Small steps (September 2023)

We’re proud of what we’ve done this year to further biodiversity within the parish.

• LIving verges throughout the parish, left to Bloom in June' and beyond so wild flowers can set seed

• Swathes of The Green left unmown as bee friendly, B-Lines for pollinators

• Management of cattle grazing on the common, carefully timed so wild flowers can flourish

Yes, there’s been a couple of complaints that the village looks unkept - but these concerns have been far out-numbered by positive comments. One informed resident, David Chetham of the Brill Environment Group, took to the pages of August’s Bernwode News to remark on the changes on The Green:

Amid the grass stems we’ve seen splodges of colour - red poppy, blue chicory, yellow ragwort, purple thistle, pink willow herb and white plumes of meadowsweet […] flowers* visited by hosts of butterflies, questing hoverflies, and small shiny beetles. Grasshoppers click and whirr in the long grass whilst bees clamber inside open-mouth flowers getting coated in pollen.

It gets better! As David explains:

These insect populations have been valuable food for our summer visitors […] swifts scything rapidly through the air, swallows skimming low over open fields and house martins flittering higher up […] this diet of insects not only keeps the birds alive and actively flying but is sufficient for them to rear and feed their young and then migrate to another continent.

Watch out next spring! We won’t be reneging on our responsibilities to the environment. Whilst we appreciate the concerns of a minority of residents, some decisions and actions are bigger than all of us in the face of the existential threat of climate change and decreasing bio-diversity. Furthermore, under the Environment Act 2021, Parish Councils now have an obligation to conserve and enhance biodiversity.

setting seed (may 2024)

In 2023, in cooperation with Aspire, the Parish Council left some of our green spaces uncut during the growing season to allow wild flowers to emerge and set seed. These areas included parts of The Green and, on request from individual residents, a few grass verges throughout the village. During the season we saw a beautiful variety of flora, including Clover, Coltsfoot, Daisy, Dandelion, Dock, Feverfew, Meadowsweet, Nettle, Pink Yarrow, Plantain, Silverwood, Sorrel, Tansy, Thistle, White Yarrow, Wild Cranesbill, Willowherb. Read an end-of-season report of this initiative. (Thanks to Mariel Toynbey of The Square for the list of flowers.)

We will continue our commitment to our local environment in 2024 by letting the same areas of The Green grow again. Seeds can lay dormant underground for years so we're excited to see what comes up this year!

Whilst we appreciate the concerns of a minority of residents, some decisions and actions are bigger than all of us in the face of the existential threat of climate change and decreasing bio-diversity. Furthermore, local councils are now obliged under the Environment Act 2021 to take active steps to increase biodiversity. Read a summary of our obligations and Parish Council’s Biodiversity Policy.

As in 2023, the growth will be cut and cleared before the Brill Festival in August.

BPC & Pesticides (August 2024)

Brill Parish Council is committed to promoting biodiversity throughout Brill. An crucial part of this is avoidance of pesticides on the land we own (Brill Common and most of the Playing Fields) or manage (grass verges within the village). We will be drawing up clear guidance on this topic in the coming months to add on our Biodiversity Policy.

Our ultimate aim is to inspire all Brill residents to work with us in making Brill village a pesticide-free zone in a couple of years. To get us all thinking, we’d like to recommend two excellent resources:

• The Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK website

• A brilliant interview withNick Mole, PAN’s Policy Officer, explaining how communities can be affected by pesticide use, why pesticides should be banned from our built-up spaces - and (most importantly) the practical alternatives that really do work.

Please do listen to the 20 minute interview - it starts at 18 minutes and you can listen right now on your laptop or phone - and join the debate in Brill in Autumn 2024.