For just £3 a month you could help ensure these wonderful sites are safeguarded for everyone’s enjoyment now and in the future.

The wonderful outdoor spaces managed by Shropshire Council are important for health and wellbeing, the local economy, wildlife and heritage. The Shropshire’s Great Outdoors Membership Scheme is an entirely voluntary opportunity for those that are passionate about the Country Parks and Heritage Sites to help safeguard them for the future.

Your contributions will help us continue to manage these sites beyond the minimum level required for health and safety and ensure they are accessible to as many people as possible.

The statutory responsibility for maintaining Rights of Way remains with the Council and will continue to be funded. The scheme may, however, help with those improvements that are beyond the statutory minimum, such as development of promoted routes like the Shropshire Way, and replacing stiles with gates or resurfacing to a higher standard to improve access for those who are less mobile.

The priorities for the management of Rights of Way and our outdoor spaces are shown in the Countryside Access Strategy, which is due to be rewritten next year, when we will be consulting local people on the priorities for the next 10 years. The delivery of this strategy is guided by Shropshire’s Local Access Forum, which advises the Council. Contributions to this scheme will help meet those priorities.

We would also like to do more to promote and upgrade access to Shropshire’s great outdoors through the extensive network of footpaths and bridleways across the county – one of the largest networks in the Country!

All proceeds raised through the Great Outdoors membership scheme will go to:

• Support your local Country Park, Countryside Heritage Site or local Rights of Way
• Keep these sites and routes accessible and looked after for everyone to enjoy
• Help us encourage people to get out and active in the countryside
• Improve access to Shropshire’s Countryside
• Encourage the development of promoted walking, cycling and horse riding routes across the county and other outdoor activities
• Improve habitat management, encourage wildlife and help look after important historic monuments

Your support will help enable us to retain our specialist staff, who can apply for funding for new projects that help people enjoy the parks, sites and Rights of Way

In return, we will give you:

• A Shropshire’s Great Outdoors membership card, which will entitle you to free parking at the Country Parks
• Special members-only events and guided walks
• Information about upcoming events and the latest news
• Family Friendly walks brochure, with some great short walks for all at our sites
• A priority copy of future walking and riding leaflets/booklets

The Southern Shropshire LEADER programme’s next funding round opens on Wednesday 4th January 2017 and closes on Monday 8th February 2016 (future funding rounds will  open later in the year).

The Southern Shropshire LEADER Local Action Group has approved 10 projects with a total grant allocation to date of £305,250.  The 10 projects, of which 8 are now contracted, are forecast to create 13.8 new jobs, this equates to £22,611.67 of LEADER intervention per full time equivent post. 

The first LEADER grant intervention supported a business involved in the creation of locally sourced wood chips.

This project is concerned with the investment of a mobile wood chipping machine. The applicant will travel around farms chipping wood for livestock bedding and biomass boilers. The applicant aims to supply farmers with an affordable and sustainable wood chip solution, whilst diversifying and expanding his own small, family-run business in a sustainable way so the business is less reliant on income from traditional agriculture.

The LEADER Local Development Strategy seeks to implement the six national LEADER priorities:

• Increasing farm productivity in ways which enhance natural capital;
• Developing sustainable micro and small enterprises and farm diversification;
• Building rural tourism making the most of Shropshire’s assets;
• Improving rural services to support business growth and development;
• Enhancing the natural, cultural and heritage attractions of the area;
• Increasing woodland and forest productivity in ways which enhance natural capital.

Businesses, groups or organisations wishing to apply for funding will need to demonstrate a benefit to the local rural economy and a connection to the landscape which should contribute to the creation of jobs or the development of businesses in the Southern Shropshire LEADER rural area.

The amount of grant available is dependent on the outputs of the project but a typical maximum grant will be between £35,000 and £40,000 (larger grants will be considered where significant outputs can are forecasted).

The next round of funding opens on Wednesday 4th January 2017.  Outline applications (OA) will need to be submitted by Wednesday 8th February 2017.  If your OA is deemed to be eligible and meets the local priorities of the Southern Shropshire LEADER Programme, you will be invited to the Full Application (FA) stage.  Please contact the LEADER Programme Manager to ascertain if the idea is suitable to make an application for LEADER funding.  If the project is seen to meet the LEADER requirements, you'll be sent an Outline Application form to complete and return.

To find out more about the Southern Shropshire LEADER programme or to discuss a potential project idea, please contact the LEADER Programme Manager at Shropshire Council on 01743 254796 or email.  Further details about the Southern Shropshire LEADER programme can be found at this link.

