Caldy Society Newsletter September 2019

The Caldy Society

THE CALDY

Autumn 2019

SOCIETY

Newsletter Open Gardens 2020 Dates Tour of Britain visits Caldy Autumn Events Conservation & Planning Updates

Visit our website for up to date news: www.caldysociety.org

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Committee

Caroline Evans (Chairman) 07816 237 532 chair@caldy.org Donald Lamont (Treasurer & Membership) 625 8122 treasurer@caldy.org Eve Sorrell (Secretary) 625 0244 sec2@caldy.org Jacqui Walsby Tickle 625 6953 cttee1@caldy.org Julie Kirwan 07771 733 334 cttee3@caldy.org Nick Lean (Planning) 625 1549 planning@caldy.org David Lawrence (Website) 625 2484 drdslawrence@aol.com Penny Hall (Minutes) pennypeterhall@talktalk.net

THE CALDY

SOCIETY

The Planning Sub Committee Nick Lean 625 1549 Roger White 625 6800 David James 625 6846 Elwyn Edwards

The Tree & Planting Sub Committee Marg Kalil 625 5961 Judy Wilcox simonsfield@btinternet.com Richard Williams 625 1445 Jacqui Walsby Tickle 625 6953 Rachel Summers 625 7604 John Casson 07885 716 224 Jean Taylor 625 5653

Subscriptions subscriptions@caldysociety.org

Caldy Society AGM Looking to future events, next spring’s AGM will be held at Caldy Golf Club. Look out for emails for further information. If we don’t have your email address please get in touch with any of the committee members or if you would prefer a quick phone call to update you with events again contact us.

Summer Notes from the Chairman This last year has been a busy one for the Society, with our usual involvement in Planning Applications and green belt issues. Although we take expert advice and support petitions by local residents about Planning issues, we are not always successful in our efforts to protect the character of the Village. Perhaps the new Leader of Wirral Borough Council may take a fresh approach.

I recently attended a Planning Committee meeting, on behalf of the petitioners opposing the development at Roselands. It was an interesting experience, observing the wide variety of developments across the Wirral with which the Councillors have to deal.

Turning next to Green Belt issues, we are in active communication with the WGSA (Wirral Green Spaces Alliance), an umbrella organisation for several different residents groups and other parties interested in protecting the Green Belt across Wirral. It has been felt in the past that the Council did not pay sufficient attention to the concern and suggestions of the many experienced professionals within this group. As I understand it, quite often no acknowledgement was given to communications from WGSA, never mind a considered reply. However, I believe a more positive relationship is developing, as the Council still has not published its (much delayed) Local Plan.

While the Committee has not seen any changes in Personnel since my last update, Mr David Lawrence, who has been our liaison with WGSA, has had to step down from that role and we are urgently seeking someone to take his place.

Once again, we shall be offering several social events in the Autumn (see notes in this Newsletter) which I hope you will enjoy. Any suggestions for other future events would be welcomed.

The Society would be interested to know whether members would welcome emails from time to time about local break-ins. We do not wish to overwhelm our Members with emails but we do want to keep you all informed. Please let the Committee know your views on this, or any other subject we can help with.

Have a very pleasant summer in our lovely village.

Caroline Evans

Caldy Open Gardens 2020 Our next Caldy Open Gardens will be on Sunday 24 May 2020 from 1pm- 5.30pm We already have about 14 gardens opening, four of which are brand new.

For the first time, there will also be a Children’s Fairy Garden with face painting, and the live owls will be back. Tea and home-made cakes will be on offer, plus BBQ food, ice cream and other goodies to eat and drink.

Yet again, there will be an extensive plant sales site, plus a select group of Wirral Artisans will be showcasing and selling their work.

It’s a date for the diary not to be missed, with all proceeds going to a local charity For more information contact us at caldyopengardens@gmail.com

Carols on the Green Is it too soon to mention the C word?

Well, sorry to offend but our Carols on the Green this Christmas will be on Sunday 15 December. This is our free annual event so join us for mulled wine, hot chocolate, mince pies and sausage rolls.

Carols will be 6pm on the Green, then weather permitting, more Carols around the tree and onto the Church Hall for refreshments.

Don’t forget your torches!

Blue Plaque Unveiled A Blue Plaque commemorating the renowned Wirral born science fiction author, William Olaf Stapledon, was unveiled at Simons Bridge, Caldy on the Wirral Way on Friday 10 May 2019.

Wirral’s Mayor, Cllr Geoffrey Watt, performed the official unveiling and some family memories were shared with the audience by Olaf’s two grandsons. Olaf had bought part of a field in Caldy in the 1950’s and built a house for his family called Simon’s Field and is adjacent to Simons Bridge.

