Witney, Carterton and Chipping Norton GROUP Thursday, October 12 - Wednesday, October 18, 2017
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Painting the town pink for breast cancer Page 20
‘Haven for wildlife’ created Hey Oxford. thanks to public donations
Let’s go.
By George Welch WILDLIFE lovers have helped raise £220,000 to create the fi rst nature reserve that covers both sides of the River Thames. Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), which raised a further £355,000 in grants to buy the land at Duxford Old River, aimed to make a splash when it announced its fundraising campaign in July. The 113 acres of farmland on the southern banks of the Thames near Bampton is just over the river from the trust’s 645-acre Chimney Meadows nature reserve. This makes the west Oxfordshire site one of the largest nature reserves in the county and the fi rst to cover both sides of the river anywhere along the Thames. Donations came flooding in and, three months on from the launch of the campaign, work can now begin on merging the new site with Chimney Meadows. The charity is now planning to flood its new land and hold water in ponds and pools to provide much-needed and undisturbed habitats for curlew and lapwing to breed, and large flocks of birds such as snipe and teal to overwinter. New backwaters and a fish passage will give safe havens for fish to spawn and insects to thrive, providing more food for bats and birds. Chief executive of the Wildlife
Land at Duxford Old River Picture: Andrew Marshall Trust, Estelle Bailey said: “I’ve been astounded by the response to our public appeal and I’m delighted that so many people share our vision to create one of the largest nature reserves in Oxfordshire. “Creating a new nature reserve on both sides of the river is an exciting project and will create an important haven for the wildlife of the Upper Thames such as otters, curlew and dragonfl ies. “The farmland at Duxford Old River is a vast blank canvas with so much potential for wildlife. We’ll let Mother Nature take the lead, with just a little bit of help from us to get things going. “Now we can get onto the land and start planning for our work this winter and spring.” The trust secured £355,000 in grants, including £86,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and more from Viridor Credits Environmental Company, The Banister Charitable Trust, The Schroder Foundation, Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE2) and Grundon Waste Management.
Pupils plant purple crocuses for polio THOUSANDS of purple flowers will blossom in Eynsham, thanks to charitable schoolchildren. The rotary club of Eynsham hosted an event on Tuesday at Bartholomew School to raise awareness and ‘rid the world’ of polio, a debilitating disease.
The children helped plant 5,000 purple crocuses but will not be able to see the results of their hard work until January, when the flowers bloom. In what turned out to be a very busy day for the charity, another 5,000 crocuses were planted
on the verge at the toll-bridge roundabout. Once vaccinated for polio, children are identified by dipping their little finger in purple dye, a colour which has since been adopted for the charity’s campaign.