RYDA Newsletter 08/2022

We are so fortunate to live in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Not only have we had an abundance of rare orchids this year, we also have had an abundance of wild life, some of which has returned after a long absence.

Pictures speak louder than words; so courtesy of Steve Herring, here are some stunning photographs of wild life in our area.

Aren’t the beautiful.

What have you seen?

Send your pictures to rydamembers@yahoo.co.uk.

CANCELLED EVENT

We apologize to anyone who may have been disappointed by the cancellation of the “Flower Pot Trail” on 30/31st July.

This was due to lack of support. The recent weather has made it more difficult to grow things in pots.

We hope some people have taken away the message of the need for plants with nectar for the bees and insects.

Anyone who would like their entry fee refunded should email me:

angelamacpherson2@gmail.com.

SERVICE UPDATE

A joint statement from South Hams District Council and FCC Environment Limited on South Hams recycling, waste, street and toilet cleaning services:

“This morning (12/7/22) the Executive of South Hams District Council considered a report, with advice from the Council’s Waste Working Group, advising that the authority and FCC Environment have reached mutual agreement to end their contract for waste, recycling, street and toilet cleaning services.

“Both parties agree that the past few years have presented a number of extremely challenging circumstances. In the best interests of the residents of the South Hams, it is proposed that the services will be operated by the Council from Monday, 3 October, 2022.

“We will work closely together to ensure a smooth transfer of the services, and keep you informed as we make progress.

“The Executive are recommending that the Council approves the proposals when it meets on Thursday 14 July.”

https://southhams.gov.uk/service-update

improvement over the last 2 decades. During this time levels of E. coli recorded towards the bottom of the River Yealm at Puslinch Gauging Station, only a few hundred metres below the popular swimming hole at “Pimple Rock”, have consistently remained at levels classified as ‘poor’ by the EA for inland bathing waters.

Furthermore, higher levels of contamination at the lower end of River Yealm catchment have been consistently recorded 1 or 2 days after heavy rainfall, indicating inputs from storm sewage outlets and/or agricultural run-off.

“Pimple Rock”

Local action to make the River Yealm safer for bathing once again

There are of course some things that all of us can do to make discharges to the River Yealm safer. We flush away far too many environmentally damaging contaminants that should never enter the system at all, such as single use cleaning products and sanitary items.

But by far the biggest polluter is the fact that surface water is run off into the sewage system resulting in regular overflows containing harmful bacteria and viruses from human and animal faeces, especially during episodes of heavy rain.

The River Yealm flows through the six parish councils of Wembury, Brixton, Yealmpton, Newton & Noss, Cornwood and Sparkwell. They have come together with other local organisations within the River Yealm Water Quality Group, to discuss how best to establish both the extent and sources of pollution, including how it might be mitigated.

We know the Environment Agency (EA) has struggled to maintain its programme of monitoring, due to progressive funding and personnel cuts. Since 2010, funding has been cut by nearly two thirds, from £120m to £43m. This has to cover monitoring of both air and water qualities, enforcement of environmental protection regulations, prosecutions, illegal waste sites and responding to environmental incidents. The Chair of the EA has said that the agency can no longer respond to anything other than the most serious environmental incidents, and has instructed staff to no longer investigate anything other than these.

In a related initiative, the Yealm Estuary to Moor project (YEM) is helping to coordinate voluntary sampling for measures of water quality along the full length of river, as part of the Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) Citizen Science Investigation. YEM and WRT also plan to obtain a probe that will monitor our river water quality continuously, with the primary objective of providing real time alerts by mobile phone of pollution events, thereby enabling immediate responsive investigation and sampling to help manage improvements.

YOU CAN HELP Volunteers and/or donations to help with this planned water quality monitoring and sampling would be most welcome. If you have any suggestions, or can help, please contact the River Yealm Water Quality Group (clerk@brixtonparishcouncil.org.uk) and/or the Yealm Estuary.

Peter Brown 5-Parish water quality group

The following item was sent to us by the Yealm Environmental Group

Wouldn’t it be nice to ……….. safely bathe in the River Yealm again?

The River Yealm is a short, but beautiful, river only 12 miles long from its source on Dartmoor at Yealm Head, to its exit into the sea at the Bar Mouth in the Yealm Estuary. Over the years many families have enjoyed bathing in the river – including the popular swimming hole at “Pimple Rock’ in Yealmpton. More recently the seven Parish Councils that the river runs through have become increasingly concerned about the water quality. In particular, sewage pollution and they want to do something about it.

One of the biggest culprits is heavy rainfall resulting in surface storm water being drained into sewage treatment plants, overwhelming the capacity of the system. These sewage overflows are only supposed to occur in ‘exceptional circumstances’, but local people report that some discharges are almost continuous.

River water quality – a national disgrace!

Sadly, over the past 10 years, investment and improvements to our drainage and sewage treatment systems have been limited. United Kingdom water companies have chosen to pay £57bn in dividends to shareholders – that’s almost half the inadequate £132bn spent in making infrastructure fit for the 21st century.

We know that there are a lot of bacteria and viruses present in our river water. These show that human or animal faeces may be present including intestinal enterococci and/or E. coli. together with viruses, also derived from faeces, that can cause illness.

