Latest News
what's going on in the cornwall aonb? read the stories below to find out.
Coastal breezes will power school
Specialist equipment helps local farmers
Highly Commended award for sustainable renovation of house
Biodiversity Improvement Grant
Bodmin Moor - Getting the balance right
Most Successful Penwith Farms are in the AONB
The landscape of Cornwall is the most visible sign of what is special about the county and it influences almost everyone’s daily life.
But it is different wherever we go. Sometimes the landscape contrast is dramatic – from wild moorland to tranquil wooded valleys. Sometimes it is subtle as in the type and nature of a field boundary in one area rather than another.
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Landscape Character Study 2005-2007 has been developed over the past two years to map and describe the different landscape areas of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in considerable detail.
The landscape descriptions, which include a vision for the future as well as planning and land management guidelines, will provide a guide to what is unique and distinct about the different areas of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. They will be used by planners and developers to guide development and ensure that Cornwall’s local distinctiveness is maintained, enhanced and restored. The Landscape Character Study also provides information for land managers to help them manage Cornwall’s landscapes into the future whilst having respect for the way land has been worked in the past.
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Landscape Character Study is now available to everybody who might be interested on an interactive website at
Information can be downloaded for the 40 Landscape Character Areas for Cornwall and over 300 smaller constituent Landscape Description Units (LDUs). LDU are the landscape building blocks of the study and similar LDUs have been grouped to form the Landscape Character Areas.
For more information on the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Landscape Character Study 2005-2007, please email: landscape@cornwall.gov.uk
The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership will be holding their Annual Conference on Saturday 17th May 2008 at the Pensilva Millennium Hall.
The Conference will offer a chance to learn about the work of the AONB Partnership. Presentations in the morning will be followed by a ‘field trip’ opportunity to experience aspects of the Bodmin Moor area of the Cornwall AONB.
The invited audience of 80 delegates will be made up of representatives of interest groups, local councillors, agencies and organisations.
If you would like further information about the Conference please contact the AONB Unit.
COASTAL BREEZES WILL POWER SCHOOL
A famous Cornish school has secured full funding to power its classrooms using the wind which batters the exposed coast where it stands.
Pupils at Gorran Primary School near St Austell, made famous by Anne Treneer’s autobiography ‘The Schoolhouse in the Wind’, are celebrating after being awarded £53,000 for a wind turbine generating most of its electricity.
Funding has been provided by £30,000 from EDF Energy’s Green Fund, £14,000 from the Low Carbon Building Programme, £6,530 from the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership and £2,200 from the Eco School’s Grant Programme.
The first stage of the work will begin this month when the foundations will be laid for the turbine, which will be installed around the middle of March. To coincide with the start of the project the children will be sealing their aspirations for the future of the Earth in a time capsule. The capsule will be buried by the foundations of the wind turbine until 2058, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the turbine.
The 15 metre tall turbine will generate 48,000kWh electricity to meet 90 per cent of the school’s electricity requirements and will reduce the school’s carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 21 tonnes each year. The turbine will help the school reduce its carbon emissions to minimal levels, cutting its £5,000 electricity costs and generating an income which the school plans to invest in other green projects, including the development of an outdoor classroom. In addition to powering lights and computers, a large part of the school will also be heated using electricity generated by the turbine.
Sue Hawken, the school governor who has led the project, said: “We are thrilled to have all the funding in place for our new wind turbine. The children have been involved every step of the way and they are very excited about it going up.”
“We are very close to Eden and want to teach our children about climate change, which is so far removed from their day-to-day experience. We looked at all the options but kept coming back to the fact we are on a headland battered by strong winds for seven to eight months of the year and we should make the most of a natural resource on our doorstep.”
“A wind turbine is a really visible example of the positive actions we can take to address climate change. It is really powerful for our children to grow up knowing they are making their own electricity from the wind. It’s fantastic for them to see the technology working.”
