The University of East Anglia (UEA), like many universities has been facing serious financial restraints on their spending, and so when the UEA boardwalk needed replacing the university was unable to do this from its own funds. Recognising the importance of the boardwalk to the local community, UEA has provided instead strong staffing support to seek funds from elsewhere, including the Greater Norwich Growth Board and the National Lottery. At a meeting with the Yare Valley Society on Wednesday 28th August, ways in which bids can be carried forward with YVS, and other voluntary organisations, were explored.
No go section of Yare Valley Walk necessitates detour
The UEA team and the Yare Valley Society sends a big thank you for the generous donations and support, and UEA has issued an update on the progress made so far. If you have not already done so, there is still time to make your donation. It is pleasing to report that the amount of £1800 raised quoted in the update is already out of date. It is now well over £2000, please keep it rising. Being able to show strong community is essential if bids are to be successful.
Please donate online at www.uea.ac.uk/dare-to-do-different. Or, to discuss your gift, please get in touch with the Development, Alumni and Campaigns Office.
Nothing planned for the Yare Valley this month. The nearest volunteering site to the Valley that is available is Earlham Cemetery. There is a range of activities on a variety of sites, and so take a look through the programme here to see what might appeal to you.
FREE bus travel for ALL days this month – tickets refunded for all volunteers for any bus journeys to and from either of our meeting points on the day.
More about the Conservation Volunteers is on their website.
Please help YVS to safeguard the Valley by responding to a consultation on the likely impact of installing pylons, solar panels, and other energy developments in the Yare Valley.
Pylons on Marston Marsh?
The Background
South Norfolk District Council is consulting on a draft Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) which deals with Landscape Susceptibility in relation to Energy Generation, Storage and Transmission as it relates to Local Character Areas* (LCAs) within its boundaries. It has drafted assessments of how susceptible the LCAs are to the development of solar photovoltaic panels, anaerobic digestion (AD) plants, battery storage facilities, overhead powerlines including 400kV lines that utilise the largest pylons (35-50m), underground cable routes, and substations. Among the LCAs assessed is LCA F1: Yare Valley Urban Fringe which is a part of South Norfolk that lies in the Yare Valley on the south side of the Norwich boundary (the river is the boundary).
The Yare Valley Society is concerned that the present draft susceptibility assessment in the consultation does not take fully into account the special circumstances of LCA F1. It is unique amongst the LCAs of South Norfolk, lying as it does in an urban fringe and forming part of the larger Yare Valley Green Infrastructure Corridor.
YVS is pressing for LCA F1 to have a special status and be included in the main body of the report under its own separate section. The YVS case for special status is here.
For a second submission to South Norfolk Council, YVS is preparing a detailed response to Appendix 3 Landscape Susceptibility Analysis of F1 (Pages 76 to 85). You might like to have a look at this and send in your comments to Planning at South Norfolk (email above).
Thank you for caring for the Valley
*Local Character Area status provides a degree of protection from inappropriate development. In the case of the Yare Valley LCA this is reflected in Policy DM 4.5 Landscape Character and River Valleys: “All development should respect, conserve and where possible, enhance the landscape character of its immediate and wider environment. Development proposals that would cause significant adverse impact on the distinctive landscape characteristics of an area will be refused. …”
Some welcome news on the UEA Boardwalk. Norwich City Council have agreed to sponsor the UEA application to the Greater Norwich Growth Board (GNGB) for a grant to replace and improve the UEA Yare Valley Boardwalk. If the UEA application to the GNGB is successful, the funding could become available from April 2026.
Part of the unsafe existing boardwalk Photo:UEA
To avoid the bird nesting season, which spans March to September, work to remove the old boardwalk and replace it with the new one will not take place until October 2026. In the meantime, when possible, the UEA grounds team will clear vegetation and cut back along the pathways to make the project easier for when it finally gets underway.
