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MANCHESTER BIRDING CONSERVATION AND BIODIVERSITY |
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If you should find information in this section incorrect or out of date, please inform me here straight away so I may keep the contacts as current as possible, thanks.
WILDLIFE ADVISORY GROUPS
The county of Greater Manchester comprises 10 Metropolitan Borough Councils, each responsible for it's own planning decisions. Within each planning department there is normally a group of people responsible for conservation matters and some councils (Wigan and Trafford) have a dedicated ecologist within the planning department (see contacts below). In addition, there are the following Wildlife Advisory Groups (occasionally known by other names): Oldham and Rochdale (joint), Stockport and Trafford. Wildlife Advisory Groups are a forum for council officials with an input into conservation matters (planning, leisure and education departments, for example, although others may be required to attend), to meet with representatives of the various conservation and natural history societies and organisations in the borough. These would normally include RSPB groups and any independent bird clubs. The Lancashire Wildlife Trust (in the absence of a Greater Manchester Wildlife Trust) also has representation, as do English Nature and the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit, the Cheshire Wildlife Trust is represented on Stockport Nature Network and Trafford Action for Nature.
Planning applications which would be detrimental to conservation and natural history are normally brought to these meetings. Birders who know of issues which should be aired at such meetings should contact their local bird club, natural history society, their local planning department or Greater Manchester Ecology Unit (0161 342 3596, also see below for further details).
The following boroughs do NOT have Wildlife Advisory Groups: Bury, Manchester, Salford and Tameside. Wigan and Bolton have Biodiversity Action Groups.
CONTACTS WITHIN PLANNING DEPARTMENTS FOR NATURE CONSERVATION ARE AS FOLLOWS:
BOLTON: Tony Lomax. Tel.01294 333333. Email: tony.lomax@bolton.gov.uk
BURY: David Sutton. Tel. 0161 253 7667 (Mondays and Wednesdays) or tel. 0161 796 6404 (other days). Email: d.p.dutton@bury.gov.uk
MANCHESTER: Adrian Morgan. Tel. 0161 953 2735 or Jon Follows (Environmental Strategy Officer), Room 5029, Manchester Town Hall Extension M60 3NY. Tel. 0161 234 1869 or mobile: 07900 418649
SALFORD: Nick Lowther/Marion Raines. 0161 793 3798. Email: nick.lowther@salford.gov.uk
TAMESIDE: Glen Routledge. Tel. 0161 342 3102. Email: planning.specproj@tameside.gov.uk
ROCHDALE: Francis Comyn in the Strategic Planning Group. Tel. 01706 864396. Email: francis.comyn@rochdale.gov.uk
OLDHAM: Liz Aitchson. Tel. 0161 911 4168. Email: Elizabeth.Aitchson@oldham.gov.uk
STOCKPORT: Nature Development Officer is currently vacant. For Stockport Nature Network, contact George Beaumont, email: george.beaumont@btinternet.com
WIGAN: Roz Park (Borough Ecologist). Tel. 01942 404232. Email: r.park@wiganmbc.gov.uk
TRAFFORD: Alan Barton (Countryside Manager). Tel. 0161 912 5466. Email: Alan.Barton@Trafford.gov.uk (the post of Ecologist is currently vacant as of March 2006)
RSPB NORTH WEST OFFICE
Westleigh Mews, Wakefield road, Denby Dale, Huddersfield HD8 8QD. Tel. 01484 861148
Tim Melling takes responsibility for Greater Manchester issues, normally sites with SSSI status only.
There is a very useful link to report any wildlife crime to the RSPB, although any urgent matters should of course be directed to the police or RSPCA in the case of animal welfare. The link is included below:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/policy/wildbirdslaw/report.asp
WILDLIFE TRUST FOR
LANCASHIRE, MANCHESTER AND NORTH MERSEYSIDE
Greater Manchester office: The Grange Community Centre,
Highfield Grange, Wigan, WN3 6SU. Tel. 01204 663754. Contact Martyn Walker
on email: mwalker@lancswt.org.uk
CHESHIRE WILDLIFE TRUST
Grebe House, Reaseheath, Nantwich, Cheshire CW5 6DG. Tel.
01270 610180. Fax. 01270 610430. Email:
cheshirewt@cix.co.uk
MANCHESTER WILDLIFE
Is a conservation organisation which campaigns on all aspects of natural history in Greater Manchester.
Office: No.9, First Floor, Bridge 5 Mill, 22a Beswick Street, Ancoats, Manchester M4 7HR. Tel. 0161 437 7040
Secretary: Anthony Phelps, Flat 7, 104 Clyde Road, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 2JN.
NATURAL ENGLAND
Their main contact for Greater Manchester is Mandy North as she currently deals with Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Salford, Trafford and Wigan. Stephen Aycliffe deals with Oldham, Rochdale and Tameside and Lisa Taylor currently deals with Stockport.
The postal address to send anything to is:
Natural England, Crewe Business Park, Electra Way, Crewe, Cheshire, CW1 6GJ.
UNITED UTILITIES
The United Utilities (UU) Conservation and Landscape Team is
based at: Dawson House, Great Sankey, Warrington WA5 3LW. Telephone numbers
for key members of staff dealing with Greater Manchester as follows:
Ian Harper. Tel. 01204 664319. He deals with permits for sites in the central area and should be the first point of contact.
Neville Kidd. Tel. 01204 664320. He is the team leader for the central area and deals with matters concerning the boroughs Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham.