Peter Hofman, EDF Energy’s Director Sustainable Future, said: “This technology will give thousands of children a first-hand experience of renewable energy in their own school grounds. Young people have their whole lives ahead of them as energy consumers. As we face up to the challenges of global warming, education has a key role to play in shaping attitudes towards energy generation, consumption and efficiency. School buildings also account for a considerable amount of power use and this equipment will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while bringing lessons on climate change to life.”
Over the last year the school has implemented an education programme to better understand global warming. The children and their parents have been learning about the actions they can take at home and at school to reduce the impact of climate change, through simple steps such as turning off lights. The school has already installed an air source heat pump to heat the outdoor swimming pool, which is used by every child in the school daily from May to July due to its critical role in a coastal village like Gorran. The air source heat pump takes the surrounding heat out of the air and uses it to heat the pool.
The school has also formed a partnership with an Inuit School at Coppermine in the Canadian Arctic through a programme called Arctic Voice www.arcticvoice.org. Arctic Voice is an expedition by kayak through the Northwest Passage in the summers of 2007 and 2008 and an overland journey by ski and dog sled in the winter and spring of 2008. The aim is to meet residents of the Arctic to hear their story about the changes in weather patterns, early ice break-up and more dangerous hunting conditions. Last June the expedition leader, Glenn Morris, visited Gorran Primary School and took the children sea kayaking.
EDF Energy has awarded £3million to nearly 170 renewable energy projects since the Green Fund was launched in 2001. Its purpose is to showcase renewable energy projects which produce power from the sun, wind, water and geothermal sources that reduce the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
Awards of up to £30,000 are available for projects in England, Scotland and Wales and such funds have helped schools, charities, local authorities, churches, water mills and other non-profit organisations to generate clean, green energy in their own community. Larger grants of up to £50,000 were available previously for more exceptional schemes.
EDF Energy has supported the installation of a wide range of technologies, including wind turbines and solar panels, along with less well-established technologies such as biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps and micro hydropower generators.
The awards are provided by EDF Energy in partnership with customers who choose renewable energy for their home through its Green Tariff. This tariff gives consumers an active choice in driving demand for renewable energy as EDF Energy purchases renewable energy to the value of their consumption. Customers who join the tariff pay an extra 0.4p per unit of electricity they use, which is less than £15 a year for the average household. This money is matched pound for pound by EDF Energy to provide the grants awarded by the Green Fund.
SPECIALIST EQUIPMENT HELPS LOCAL FARMERS
Specialist equipment, to help rural farmers tend their livestock, is now available thanks to the HEATH Project and the AONB.
The HEATH project, with the help of Penwith District Council, the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership and the Penwith Farm Business Centre, has purchased a cattle crusher to help farmers access their animals while they are grazing away from the farm on local heathland.
Ross Champion, the HEATH project manager explained,”It’s great that the HEATH project can provide practical help to rural farmers to help them return grazing livestock to heathland areas.”
Robert Poole, from Penwith District Council, added, “If livestock become ill while grazing on heathland it’s often very difficult for a farmer or vet to get to them. The crusher enables the farmer to enclose livestock so the vet can treat the animal or test for TB there and then.”
John Foster from the Penwith Farm Business Centre added, “This crusher also provides farmers with the equipment needed to weigh their animals. This is essential in securing the right price for their meat when it goes to market. We have been working with the Meat and Livestock Commission to ensure farmers earn as much as they can from their livestock and it’s vital they know much each animal weighs.”
Pete Maxted from the AONB said, “Anything the AONB Partnership can do to help farmers in our region during these difficult times is really worthwhile. Cattle grazing is an essential land management method and helps keep the landscape in good condition. Without the hard work of the Penwith farming community our beautiful landscape would quickly return to featureless bracken-covered wasteland.”
The machinery can be hired by farmers as part of the farm share scheme, which is a non-profit making scheme to help farmers share machinery which they wouldn’t be able to afford themselves. If anyone is interested in finding more out about the scheme they should contact John Foster at Penwith Farm Business Centre.
