Helping local communities to reduce the number of attacks by dogs on sheep

 

Parish Councils in your part of the country may already be aware of distressing attacks on sheep by dogs: over 600 have been killed in the first dozen weeks of 2016 (probably only the tip of a, largely unreported, iceberg) – and most of them will have been pregnant.

Sheepwatch UK is a new initiative, recently featured on BBC Countryfile, which is trying to help people work together to reduce the number of attacks on sheep and support responsible dog ownership.

There is now a website and a Toolkit of ideas which may be of interest to Parish Councils, community groups, schools, farmers and others.

Please feel free to circulate the following details to Parish Councils:

·        Dog attacks on sheep seem to be increasing: a situation that affects rural businesses, animal welfare, community relations, access to the countryside, food prices and much more

·        The problem can be addressed by bringing people together and using education and awareness to gradually change behaviours

·        Parish Councils may be able to play an important role in this matter

·        Sheepwatch UK is a new initiative which is trying to help people work together to reduce the number of attacks on sheep and support responsible dog ownership

·        The initiative is working closely with the Kennel Club, Farmers Unions, Police Forces, the National Sheep Association and others

·        Thousands of sheep (many of them pregnant) are killed by dogs every year – and many more are worried (which can lead to them losing lambs which they are carrying)

·        SheepWatch UK is trying to encourage all farmers to report incidents to its website so that there is a better picture of the scale, nature and costs of the problem

·        The campaign will offer ideas and advice to farmers as well as producing a ‘Toolkit’ for local communities so that they can organise local campaigns to increase awareness and encourage responsible behaviour in the countryside

·        Communities are encouraged to obtain copies of the Toolkit and find out more about the issue via the SheepWatch UK website

·        A national conference (free of charge) is being arranged for Friday 3^rd June (details via the SheepWatch UK website)

·        The initiative has already been featured on BBC Countryfile and interest in using the Toolkit to organise local campaigns has already been received from over half the counties in the country.

We hope that this information may be helpful to you and to Parish Councils in your area.  There will be no ‘quick fix’ to this issue but, hopefully, if lots of communities take an interest and help to raise awareness then changes might be seen over the years ahead …

With best wishes

Doug Jones and Terena Plowright

SheepWatch UK

A new deal could see Forest Heath District Council become the owners of a large scale solar farm of 12Mw or more at Toggam Farm, Lakenheath.

The council’s £14.4 million investment is subject to a variety of commercial conditions which seek to protect the interests of the taxpayer. This means that completion of the purchase will only take effect once, and only if, those conditions have been met, leaving the development risk with the current owners.

If achieved the deal has the potential to achieve hundreds of thousands of pounds of income each year to protect key day to day services at a time when Government funding for councils is being withdrawn.

Cllr Stephen Edwards, Forest Heath Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance said: “Government funding for councils is being withdrawn while Council Tax comes nowhere near to covering the total cost of the day to day services that we provide to our communities.

“That means, that we, as a council, are acting more commercially to generate income that will pay for these services – and the potential from the solar farm is huge.

“Capital funding cannot be spent on providing day to day services but by investing it wisely we can create a significant income that will pay towards these.

“We recognise that this is a big sum of public money that we are looking to invest so this will only go ahead when the commercial conditions have been met.”

Thanks to Ronnie Moran a number of new photos have come to light.

See

Trees

The Timeline (photos spread throughout history – sorry)

WW1

Timber Railway

We’ve had reports of a “Ghost” Tesco bus service running through the village.

Rumour has it that it comes through the village every other week (Michael says it starts at Weeting and goes onto Brandon Tesco and then through our village and drops off at Thetford Tesco)

We’ve been told that the next bus is now on the 19th April and every other Tuesday thereafter.

We assume it stops where the normal bus stops.

We believe that it travels through around 9.30am but can be a few minutes late, so best to be there for that time.

We understand that the driver will help people on with their trolleys, take them to Tesco in Thetford and that you have between and hour and one hour fifteen minutes to shop. It leaves at 11.00 am and drops people back off.

This is a free service and I gather has been run for years but very few people know about this.

So far Tesco have been unable to answer our queries about the service or tell us who the services is operated by.

update – 08/4/16

Tesco have replied in detail. Neither the Thetford or Brandon store are aware of any free bus service, so the mystery remains. Watch this space as they say

Please let us know if you’ve used this service or of any other sightings of it!

http://santondownham.org/home/contact/

If you walk down Hall Drive you’ll see the little triangle at the bottom. It’s a popular tourist destination in Summer (and Winter) with lots of cars coming for a quick spin around it.

Actually we think most of them are lost and are simply trying to find the river, and don’t quite make the right turn. As a consquence you’ll see lots of lost vehicles turning round and cutting the corners off the triangle. The area is quite prone to being muddy and the verges are very soft and more than the odd vehicle has got stuck.

A large delivery truck had the misfortune to try and turn round there earlier in the year and managed to get stuck for a couple of hours.

They were not alone in getting lost and having problems getting out of the mud. The army managed to get lost last year and a whole convoy tried to turn round.

The net result was a lot of mud on the road and the grass being churned up badly.

Thanks to everyone who tidied up afterwards

Sadly Saturday the 20th was the last day that newspapers were delivered to Santon Dowham.

Breckland News (Mace) in Brandon said that the numbers were down to just 19 houses and that it was no longer viable.

This came as a bit of a shock to those of us who have greatly enjoyed the excellent service from the staff at Breckland News and Neill our paperboy.

The new version of Santon Downham.org is live as of the 12th of March 2016. The previous version has been archived here.

About 95% of the old content has been migrated across. A few areas a still being worked upon and might be missing a few details.

Please contact us with any errors or omissions.

Tim Kaye

Webmaster

Forest Heath announces dates for base meetings

Dates have been set for a series of public engagement sessions which will discuss the local priorities regarding the future of the RAF Mildenhall site.

Forest Heath District Council will be meeting with Government departments including the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Department for Transport, ahead of three engagement sessions in April and May.

Leader of Forest Heath District Council, Cllr James Waters said: “The MoD announced earlier this year its intention to release part of the site for housing while still considering if it wants to keep the rest of the site for military use.

“What we can say with certainty is The US Department of Defense has not published a detailed timetable for the withdrawal of personnel from RAF Mildenhall, and no planning applications for housing on the site have been submitted to us as the local planning authority to decide, nor has consultation with us over this taken place. We don’t know how much of the site is to be released by the MoD.

“There is still the possibility of any number of options for the future of the site. So what do we want to achieve from this site? We believe it is a mix of new employment, housing, an improved skills sector and better local education all of which will benefit living standards of the local area.

“We believe this is a prime site for business growth– a chance for Mildenhall to capitalise on the science and innovation sector spilling out of Cambridge, and to replace the local jobs that will be lost when the base closes.

“We held a series of very successful engagement sessions last year. Now, following both the MoD announcement and our discussions with the Government we believe the time is right to hold these meetings in our communities again to discuss not just people’s concerns, but the options for the future. We also hope to have an answer from the Government soon as to whether aviation use can be considered among these options.

“These meetings will help us as we continue the work with our communities and businesses on the one hand, and on the other partners including our MP, Suffolk County Council, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and the USAF, to ensure we are well placed to lead the regeneration of this site.”

The engagement sessions will take place on:

• 18 April – 6pm – at Forest Heath District Council, College Heath Road, Mildenhall
• 9 May- 6pm – at The Jubilee Centre in Mildenhall
• 13 May – 6pm – at Beck Row Community Centre

Booking is essential – members of the public wishing to attend should email malag@westsuffolk.gov.uk