Earlier in the year the Outdoor Partnerships Service was approached by the Meres and Mosses Landscape Partnership Scheme to deliver some training to include Rights of Way Law and Practice; installation of access furniture and a brushcutter course.  On November 30th 2016 the first two of these sessions was delivered at Whixall Social Centre and the surrounding footpath network.  Shona Butter, Head of Mapping and Enforcement, gave two talks on the relative roles and responsibilities of the Local Authority and Landowners in maintaining Rights of Way.  Paul Butter and David Hardwick also held two sessions on installing kissing gates giving a hands-on experience for the attendees.  The day was a great success with 56 participants attending over the day and feedback from the event has been very positive.  The final part of these training session will be held before March when a brushcutter course will be offered to those who attended on the day.  We would like to thank the Meres and Mosses LPS for funding the training.

Things are slowly happening along the Shropshire section of Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail this year as we have managed to change most of the ordinary latches for “easy latches” on the wooden kissing gate along quite a bit of the trail, especially at Middle Knuck as part of an ongoing effort to help walkers travel the path as easily as possible. Several sections of stone filled steps in the south of the County have been repaired as the original timbers had rotted away.  Further step repair work is planned in the Weston Rhyn area where a section of steps and handrails have again deteriorated. 

The main project undertaken to date this year has been the drainage and surfacing work on part of the Trail between Springhill and Lower Spoad, near Newcastle on Clun, where a spring which flows across the route all year round causes the surface to become rather muddy with walkers have been diverting around for many years. 

The decline in bees and other pollinators is one of the most worrying problems facing humanity. These insects play a vital role in pollinating crops that we depend on for food production. Staff and volunteers at Shropshire Council are leading the way in creating habitat to allow these important insects to thrive. Their efforts have now been recognised in a national award scheme that celebrates the National Pollinator Strategy.

Shropshire Council has been given the Bees Needs Champions Award for creating over 5 hectares of pollen-rich hay meadows at Severn Valley Country Park in Alveley and Highley. The Minister for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity, Lord Gardiner, presented the award to the local authority at a high-profile event at Kew Gardens in London on Tuesday 8th November.

Speaking ahead of the Bees’ Needs Champions Awards, Lord Gardiner said:

“Pollinators are essential for food production and the environment. The Bees’ Needs champions show us how to keep our pollinators happy and healthy all year round, and their efforts are an inspiration for us all. They show that whether you have access to acres of land or just a window box, everyone can play a part in helping these vital insects thrive.”

Areas of coal spoil at Severn Valley Country Park have been transformed into species-rich hay meadows covered in native wildflowers. These provide a bumper nectar-source for pollinators. Volunteers have also installed bee hives and trained as bee-keepers, producing local honey. They have also put up nestboxes for solitary bees such as red-mason bees.

This autumn Outdoor Partnerships piloted a project called ‘Healthy Outdoors for Schools’, working with schools across the county.  The project aims to help schools to increase children’s activity levels, focuses on regular walking as it is an excellent way for all children, especially the least active to improve their physical fitness, stamina, self-confidence and well-being.

Planning for the project started earlier this year, details were sent out to the schools and twelve primary schools expressed an interest in participating.  Three schools were selected to take part in the initial pilot and we aim to roll the project out to other schools during next year.

We are tailoring our provision for each individual school depending on their location, grounds, needs and wishes. For example it may include supporting the school to start and develop the ‘Daily Mile’, providing walks leaders training for parents/teachers/teaching assistants to develop after school or lunchtime walking clubs, a tool-kit of ideas and links to useful resources for themed walks or developing a reward scheme for the schools to adopt.

We are currently working with two schools, St. George’s in Clun and St. Leonard’s in Bridgnorth, with a third shortly joining the pilot.  The support provided has included helping to set up the Daily Mile initiative in their schools, recceing and risk assessing school grounds and community routes, and also promoting local facilities (parks, sites, nature reserves and ROW) to encourage families to go on walks outside school hours.

Both schools started the Daily Mile as a whole school approach back in September and now approximately 364 pupils are now walking or running a mile a day within the school day with the initiative now fully embedded into the school day. A full evaluation is yet to be completed with the staff following the initial stage of the project but we have received positive feedback from the staff involved with comments including:

"They really love doing it…all join in and those who cannot run walk, they do it every day”.

“It’s great as refocuses them and they are ready to learn”

 “Some of the children in my class feel sense of achievement, they feel very proud. Those who have built up to running the mile and doing the 12 laps without stopping”

A bid for Big Lottery funding has be submitted which includes the Healthy Outdoors for Schools project and if successful it will enable us to expand the scheme and develop the project further.  For more information on please email Helen d’Albert or call on 01743 255059.