We’ve responded to local reports of suggested pollution along the length of the River Yealm, and we are analysing monitoring data held by the local water company, South West Water (SWW) and its regulator, the Environment Agency (EA), including the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS). The EA records from 2007 to 2016 showed that average concentrations of intestinal enterococci at Kitley Lake outflow in the Yealm estuary were as much as 13 times more than the average recorded at Hele Cross, high up the River Yealm, close to Dartmoor. Worse, these and other data for E. coli show no

South Hams Council are seeking your views on what you like about your local area and what could be improved. We would be delighted if you share your views with the RYDA as well as contributing to the Consultation

(See item below)

My Place, My Views

South Hams District Council, in partnership with West Devon Borough Council and Plymouth City Council, has launched a new consultation asking local residents what they like about their neighbourhood and what could be improved.

The survey, My Place, My Views, is open for comments until 5pm on 17 October 2022 and residents can fill out the survey by visiting: https://pshwd.commonplace.is/

Anyone who fills out the survey can opt into a raffle with gift vouchers of up to £100 as prizes. These can be spent across a range of dining, entertainment and experiences across the South Hams, West Devon and Plymouth.

The comments will help shape important future conversations about the Joint Local Plan.

If you want to contact the Joint Local Plan team directly e-mail jointlocalplan@plymouth.gov.uk

We have received an apology for postponing the Talk by Johnny Mercer owing to the onset of covid amongst the management Team.

Planning

Poppy Cottage, Riverside Road West. Application Ref: click on link: 2319/22/CLP

This is an application for a Certificate of Lawfulness to confirm that the proposed construction of two, relatively large, single storey outbuildings, each over 13 metres long, for “incidental” use in a prominent position near the waterside, at the rear of Poppy Cottage, can be constructed without planning permission as ‘Permitted Development’.

The two buildings are intended for use, in one case as a gymnasium, and hobby room, with a shower and sauna, and the other building as an art room and music room with a toilet. Both buildings have large areas of glazing but there is no information on the levels of lighting, both of which may present light pollution issues, a concern so near the water. However, it may be that the provision of facilities, normally included in a dwelling house, such as a toilet, would not constitute “incidental use”.

You may remember that an earlier application at this site for a cottage of similar proportions to Poppy Cottage was refused, due to an increase in the density and subsequent overdevelopment in an area designated as low density, contrary to Policy N3P-3 of the Neighbourhood Plan. The proposal would have resulted in a detrimental impact on the landscape setting and character of the AONB, Heritage Coast, and the setting of the adjacent Conservation Area and the setting of an adjacent grade II listed building.

These proposed buildings will be at the maximum permitted height of 4 metres. The Art / Music Room, situated behind Poppy Cottage, will, by virtue of the rising ground level, be above the height, of the main residence. Being 7 metres from the main house, this may be seen as not “immediately adjacent” and therefore unacceptable, as the height of the building, should be measured from the highest ground level immediately adjacent to the main house to its highest point.

If confirmed as “Permitted Development” then normal planning control criteria may not apply, although strict adherence to the limitations of “Incidental use” should be applied.

Riversmead 2 Church Park Road - 1859/22/HHO

This is the third application for the refurbishment & re-modelling of this house, including demolition of the existing conservatory to be replaced with new rear & front extension. These changes have gone some way to mitigate neighbours’ concerns, although some issues of potential overlooking from the large deck area remain.

Cleeve, 83 Court Road - 2169/22/HHO

This application is for an office extension over an existing garage, reglazing with period fenestration, partial cladding & internal reorganisation. The property has been extensively expanded in the past and occupies a prominent position overlooking the river and protected woodland. The main area of concern is the proposal to build over a garage thus increasing the visual impact, although the existence of the garage is disputed.

Several neighbours have raised objections based on the visual impact and overdevelopment of the site. As can be seen from the photograph below, the current building presents an extended elevation to the south, the proposal would add to the west side of the current building.

View from Passage Road:

What's On?

If you have an event coming up you would like members to know about please send it to rydamembers@yahoo.co.uk. and we will do our best to include it on time.

There is NO Thursday Lunch Club @ Noss Mayo during August

See you In September on 22nd, for good company and a fabulous lunch

Wembury Pirate Day & Treasure Hunt

Sun, Aug 7, 11:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Tots & Toddlers Rockpool safari

Wed, Aug 10, 10:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Rockpool Safari

Thu, Aug 11, 11:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Night-Time Rockpool Safari

Thu, Aug 11, 22:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £8.00

Rockpool Safari

Fri, Aug 12, 12:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Celebrating 60 Years Wild - Snorkel Safari

Sat, Aug 13, 12:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £25.00

Celebrating 60 Years Wild - Extreme Rockpool Safari

Sun, Aug 14, 13:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £7.00

Yealm Parchment Craft

WI Hall, Newton Ferrers

Next lesson 19^th August 2022 2-4 pm

Project: White work & Dorso– Brambles

Equipment supplied if you don’t have it

£8 per session

Tel Lesley 07838375449 for details

Rockpool Safari with a Shoresearch Survey

Tue, Aug 16, 14:30

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Tots & Toddlers Rockpool Safari

Fri, Aug 26, 11:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Rockpool Safari

Sat, Aug 27, 12:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Rockpool Safari

Tue, Aug 30, 13:00

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £5.00

Snorkel Safari

Wed, Aug 31, 12:30

Wembury Marine Centre • Wembury Starts at £25.00

Please note:

The Gentle Exercise Group will only be taking place on the 9^thof August as the physios are having a well-earned break.
The Singing Along Group will not be meeting in August as so many folks are on holiday.
If you would like to be part of the Carer Support Group on Zoom, then please do get in touch, we welcome new members.
You can help us by printing the diary sheet out and giving it to a friend or family member.
You can help us by following us on Facebook.
You can also help us by coming along, joining in with one or more of our groups and having fun!!