The Stapledon name was suggested to Conservation Areas Wirral (CAW) by Justin McDonald, local actor and film maker, who had achieved the exclusive rights last year to create a short film based upon Olaf’s spellbinding story “A Modern Magician”. The film has been shot entirely on location in Merseyside and it is hoped to arrange a screening later in the year although it is already being shown at Festivals in America. (Check out Elevator Productions for more information) This article is reproduced from the CAW website, with kind permission.

This is the 7th Blue Plaque commissioned by CAW.

Help & Thanks This is my last newsletter as I will be leaving Caldy Society Committee due to other commitments. So we are looking for people to help in the Committee and all that happens in the village.

I would particularly like to thank my fellow colleagues and a huge vote of thanks to Jon Tarrant of Jon Tarrant Creative Services for the magic he does in turning my notes into a lovely and readable newsletter.

Eve Sorrell

Tour Of Britain Visits Caldy

On Wednesday 11 September Stage 5 of the Tour of Britain cycle race comes to Wirral it will start and finish in Birkenhead Park.

It will pass along Caldy Road and through West Kirby in the early afternoon. As it will be going right past Caldy Church, the bends there

will offer great views!

The Church Hall will be open for refreshments and toilets, and we hope you will come along to enjoy the spectacle.

We will try to put any local road closures on our email as soon as we have them.

Fish and Chips Quiz Night

on the night as we will form teams.

Friday October 11 at 7pm for a 7.30 pm start.

Tickets £15 include quiz, fish and chips, and welcome glass of wine. If you have any dietary requirements please let us know we can provide Gluten free fish and chips or a vegetarian alternative.

Last October we had a very full Church Hall to enjoy a great fun night for our fish and chips quiz. Our wonderful quiz masters Chris Tann and Jon Stitcher have “volunteered” to do it all again this year.

Come along as a team or take pot luck

Tickets are £15 from Eve Sorrell 14 Pikes Hey Road Caldy CH48 1PB or book on line at caldysociety.org

Caldy Community Gardening Caldy residents come together, with a spot of ‘Community Gardening’ every now and then, trying to make a little difference in the Village.

Our recent big achievement was in persuading Vodaphone to donate daffodil bulbs for us to plant at the top of Melloncroft Drive, to replace those they churned up when they erected their mast. These were planted by the Caldy Society volunteers last autumn and what a magnificent display we were treated to this spring.

However, Caldy roundabout was a different matter. After the wonderful display of daffodils in the spring, we were then treated to a wonderful display of weeds. The Council had forgotten to weed it.

We are currently in discussions with the Council in the hope of making Caldy roundabout look a lot smarter in the future. The Council have very recently cut down the dead silver birch which we requested and have sent their landscape architect to advise us on which plants will best tolerate such poor, dry, soil. We have had a working party to tidy up various bits of land round the Village which we feel would benefit from some TLC, such as on the corner of Links Hey Road and Croft Drive East, and Barton Hey Drive.

Can you help on our ‘Community Action Days’? The sessions are only for about an hour, and we tackle one of these communal areas. Are you able to join us to help keep Caldy looking so very lovely? Or do you have any suggestions as to what other things we could do to improve the Village?

Please do contact Judy Wilcox /Rachel Summers/Marg Kalil, Caldy Society Tree and Planting Group, or any of the Caldy Society Committee, if you are able to help, or have any ideas. Contact details appear in this Newsletter.

Conservation & Planning Trees The Government had plans to force local Councils to consult residents before trees are cut down; if 50% of residents object to such cutting down, a public consultation must be held. Also, records of trees felled and replanted will have to be kept. We do not know if this will now enter law.

Local Plan Update The Government insists a minimum 803 new homes a year are built in Wirral over the next decade and a half - over and above any existing empty homes. Council deputy leader pledges ‘brownfield first’ development policy; 12,000 new homes must be built in Wirral by 2035.

Hoylake Golf Course Development Despite the Council having removed its financial backing for this scheme, it may yet go ahead if new money is found from other sources.

For more detailed information, please see the ITPAS and WGSA notices online.

Update On Green Belt On your behalf, I and my colleagues on the Committee of the Caldy Society have been attending the Council’s consultations and neighbourhood meetings regarding the Green Belt. This has been an arduous process as the Council did not always give all the relevant information at any particular meeting making questioning them difficult. It was also difficult to actually ask questions at these meetings and if one succeeded, often no satisfactory answers were forthcoming.

I have also been liaising with all the other neighbourhood groups and organisations campaigning against building on the Green Belt (the Green Alliance of 17+ groups).

Petitions against the Green belt development have gained 23,000 signatures.