The HEATH Project (Heathland, Environment, Agriculture, Tourism and Heritage) is working with heathland owners, managers and farmers in west Cornwall to help with the re-introduction of grazing, archaeological understanding and economic development of heathland. It aims to help landowners, managers and farmers to restore neglected heathland in a sustainable way to achieve its full potential for wildlife.
The project is a partnership which includes local farmers, commoners, Natural England, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, The National Trust, Cornwall County Council - Historic Environment Service and Penwith District Council. The HEATH Project is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the EU Interreg Fund.
'HIGHLY COMMENDED' AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE RENOVATION OF HOUSE
The National Trust has received an award in recognition of its sustainable renovation at Carleon House, Poltesco. The Trust was awarded 'Highly Commended' in the construction and renovation category. The award was presented to the Trust at the recently held National Energy Efficiency Awards, which recognise excellence in energy conservation and efficiency. The work undertaken at Carleon House, Poltesco, involved the sustainable renovation of a historic building which provides accommodation for volunteers working to conserve heritage, wildlife and the landscape of The Lizard Peninsula. The house was built in 1861 and came into the possession of the National Trust in 1991. It has been used to provide accommodation for long term volunteers since 1992.
When the Trust took over the house, it was in a very poor state of repair, and plans started to enable the renovations to take place. The project was funded by two legacies and the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnerships' Sustainable Development Fund. Since its completion, the house has set a benchmark for the Trust's work to reduce the environmental impact of its own operations.
The renovation of Carleon House was planned with environmental principle at its core. The accommodation now has high levels of insulation throughout using a sustainable product - sheep's wool, a new under floor heating system driven by a ground source heat pump linked to three 55-metre deep bore holes, and a solar panel for water heating. Rainwater is also collected from the roof and is used to flush the toilets in the building. The light bulbs and appliances in the house are energy efficient and natural paints and floor finishes have been used for decoration.
Mike Hardy, assistant property manager for South West Cornwall, said: "We were delighted to receive an award and recognition at this prestigious national event, which hopefully shows how good energy efficiency both helps the environment and saves money. Climate change is a common topic today but things like improving insulation and using low energy lighting show that individual action can really help make a difference."
UPLANDS IN DANGER
The greatest threat to the SW uplands is the loss of grazing animals and the decline in the number of the hill farmers with the necessary skills to manage the hills. All three uplands, Exmoor, Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, fall within the England’s Less Favoured Areas (LFAs) and Severely Disadvantaged Area (SDA) status applies to most of the moorland due to the naturally hard conditions that prevail and make it more difficult for farmers to compete. Farming the hills has never been easy and some form of financial support is essential. In the past hill farmers often worked in the local industries; quarrying and mining.
Those industries have long gone. On Dartmoor and Exmoor ESAs (Environmental Sensitive Area schemes) were introduced in 1993 to reward farmers for appropriate land management. On Bodmin Moor Countryside Stewardship (CSS) was promoted as part of the Bodmin Moor Special Project and the first agreements began in 2000. Take-up of these schemes was significant and 80% of hill farmers surveyed in 2007 were in an agri-environment scheme. Both the ESA and CSS are now closed to new applicants and Environmental Stewardship has replaced them. However the payment rates and the new schemes’ options often fail to recognise the unique characteristics of the SW region’s uplands and are proving less popular.
Worse still are the implications arising from the introduction of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS). This replaces a collection of support payments designed to help farmers. The SPS, together with the proposed reform of the Hill Farm Allowance, will significantly reduce the support to hill farmers, especially those that manage moorland and keep suckler cows (CRR, Exeter Univ.2004, and LUC Oct. 2006). Even before 2012 when the single payment becomes entirely area based many hill farmers will have to consider their future.
