Six Green Flag Awards
Six Green Flag Awards
Six Green Flag awards was our tally for this year putting us well ahead of any other village in the UK and with more awards than most towns. The Green Flag Award programme is delivered in Wales by environmental charity, Keep Wales Tidy, with support from Welsh Government. It is judged by green space experts, who volunteer their time to visit applicant sites and assess them against eight strict criteria, including biodiversity, cleanliness, environmental management and community involvement. Our success is down to our few active volunteers and the support of the landowners, the Reader farmers and the Vale of Glamorgan Council. The sites now include the Upper Orchid Field, Community Orchard, Elizabethan Orchard, Wild Orchard, Welsh Orchard and now, Goldsland Farm. Why not visit some of them during August? We have led two guided walks so far this year and plan to do more.
Thanks are due to the Village Hall Committee for donating their old noticeboard to the group. With some adjustments and refurbishment, we plan to put the noticeboard up at Goldsland Farm either in the orchard or the new Pollinator Patch. We had fine weather for our Poisonous Plants walk with visitors from Barry and Cardiff joining Wenvoe residents.We would have had more but on a day when Culverhouse Cross was gridlocked, Five Mile Lane virtually impassable and the road past Dyffryn House closed, several gave up and went home. A pity as the weather was ideal.
We found 8 poisonous plants and trees in the middle of Wenvoe and a further 24 in the hedgerows and orchards. Whilst cases of poisoning are very rare, they do still happen often to children and those foraging so it is as well to know your plants.
One of the least pleasant tasks we undertake is to empty the dog-poo bin on the Upper Orchid Field. Dog-owners are very good at making use of the bin and the field has very little litter on it. The bin contents are emptied into bins in the village which are collected by the Council although they will not empty the bin on the field. Although we have been doing this for 8 years there have been instances recently where we have been challenged by local residents who presumably assume we are depositing household rubbish in the bins – hopefully now you will understand what we are doing and why.
