It has been a fairly quiet year for the Group but with steady progress on several fronts and with a steady increase in our numbers, now standing at approximately137.
One big success has seen the launch of the new all encompassing Local Wildlife News (LWN). This was accomplished after many meetings, much discussion, downright hard work, and near the deadline, heart stopping moments! The aim of the LWN is to bring together, and share news of all aspects of wildlife and conservation in and around Ipswich and to ensure it reaches as many people as possible. In relation to IWG this means our activities are now being seen by over 2000 people compared with only approximately 300 previously; so should be a source of new members!
One very sad aspect of the year has been the passing of Steve Thorpe. Steve was the driving force behind Friends of Belstead Brook Park and, who was not only a constant supporter of IWG working parties, but also found time to regularly volunteer with the Greenways Project. He is much missed.
Our Save Kiln Meadow campaign, reported on by our Chairman last year, still holds our attention although there have been no admitted developments. However there has been one important success. After much hard work and persistence by members Jen Jousiffe and Ray Sidaway, they received notification from the Ombudsman that he had found Babergh District Council 'at fault' in not taking all the wildlife issues into account when granting planning permission in 2007 in respect of Kiln Meadow. At the time of writing, new activity has been noted in the Meadow and this is being investigated.
Our Beanpole Festival day, where we sell beanpoles and peasticks which were processed by our volunteers working in Spring Wood, was a great success as we sold out of product by lunchtime! We look forward to more volunteers joining us on the third Sunday of each month to increase our productivity!
As ever we are grateful to the Greenways Project for continued support and advice, help at events, looking after our tools, sharing their tools etc.
The following is a short review of our “Objectives for 2009”:
Our objectives for 2010 are noted on the separate sheet enclosed. Your comments on these at the AGM would be welcome.
Finally many thanks to our members for their support and encouragement, in particular our volunteers who have worked in sun, rain, hail and frost, to our campaigners, and to my fellow committee members who have worked hard for the Group and in doing so made my task much easier.
Dave Munday, Chairman