This trend has already begun. A survey of SW hill farmers in 2007 found that 43% had recently reduced their breeding beef herd and that in the future, improving the value of their livestock is for 67% of the respondents the only option. This frequently means moving away from hardy hill stock and concentrating of cattle less suitable for the moors. Without the hardy breeds and the skills of the hill farmers, the moors will change; archaeology will disappear and access become more difficult. Also, and probably more important, the tradition of common grazing in place for over 6,000 years will be broken and a unique community, part of the celebrated diversity of the South West, lost forever.
BIODIVERSITY IMPROVEMENT GRANT
Do you want to help Cornwall's wildlife and know of a project that will improve its opportunities?
For further information please click here.
FAL RIVER WALK
STUNNING scenery, five boat trips and a Cornish cream tea were up for grabs for participants of the first ever Fal River Walk around the estuary from Falmouth to St Mawes.
This unique 14-mile walk held on October 7th 2007, aimed to raise £10,000 for Save the Children by asking all 100 volunteers to try to raise £100 each in sponsorship.
Starting at the Park and Float car park at Ponsharden at 8.30am, boats took the walkers over the Penryn River to Flushing, where the Mylor and Roseland to Porthpean section of the Cornwall AONB begins, to join the 6 mile waterside path to the Pandora Inn. A special ferry capable of landing on beaches, shuttled everyone across Restronguet Creek where the walk continued along country lanes through Feock to the Trelissick Estate.
Dropping down through Trelissick Garden, walkers boarded the King Harry Ferry over to the Roseland where they continued along the St Mawes road and creek side paths to St Just in Roseland Church. The final 2 miles followed the shoreline to St Mawes where walkers were greeted with a Cornish cream tea before catching the specially extended St Mawes Ferry service back to Ponsharden.
Sponsors of the event were Fal River Links, Penrose Outdoors, Chaffins, Cornwall Ferries, The National Trust and Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership.
For further information and photographs of the walk please click here.
BODMIN MOOR - GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT
Ten thousand years ago, just after the last Ice Age, Bodmin Moor was mostly covered in forest. Like much of upland Britain, during the New Stone Age and the Bronze Age the area was gradually cleared and many settlements were built.
Today, Bodmin Moor is part of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is a spectacular expanse of grassland and heather punctuated by high granite outcrops and strewn with boulders. Evidence of prehistoric settlements abounds and the moor is extremely important, both archaeologically and historically. In marshy hollows rivers rise and in hidden valleys ancient wild oak trees linger. Recent quarrying and much mining activity have taken place, leaving both scars and areas of great heritage interest. Part of the moor is indeed a World Heritage Site.
Though comparatively small compared with its better-known larger neighbours, Dartmoor and Exmoor, and though cut in two by the A30, nonetheless the moor retains a surprising remoteness and sense of wildness. Cornwall’s highest point, Brown Willy, commands views of both coasts.
Like other areas of the Cornwall AONB and indeed the South West Uplands as a whole, Bodmin Moor is a working, lived-in landscape facing many changes. All the moorland is privately owned but often managed by a number of farmers holding common rights (to graze animals) tied to their home farm or enclosed land. Changes include agricultural reforms, climate change and growing development pressures.
Maintenance of the landscape is closely tied to agricultural activity, especially grazing. Thirty years ago EC Axford wrote: “It is not a primeval area, for man has modified the landscape continuously for more than 4,000 years; but the changes wrought have, hitherto, been the result of a slow and gradual process enabling indigenous animals and plants to adapt themselves to gradually changing circumstances.”
Note that ‘hitherto’. Today the pressures on the moor are heavy. Overgrazing is one, while, ironically, undergrazing and subsequent bracken invasion is another. The attractive, wild and special quality of the landscape inevitably brings increased tourism. In 2006 the Cornwall Local Access Forum reported that the CROW Act had led to an ‘increase in the number of dog walkers and motorised vehicles and (that there was) a general lack of public knowledge of the status of the land. The perception of the majority of those spoken to by the police, landowners and commoners is a belief they have a right, under CROW, to do what ever they wish.’
