Parish Environmental Action Plan

What is Brickendon PEAP?

Brickendon PEAP is a project aimed at improving the environment and countryside in the parish of Brickendon Liberty. The project aims to get local people involved and increase the overall knowledge and understanding of the environment.

There is local steering group for the PEAP which meets every month to discuss what is happening and to make future plans. The steering group is made up of local people who live in the parish and members of the parish council. Anyone from the parish wishing to join the group would be most welcome; please contact Cllr Graham Irwin, 511697. The Countryside Management Service (CMS) attend occasional meetings, by request of the group, to provide support with particular projects.

How did the PEAP get started?

The Countryside Management Service originally promoted the idea of the project at a Parish Council meeting in 2002. Initial interest was shown and the CMS then worked on a promotional campaign of activities with the parish to gain local interest and involvement. These promotional activities included: obtaining comments and ideas at the village fete in 2002, presenting a suite of project ideas at a later parish council meeting, and running a nightime wildlife event on the village green to capture local interest. These activities helped the PEAP to gain acceptance by the Parish and local people, and on 25 June 2003 the first steering group meeting was held at the village hall attended by all those with an interest and officers from the CMS.

What can Brickendon PEAP actually do?

The PEAP is able to do a number of things, which are reliant on the steering group meeting and taking action:

Providing a forum for all local environmental projects and all interested people to come together to share ideas and support one another
Creating positive environmental change in the parish through promoting ideas and sourcing funding or professional help
Securing grants from local and national agencies to help with projects
Promoting a greater awareness of the environment to people living in the parish
Enabling people to become involved in projects to improve the environment of Brickendon.

The Action Plan

The following table is list of projects that the Steering Group hope to take forward over the next 2 years. This is effectively Brickendon’s Environmental Action Plan.

Activities:

The Village Green:
- Create a flower meadow next to the pond and ditch by implementing an appropriate cutting regime (see management map for details). May 2004
- Install an information board on the Green to tell people about the wildlife in the pond and meadow and how they are managed. (Informal laminated signs could be a good interim measure to inform people). Summer 2005
- Organise a wildlife event to teach local people about the wildlife living on the Green. Summer 2005.
Local Footpaths:
- Produce a parish map showing public places & paths for people to walk. Spring 2005
- Aim to organise 3 public walks every year, which could be themed, eg. Spring flowers, butterflies, birds etc. Yearly
- Audit public footpaths on yearly basis and record any improvements needed – put these into a work programme for Parish Paths Partnership work. August each year
- Meet CMS and Herts CC Rights of Way officer to discuss footpath work each year. September each year
- Apply to CMS for Parish Paths Partnership grant each year for path improvements / leaflet / info board etc. October each year.
Promotional Work:
- Advertise any walks or events in the Parish newsletter. Each newsletter
- Give regular updates in the Parish newsletter about environmental projects in the PEAP. Each newsletter
- Advertise local CMS events in the newsletter, for instance walks and volunteer tasks in Broxbourne Woods National Nature Reserve. Each newsletter.

Parish Map

Design of the parish map was finished in April 2005.