On Friday 30th September our CEO Liz Ballard and Advocacy Officer Ian Cracknell met with Miriam Cates, MP for Stocksbridge and Penistone at our Greno Woods Nature Reserve.
We provided an introduction to the site and the nature it supports, its wide variety of users and the Sheffield Lakeland Landscape Partnership area, part of which is also within Ms Cates’ constituency,
We demonstrated a recently created pond at the reserve, which in addition to benefits for biodiversity also delivers natural flood management by holding water back from Blackburn Brook, a stream in the valley below Greno Woods. We also showed Ms Cates the woodland clearings on the site which have been set aside to provide habitat for important bird species of conservation concern, such as nightjar and willow tit.
We talked about local planning applications of interest and the forthcoming draft Sheffield Local Plan. We also discussed various local projects and opportunities in Ms Cates’ constituency and how we might be able to help, highlighting the information provided in our Nature Recovery Community Toolkit as a useful asset for community groups.
We also asked Ms Cates about a number of national issues, such as the status of current legislation and recent Government announcements which we are greatly concerned may threaten existing environmental protections, as highlighted in our current #DefendNature campaign.
Ms Cates listened to our concerns and offered to forward them on for a response from Ranil Jayawardena, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
For more information about Greno Woods, click here.