Our response to Coldham's Common Management Plan Consultation.

Dear City Council

RE : Response to Coldhams Common Management Plan Consultation.

We thank you for your invitation to respond to your public consultation on Coldham’s Common management plan on behalf of Friends of Coldham’s Common.

We have included our responses below. 

The issues we wish to highlight are :

• - lets get the basics right first like litter, mowing footpaths and keeping the common tidy - we live in one of the most prosperous cities in England, but our common looks shabby and unloved;
• - keep the Barnwell Road LNR end as a permanent cow-free area and don't waste £20 000 more on fencing it and £3000-4000 a year on maintenance;
• - remove huge lengths of illegal fencing and barbed wire, maintained at public expense of around £4000 per year, which cut off substantial sections of the common;
• - save our trees for future generations and improve a beautiful landscape - don't cut them down;
• - improve the state of access points, especially from the Abbey and the Willows path, so that everyone can get on the common from their homes to enjoy it and get to work or school.

Lucy clears the bench of nettles and does the consultation

The bench on the football pitch was overgrown, but Lucy grasped the nettles and cleared it for us to sit on. Clever dog - have a biscuit !

What a dilemna !

15 minutes later....................................................

[P.S. Lucy used gloves when clearing the nettles, so dont ring the RSPCA about it. Oh and here is some of the rubbish we found :

Nice eh ! Lets get the management on the common sorted - respond to the consultation now !

New consultation - closing date 19 September 2014

Dear Friends and friends of Friends

There is a new better designed consultation out on the management plan for Coldham's Common.  Under pressure from the Friends and others, City Council have agreed to re-run the consultation exercise.  This also we hope represents change from the City towards the users of the common.

There are still some issues we have :

• the idea and expense of grazing on the Barnwell Road end is still there ;
• the extent of illegal fencing,maintained at public expense, which cut off substantial sections of the common, are not mentioned;
•  and the sorry state of access points, especially from the Abbey, are not highlighted. 

We will be taking these up in the consultation.

Please look through the online consultation. The link is :
http://cambridge.jdi-consult.net/localplan/readdoc.php?docid=178


Or more quickly email your views to parks@cambridge.gov.uk, with the subject as 'Coldham's Common management plan'

We have paper copies if you have friends you know would prefer one. 

Hay harvesting on Coldhams Common July 2014

The meadow for hay was cut on 1 July in preparation for the Folk Festival camping.

This is very early this year, and may have an adverse effect on invertebrates and summer wild flowers, that will not have had time to complete their life cycle. Hopefully some plants had sufficient time to set seed. The Triangle area still had a superb show of flowers and shows what the grazed common could look like if properly managed.

By 4 July the cut hay was being collected, and it looked like a good harvest though with 50 to 70 large round bales being removed.  This has could be worth between £30 and £70 per bale [~£1500 to £5000 value ], but apparently the hay is given away for free.  Could this be better managed ?

Friends of Coldham's Common 2014 AGM

The Friends of Coldham's Common AGM took place last Monday 9 June at Ross Street, and Cllrs Zoe Moghadas and Dave Baigent both came as observers as well as Teresa Barnes from Friends of Coldham's Rec.

Chris Smith was elected Chair for this year, and Pat White is now Vice-chair and Neil secretary. Daniel has very generously offered to help with social events.  Barbara will continue as Treasurer.

We have raised the subscriptions to £2 to assist with things like subscription to the Open Spaces Society.  If people would like to join this year, then contact us with your details and we can collect the £2 when we see you next. 

Any suggestions or help with events would be great - last year we had a picnic, a butterfly walk and cowslip counts ? Litter pick, jam foraging and footpath cutting have been suggested.

Update on petition - a slight refinement based on feedback

Following feedback from people on the common, we have decided to refine the petition.  A lot of people were worried that the council might waste as much money taking fences down as they did putting them up.   [e-bay could be an option, although I am not sure what postage would be like on a 964m fence.] Anyway something picked up on as a real worry.

We are therefore going to add that they shouldn't waste large amounts of money on contractors, and that they reuse or recycle any materials.

I am more than happy to assist for free in taking down any fences.

Two more things :


1. The very nice people at "Just for pets" http://www.justforpets.uk.com opposite the Barnwell Road entrance have agreed to keep a copy of the petition on their shop counter, so that you can do your shopping for your dog/cat/gerbil/goldfish/budgie and sign at the same time.  They have a wide range of goods and gifts for all your pet needs ........[Sponsorship slots are available on this blog by the way ].

2. Some people are having problems with the council's online consultation timing out or prefer a paper copy.  There are forms at the Abbey Pool, but if you want one delivering please ask and we will get you one.

A second petition on grazing and fencing on Coldham's Common

Dear Common User

The council are presently “consulting” on a management plan for the common.

The officers of the council want to graze with cows on the Barnwell Road section of the common, which will require 600m of more fencing and more gates [ = £20 000 ?]. We have been told "off the record" this is what is going to happen whatever. We don't think this is right, but you have no option to say no in the consultation.

We have a petition with the council to say :
1. No grazing here on the Barnwell Road / LNR section, thank you.
2. No more fencing and gates, ta.
3. Please remove the existing wooden fencing and unnecessary gates.

There are a lot more details on the state of the common on the petition text page on this blog.

We hope that you will sign this.  See the website at
http://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/mgepetitionlistdisplay.aspx?bcr=1

Thanks for your time

Friends of Coldhams Common

P.S. We also hope you will feedback on the management consultation if you have time : https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/have-your-say-on-the-future-of-coldhams-common