Long Overdue Update, Summer 2022
Hello all,
This update is long overdue (almost 18 months!) but now seemed a timely opportunity to do it.
In July this year the Sheffield Local Wildlife Sites (LWS) Partnership met for the first time in over 2 years (delayed due to Covid). Evidence from all our observations on the fields, along with data from the professional habitat survey we commissioned, was used to demonstrate to the representatives on the panel that the sites met the criteria for designation as LWS. The panel unanimously (with one abstention) agreed that it should be included as LWS along with the already designated sites in Owlthorpe.
This is a massive milestone for us and a reflection of all the hard work you have put in, going out there throughout the changing seasons and recording what you see. So, thank you to everyone for your commitment, it has all been worth the effort and finally paid off.
We have also put in an application for the area to be designated as local green space, which included all the observations we have recorded here in our project as evidence, along with community statements and additional data required for scrutiny. We await the outcome of this but the DRAFT new Local Plan is approaching release for public consultation and we are hoping that our evidence and the LWS designation will be sufficient for Owlthorpe Fields to be excluded from housing allocation.
Please don't stop recording as there are no doubt many more species on the fields that we still haven't recorded. We also need to keep reporting the common species otherwise it looks like they have disappeared, when in fact we probably just take them for granted. Everything matters!
We'll keep you updated on the local green space designation as soon as we have further information.