Edward Lawrance, Bottoms Office, Woodhead Road, Tintwistle, Glossop SK13 1HS. Tel. 01457 851087. Email: edward.lawrance@uuplc.co.uk. He is the Senior Conservation Officer to whom applications should be made for permits to Audenshaw and Heaton Park Reservoirs. (Details for the procurement of the essential permits to Heaton Park Reservoir should be directed to the 'Who's Who' page of this website).
Brian Tollit. Tel. 01925 235841. He is the contact for boroughs south of the River Mersey and is Chief Ecologist.
Toby Hart (Ecologist). Tel. 01925 235847. Email: toby.hart@uuplc.co.uk
IN GENERAL, UNITED UTILITIES STAFF CAN BE CONTACTED VIA EMAIL BY TYPING: theirforename.theirsurname@uuplc.co.uk
BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLANS/LOCAL AGENDA 21/GENERAL CONSERVATION
Boroughs are gradually bringing out their own websites for the above and as these become available they will be included here. So far, the following is available:
MANCHESTER: www.wildaboutmanchester.info
COUNTY BIODIVERSITY SPECIES ACTION PLANS
Action plans are in force for the following species in
the first tranche: SONG THRUSH, TWITE, BITTERN and NIGHTJAR (the latter in a
mossland framework). To see these online, look at the Greater Manchester
Biodiversity Action Plan at
www.gmbiodiversity.org.uk
The second tranche will probably include BARN OWL, YELLOW WAGTAIL (with Lancashire), CORN BUNTING, TREE SPARROW, GREY PARTRIDGE, BULLFINCH, SKYLARK, REED BUNTING and LAPWING. The steering group meet quarterly.
If you would like to sit on any of the groups formulating these action plans, please contact Suzanne Waymont on 0161 342 3596
A new Black Redstart Biodiversity Action Plan has been written to advise and inform planners and developers to continue the push for green roofs and urban ecological strategies and to begin the process on forming a suite of plans that address the conservation and importance of urban biodiversity. A Manchester page will soon be included on the national Black Redstart website www.blackredstarts.org and so far two green roofs are currently in development within Manchester (written by Graham Jones, Greater Manchester Biodiversity Coordinator).
Make Room for Black Redstarts
The biodiversity project, this time working alongside Dusty Gedge, BTCV,
Unicorn Grocery and local business has also recently secured £25,000 from
SITA enriching nature fund to create brown roof habitat in Manchester for
Black Redstarts. It is hope that a number of brown roofs will be created
over the next few years to create a brown roof corridor that will help the
city centre population to expand. A number of living roof events will take
place over the summer and it is hoped that this roof will be used as a
showpiece roof for planners, consultants and developers to see how roofs for
Black Redstart should be created.
The South Pennines Twite Project
The project recently hosted a successful South Pennines Twite Seminar with
Rochdale Council. The outcome of the seminar is that a South Pennines Twite
Group has been formed that will coordinate Twite work between Lancashire,
Yorkshire, GM and Derbyshire and will look to develop a major project that
will attempt to restore feeding and breeding habitat in the South Pennines.
Oldham Farmland Bird Project
£25,000 was secured earlier this year for this
project. A hedgerow survey was conducted over the summer and
management work will begin shortly to restore important hedges highlighted
in the survey and to begin the habitat restoration work at Bishops Park for
Twite. A farming and stewardship event conducted during the summer was
successful with one farmer applying for higher level stewardship to begin
Twite and wader management work as a result of the event, and several
expressing interest in entry level stewardship
(written by Graham Jones Greater Manchester Biodiversity Coordinator).
GREATER MANCHESTER BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN
This has been published (July 2000). The cost for the hardback copy in a large loose-leaf binder, with updates as they become available, is £15.00, plus postage and packaging and is available form GMEU (see below for address).
GREATER MANCHESTER ECOLOGY UNIT
The Greater Manchester Ecology Unit (GMEU) is funded by the 10 metropolitan boroughs of Manchester county and is based at: Ryecroft Hall, Manchester Road, Audenshaw M34 2GJ. Tel. 0161 371 9171 (reception). Email: gmeu@tameside.gov.uk
GMEU is responsible for designating county Sites of Biological Interest (SBIs), which are graded A, B or C and re-surveying these at five-yearly intervals. They are also responsible for biodiversity issues and are working on a Greater Manchester Biodiversity Audit. Planning issues affecting SBIs are referred to them and staff will support these at Planning Enquiries. With the revision of Unitary Development Plans in all Greater Manchester's 10 authorities due in the next year or so, it is vital that GMEU safeguard SBIs with current information. There is a backlog of SBIs awaiting re-survey and a list is available from GMEU of those where up-to-date information is required. If you can help, please contact them.
Head of the unit is Derek Richardson. Tel. 0161 371 854
Other ecologists are: Suzanne Waymont, tel. 0161 371 5834 and Teresa Hughes, tel. 0161 371 8456.
The Biodiversity Officer is Graham Jones. Tel. 0161 371 8146
Sites of Biological Importance (SBI), revision of selection guidelines document.
This document covers all aspects of SBI selection, so for those only interested in birds, go straight to pages 42-44. To view the article, click HERE . If a dialogue box appears asking for a network password, click the close symbol (X) in the top right corner of the box and the document will load.
LATEST COUNTY SBIs
The River Irwell from Littleton Bridge to The Cresent Weir has been declared a SBI Grade B for its wintering duck numbers (June 2005).