I have taken on the job of writing a biodiversity plan for Llangrannog Community Council in Llangrannog parish. I’m a new member of the Council and want to do something useful, and with an interest in the local environment (especially the sea, as a surfer and sailor), this is an aspect of the CC’s work I can get really passionate about!
I attended a fascinating webinar last week with Rachel Carter through One Voice Wales, the organisation which supports town and community councils.
It dealt with Section 6 of the Environment Act, which deals with the duty of public bodies towards the environment, and the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (which is a great piece of legislation; we’ll see how it works in practice).
Ceredigion County Council, like all the others, has an Ecology team and a Nature Recovery Action Plan. We now have to look at this and create/develop our own report which shows how we as a Community Council include biodiversity in all our decisions (e.g. planning consultations we are invited to comment on, new roads and so on).
Our Community Council created a report in 2022 and this next one is due by the end of 2025. I hope to have it done well before that so we can begin to action it, and liaise with 4Llan and the Llangrannog Welfare Committee locally to put some ideas into action.
Things I want to include so far are:
- Putting biodiversity info on our website
- Involve members of the public/relevant organisations (KWT, 4Llan, SAS, Marine Wildlife Centre, WestWales Wildlife Trust – so many!)
- Ensure the Biodiversity Action Plan is used (not just a document filed away)
- Ensure it is a fixed agenda item for regular updates (yearly?)
- Research invasive species
- Water pollution in our area
- LERC citizen science
- Letting people know – Llangrannog Hwb Facebook page, CC website, local news outlets
- Funding for local projects e.g. Local Places for Nature – share info, support bids, match fund. Ideas such as the apple trees in Llangrannog, fixing the path to the local caves etc.