snow-nv

snow-nv
snow on nutsfordvale January 2010 6am

Next meeting

Thu 4 Feb 10 7-30 PM Blue Bell Pub, Levenshulme.

Funding news

Its good news for Nutsford Vale! A £314,000 Forestry Commission grant has been awarded over two years to the site. Red Rose Forrest gained Capital Funding from the NWDA Newlands 2 programme;  £118,000 is earmarked to be spent this year, and £196,000 next year. The money will secure the site from vehicle access, create defined paths across the site and allow boundary treatments at entrances across the site. Local council officials form the ward support team have put forward a long term maintenance plan for the site to compliment the funding.  

Red Rose Forest  will work in consultation with local residents on a detailed pattern of spending on environmental improvements that will be similar to work completed in Moston Vale and Clayton vale in Manchester.
 
This has been achieved over 10 years by the Local MP Sir Gerald Kaufman and local Councilors , including Cllr Simon Ashley working together with local residents. When this is complete the work of Nutsford Vale group will continue in the future as well for the northern half of the site, to give it similar treatment. We trust that the form of working we have established so far with funders and council officials would continue into the future.

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Red Rose Forrest Hosted a space shaper session at Gorton Mount Education Village to discuss the way in which funding should be spent on the NV site. It highlighted the importance of ongoing maintenance and good design that embraces this. It was also an opportunity to find out how people feel about the site and how they use it – most importantly what would make them use it more. and what changes they would like to see.

The Spaceshaper event is a CABE endorsed tool for bringing together a group a stakeholders (representing as many users and members of the local community groups as possible as well as (limited) officials working in the area) to talk about and share ideas about a site. It is not usually used to inform design plans but a forum in which people share and listen to other people ideas and aspirations. They are very interesting and very useful from a both a project planning and participants point of view.

http://www.cabe.org.uk/public-space/spaceshaper

Nutsford Vale River Clean-up

In September 2009 the Friends of Nutsford Vale invited volunteers from BTCV to clear the stream running through the vale of rubbish. In total, 17 volunteers from BTCV, together with members of the Friends Group, spent three days removing nearly 50 bags of litter. Amongst the general litter, the group removed 18 car tyres, numerous shopping trolleys, two TVs, mattresses and lots of plastic. In all the team filled over one and a half large skips with rubbish.We appreciate the support of the Gorton SEM (Street Environment Manager) who issued for free two skips of 6 cubic yards each. It was good to discover some frogs in the watercourse the volunteers worked on as this had not been expected.

Ally Taylor, Project Officer with BTCV in South Manchester said “2009 is BTCV’s 50th birthday and our motto is ’50 years of mud, sweat and cheers’ and the river task at Nutsford Vale certainly lived up to that! Although the weather was kind, the job was still a smelly, muddy one, but our volunteers were thrilled with the end result.”

The river clean-up was funded by the Environment Agency and is part of a long-term strategy for improving the biodiversity of Nutsford Vale, making the area more attractive to wildlife and more pleasant for the community to use.
For further information on BTCV and our regular volunteering opportunities in conservation work please contact Ally Taylor on 07764655693 e-mail: a.taylor@btcv.org.uk

More images can be seen here…
Photos thanks to Ally Taylor and Paul Seaby

Before clean up

After clean up

Next meeting 10.09.09 at The Bluebell Pub,

Next meeting 10.09.09 at The Bluebell Pub 6pm!

Annual General Meeting to be held Thu 9 July

Calling notice for Annual General Meeting to be held Thu  9 July 09 at 7-30 PM

. Blue Bell Public house, opposite Greenbank Park at 170, Barlow Rd, Levenshulme

It’s vital to keep the name of Nutsford Vale in the highlights, So please supporters make the most of it while we can…

Thistle heads

Small beetles seem to be roosting on the spines of these thistle heads, each head had one or two tiny beetles. Thistle flowers, along with bugle and brambles flowers, are favourite nectar sources of the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, and Dark Green Fritillary butterflies.

Welcome to the new site!

Welcome to the new blog!

Nutsford Vale is a section of land that was the former Jackson’s Claypit. It is about 20 hectares in size, that is to say about 50 acres. It lies at the junction of the areas of Longsight (M12), Levenshulme (M19) and Gorton (M18). The south end of the area is bounded by Matthews Lane. The East edge is bounded by Cedar Mount Secondary School (formerly known as Spurley Hey School). Manby Road is also the Eastern Boundary. The west edge is bounded by Hemmons Road and other minor roads. The North end is bounded by the Gore Brook River, and partly by Longsight Road in Gorton. It is entirely contained within the Gorton South Ward of Manchester Council.