Twelve years ago, Natural England looked at pressures on Bodmin Moor and ways in which the key physical and wildlife features of the AONB Area could be maintained and enhanced to retain its special nature. At the time it said that ‘these objectives can only be achieved if they can be put into action within a cohesive framework.’
Part of the work of the Cornwall AONB Partnership is to provide that framework. A project*, funded by the AONB via the Sustainable Development Fund, recently gave landowners and commoners – those who own and best understand the land - the opportunity to discuss how their interests could be protected while being approachable themselves and accommodating the needs and wishes of other interested parties.
Great strides have been made in terms of getting the balance right on Bodmin Moor, but much more remains to be done.
*The Bodmin Moor Development and Communications Project
MOST SUCCESSFUL PENWITH FARMS ARE IN THE AONB
Farming profits and landscape protection go hand in hand
The great majority of profitable farms in Penwith are located within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
This encouraging finding was part of a briefing given to the AONB Partnership recently by Rob Poole, Rural Economy Officer at Penwith Council and Ivan Annibal of Globe Regeneration. They presented the results of an economic study by Penwith District Council partly funded through the AONB Sustainable Development Fund.
These were the main conclusions of the study:
More than half the farms in Penwith and a higher proportion within the West Penwith AONB are profitable
It would appear to be a reasonable assumption that the West Penwith ESA schemes (see below) have had a major impact on the profitability of farms
Those farms which have an element of or a principal focus on horticulture seem to be most profitable
Those farms which have also diversified into tourism appear to be more profitable than those concentrating just on other activities
Those farms which have a tourism component and are based in the AONB appear to be doing particularly well.
Much of the AONB is also an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) where emphasis is placed on maintaining and enhancing the landscape and protecting its wildlife and historic interest. Farmers have the key role in this protection and enhancement process. Twenty years ago the landscape was under serious threat from agricultural intensification on the one hand and bracken encroachment on the other. Grants available under ESA designation have helped to arrest and reverse the decline.
The boundaries which make up the field systems in the West Penwith AONB are amongst some of the oldest continually used boundaries not only in Britain but in the world. Many are older even than Stonehenge and originated as the New Stone Age merged into the Bronze Age some four thousand years ago. These field patterns were laid out by some of the first settled farmers in Britain. Many of the present coastal farms and hamlets are the successors to these prehistoric settlements, with the field boundaries enhanced in the medieval period, built over the original prehistoric core.
Of great concern to the AONB Partnership is that the ESA scheme, which has helped farmers over the last twenty years to adopt good practice, rebuild Cornish hedges, restore farm buildings and improve habitats for plant, animal and bird life, has now closed to new applicants and been replaced by Environmental Stewardship Schemes (ESS) which are no longer directly targeted at the West Penwith ESA. New schemes will be harder to access for local farmers and there are fears that they will not deliver the same landscape benefits.
The West Penwith ESA was one of the first agri-environment schemes established in Europe, offering incentives to encourage farmers to adopt agricultural practices which would safeguard and enhance the particularly high landscape quality of the area and its historic and wildlife value. With the introduction of the ESS in March 2005 it is feared that the new schemes will not deliver the same landscape benefits, provide the same level of financial support and – because they are no longer targetted at specific areas but have a number of objectives – the area will lose out to other priority targets. This could have a serious effect on landscape management.
The Penwith District Council economic study - “Penwith Farm and Rural Economy Balance Sheet” - highlights the importance of the agri-environment scheme in maintaining both farm income and the quality of the landscape – and the way in which this contributes to the tourism industry in the area.
In response to concerns from landscape, heritage, wildlife and farming interests, the Cornwall AONB Partnership will highlight the importance of continued support for the West Penwith ESA with Natural England.
"Twenty years of hard work by farmers and conservationists could be lost if the area loses out on agri-environment support,” said Paul Walton, Manager of the AONB Partnership. “More importantly the landscape itself could be threatened. And it is the landscape that attracts most visitors to this area and the enormous economic benefits that they bring with them."
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