Save Sandrock Hall Bends campaign have also been invited to speak at the meeting. Their concern is to protect an area of ancient bluebell woodland and green space opposite Conquerors March on The Ridge from a potential development of 140 houses. This land is the last remaining part of a wildlife corridor linking the Sussex Weald to St Helen’s Park woodlands, then to Alexandra Park and Hastings town centre.
The meeting will conclude with a discussion on how best to work together to protect and restore nature in Hastings. There are already many valuable initiatives to increase biodiversity in our local area, and we hope this event will help take them forward. Please come along and join in!
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