We have attended as many meetings as possible and also met with Margaret Greenwood to enlist her support. She has already been in communication with the Council about this and received very poor replies to her questions. However, she has not given us any updates as yet. In addition, the Green belt activists have been interviewing local people about the Green belt and what they want

to happen and this can be found on YouTube. The recent changes in Government Ministers mean that we cannot be sure how the Council will now proceed, as new legislation may be forthcoming.

However, at present, the Government has said that targets given to Councils were not binding and that housing developments could be jointly arranged between Councils and their residents. Also, the ONS published new statistics on housing need which roughly halved the targets Councils needed to aim for. This made the Consultation process even more complicated for all concerned. In addition, Peel Holdings are in dispute with the Council about how the companies plans for regeneration and rebuilding are being handled.

The Caldy Society, on your behalf, instructed a company Leith Planning to prepare a submission which was presented to the Council opposing the development of the land abutting Stapleton Wood and adjoining Caldy roundabout, designated as SP013. The report was powerful and opposed the Council’s plans on several important points. Briefly, as well as using Planning Law to show that the Council have not shown that they have explored thoroughly alternative options in their Local Plan before considering using Green Belt, we argued the importance of the considering using Green Belt, we argued the importance of the

biodiversity of the site, it’s buffer role, that fact that this land is classed as good agricultural land, which is in short supply in Wirral. Most damning the report states that the Council has not given sufficient details for the Local Plan to be fit for purpose.

This was submitted in October 2018.

We have had no response from the Council.

I cannot comment on the role that Leverhulme estates is playing in all of this but there are rumours that farmers say farms will be taken for use as building land, but I have no evidence for this.

In summary, we have hope that, because of the amateur way the Council have developed the Local plan, together with the very strong local opposition to their plans to build on the Green belt, there will be a rethink by the Council of their strategy. This whole exercise has only been a consultation one and further drafts of the Plan could be prepared after December’s Council meeting.

We have, as yet, not heard from the Council about this.

The deadline for a completed and legal Plan to be submitted to the Secretary of State is September 2019 (this may change|).

I therefore urge everyone to continue to write to the Council, opposing their plans. We must keep up the pressure on them, particularly now that there is a new Leader of the Council.

Gardening Jobs for September and October

Planting time is here An opportunity to fill gaps or replace misfits. Whilst the soil is still warm, plant trees, shrubs and perennials. Plant new climbers and lilies, and biennials such as wallflowers and foxgloves. Keep watered if the weather is not damp enough to do it for you.

Choose bulbs, but don’t plant tulips until November, to protect them from damage by the fungal disease Tulip Fire.

Lawncare Lawncare should involve keeping leaves from settling, scarification, aeration and top dressing.

A lot of bird activity in the grass might mean leatherjackets are present. If so, there is a treatment for the problem if it is seriously damaging the turf.

Cuttings and Seeds Take cuttings of half hardy plants.

Collect seeds and store or give away in clearly labelled paper bags.

Divide primroses and pot up or replant.

Roses Prune climbing roses as flowering finishes Rose leaves with black spot should ideally be burnt; clearing them from the soil surface and brown binning should be as effective.

Fallen Leaves Rake and remove leaves as soon as they fall Trim hedges Hedges need trimming now. Hawthorn, yew, beech and leylandii need tidying as soon as any bird nesting activity is over.

It is an offence to damage or destroy the nest of a wild bird whilst it is being built or is in use Summer Bulbs Lift and store summer flowering bulbs before they rot in wet soil.

Weeding Try to keep on top of the weeding, a weed removed now can save it seeding and multiplying whilst your back is turned.

Containers Reduce feeding of planted containers.

On behalf of the Caldy Society committee I would like the thank all those members who have paid their membership which allows us to continue to fund the Christmas Tree at the Church, the lighting of the Church at night, the free Carols on the Green and refreshments, the newsletters, bulbs and plants for the village and the consultants we have to bring in sometimes on things such as the Greenbelt issues.

If you would like to join, registration online is simple, secure and strongly recommended via our website: www.caldysociety.org However, the form below is provided for those who still wish to subscribe by cheque. If you are unsure if you are a member or not, please contact Richard Lloyd: subscriptions@caldysociety.org

Membership Form Name: .................................................................................................................................................................

Address : ........................................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................................................................................

Tel: ....................................................................................

Mobile: ..........................................................................

Email: .................................................................................................................................................................

Please make cheques (£10 per household per year) payable to: “The Caldy Society” I would like to ‘top up’ my cheque for membership renewal with a donation towards the Caldy bulb planting of £………

Please complete and return this form with your cheque to: The Hon Treasurer, Dr D Lamont 10 Caldy Chase Drive Caldy WIRRAL CH48 2LD