If you have not already done so there is still time to show community support for replacing the Boardwalk by donating to the UEA fund: under “Our Causes” be sure to select “Restore our Boardwalk”.
Another full programme from Mark Webster that has four opportunities for improving the ecology of the Valley. On Tuesday 5th and Monday 11th the team will be removing ragwort from the areas grazed by horses in Bowthorpe Southern Park. On the Fridays of the 22nd and 29th the team will be improving conditions for wildflower growth at the Eaton Burial Ground.
Matt Tomlinson of the Yare Valley Meadow Makers invites you to join the Meadow Makers work party on Marston Marsh to collect yellow rattle seed. This is becoming an annual event. The rattle seed will be used to promote wildflower growth on the Strawberry Field and UEA meadows.
Yellow rattle features on UEA Meadows interpretation board
Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is semi parasitic and feeds on the nutrients in the roots of adjacent grasses. In this way it suppresses the grass growth and creates more space for wildflowers to flourish.
There will be an evening session on Thursday 17th of July 7-9pm and an afternoon session on Saturday 26th of July 2-4pm.
All are welcome. Meet at MARSTON MARSH at ///found.maker.rocky (Marsh entrance near where the golf course crosses Marston Lane)
No tasks in the Yare Valley this month, but a chance to see some other beautiful hidden riversides while balsam pulling. At some locations, where facilities are limited, there will be the opportunity to try out a portable loo that is being trialled. The full programme is here.
All who value the green space of the Yare Valley are welcome to come along to the Yare Valley Society AGM and Talk:
The AGM will be held first, and take about 30 minutes. Papers for the AGM will be in the next YVS Newsletter, due out early June. The AGM will be followed by the talk by Tom Everett, the UEA Landscape Manager.
Many will already be familiar with the environmental attractions of the UEA Campus with its nature trails, tree trails and Dutch silent garden.
Detail from a UEA display board (located at red dot)
The UEA Landscape Team, supported by volunteers, seeks continually to improve the ecology of of the Campus’s meadows, woodland, and wetlands.
All the papers for the AGM are at the end of the June Newsletter to be found here.
Some MUCH needed rain is falling as I write this, but we won’t let that dampen our spirits as summer ends and spring begins, or so it seems! Many thanks to all who worked so hard on the construction projects* over the last couple of months: the waymarking trail and handrail at Queen’s Hills are things everyone can all be proud of. I am also glad so many of our volunteers were able to enjoy the jolly trips in May (and we’ve already got ideas for next year lined up!) Special thanks to all our Easton students this month, it’s been great having them all with us. I know many of you will be leaving us shortly as you courses come to an end, but I understand that some of you might stay for the summer, and some of you may be back next autumn. If you are heading off to new challenges, we all wish you the best of luck for your future careers. So, looking forward now, it’s that invasive species time of year, as we race against time to stop bracken and Himalayan Balsam from smothering everything in sight (or should that be that everything on site) which gives us the chance to visit some beautiful areas in their prime: balsam is growing all along the lovely Wensum Valley from its upper tributaries to the centre of Norwich, and it’s up to us to stop it from invading the Broads downstream. No less than THREE new sites to explore this month where we will be both hunting balsam and cutting back along pathways so that more people can enjoy these sites (even if they are walking arm-in-arm in flip-flops). Meanwhile bracken is growing all over fascinating heathlands like East Ruston and Mousehold… so keep sending people our way please folks.
In the past year or so, representatives from the Yare Valley Society have participated in consultations and workshops to guide the formulation of a new updated Green Infrastructure Strategy for Greater Norwich for up to 2038. The Greater Norwich Growth Board has now approved the Strategy and this month YVS representatives attended its official launch at the Sainsbury Centre at UEA.
UEA Iris has a visitor Photo: Rachel Taylor
The Strategy focuses on “delivering multiple benefits: nature-rich places, active and healthy communities, thriving economies, improved water management, and resilient climate-positive environments. … [It is] … a significant milestone, which paves the way for a greener, more connected Greater Norwich.”
For an overall view of the entire Strategy go to Greater Norwich Green Infrastructure Strategy Story Map.
You can explore the hoped for outcomes of the Strategy by going to the Strategy Documents and selecting the Strategic Delivery Plan 2025-2030 and look at the Proposed Strategic Green Infrastructure Initiatives in its Delivery Programme.
This news item will focus on the initiatives that relate to the key role the Yare Valley has in the Strategy as a Strategic Green Infrastructure (GI) Corridor.
Reproduced by kind permission of the Greater Norwich Growth Board
The Yare Valley Society has long pressed for the Valley Corridor to be regarded as a single entity in planning, and this long held vision is promoted in the “Southern Norwich Yare Valley Parkway” initiative. The initiative will “encourage projects that support development of a major linear park connecting a potential new country park at Bawburgh and Colney Lakes west of Norwich with Whitlingham Country Park to the east, including completion of the Yare Valley Walk and improved links to the city centre, as well as potential links to the Wensum Corridor in Norwich and to the west, and restoration of floodplain fen habitats and riparian woodland along the river corridor”
Other initiatives indicate how the Parkway is to be embedded in the wider green infrastructure.
The Parkway will be linked to the “Norwich Green Grid Corridors” initiative. The initiative will “encourage projects that support enhancement of Green Grid Corridors within the densely built-up Norwich Urban Area, creating a strong and multifunctional green network connecting Norwich to the wider strategic GI network – through access improvements, including new/enhanced green spaces and waterside access, urban greening, food growing spaces, protecting and enhancing wildlife sites, and enhancing the City’s landscape setting (including wooded valley sides and ridgelines in particular)”
The Parkway will also link via green corridors to the Wensum Valley, to the surrounding country towards Wymondham and towards the Waveney Valley Strategic Green infrastructure corridor.
The “South Norwich to the Waveney Valley” initiative will “encourage projects that support enhancement of the Boudicca Way between Norwich and Diss including as access improvements and creating new circular walks linked to the Norfolk Trails network to align with the Norfolk Access Improvement Plan 2019–2029, and improved connectivity and enhancement of hedgerows and woodland habitats.”
The South-West Norwich to Wymondham will “encourage projects that support enhancement of the Strategic GI Corridor linking South-West Norwich with Wymondham including new and improved accessible greenspace, public rights of way network improvements and new greenways, pond restoration/creation, and expanding, strengthening and linking woodland, grassland and hedgerows”
These corridors are also intended to connect the Parkway to the existing Country Park of Ladybelt and to a potential new country park southeast of Norwich. The Parkway itself would provide a link between the existing Whitlingham Country Park and the proposed Bawburgh/Colney Lakes Country Park.
The Potential New Country Parks initiative will “encourage projects for the creation of new country parks potentially located to the west of Norwich at Bawburgh/Colney Lakes, to the south east of Norwich in the Caistor St Edmund area (focused around High Ash Farm/Venta Icenorum Roman Settlement) and to the north-east of Norwich.
These new county parks would provide additional larger-scale accessible greenspace to meet the needs of a growing population. They would also provide Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace to address recreational impacts from visitor pressures of new development on wildlife sites protected under the Habitat Regulations in line with the Norfolk Green Infrastructure & Recreational Impact Avoidance and Mitigation Strategy”
Finally blue space has not been forgotten, of particular relevance to Bawburgh Lakes is the Blue Spaces initiative which will “encourage projects for the creation and enhancement of blue spaces, such as the restoration of gravel pits within river valleys to provide nature-rich wetland habitats and opportunities for access and water-focused leisure activities”
So far so good, and the Yare Valley Society welcomes the new Green Strategy as providing a clear vision for the future. Its success as a Strategy will depend partly on the funding available and partly on how much it becomes an integral part of the thinking for the planning and the policies of all the local authorities of the Greater Norwich Growth Board area.
