RSPB Frampton Marsh announcement

John Badley · **Posted:** Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:40 pm

Hi,

You may be pleased to hear that we have just been granted planning permission at Frampton Marsh to develop;
20 hectares reedbed within a partially raised water storage reservoir
21 hectares complex of shallow freshwater scrapes - which by our reckoning will be the largest in the UK (bigger than those at Minsmere, Cley or Titchwell). One scrape will have islands for nesting birds
30 hectares wet grassland/grazing marsh (to add to the 80 hectares already being created adjacently)
Four birdwatching hides (including two with nearly 360 degree viewing and a capacity of over 40). One will be a 'reception hide' with basic toilet facilities.
A new car park
2.8km of new footpaths around the site
Interpretation etc

We still have some hurdles to overcome, particularly in respect to funding, but we hope to start on much of the habitat creation works this coming winter.

Exciting times ahead....!

JB

Terence Whalin · **Posted:** Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:06 pm

congrats John, i saw the plan when you gave us a talk at cleethorpes last year. It should be great, can you move it closer to humberston.

Terry whalin ( new group leader rspb grimsby )

John Badley · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:33 pm

Thanks Terry - Wouldn't it be nice to link Tetney with Frampton so you could walk all the way from one end of the county to the other on land of high conservation value.....

JB

Katherine Birkett · **Posted:** Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:44 pm

AT LAST!!!!!!!! HOUSTON, WE HAVE SOME TOILETS!!!!!!!

No more secretive peeing on the 'private' side of the flood banks for me!

Adam Denard · **Posted:** Fri Nov 23, 2007 10:07 am

Congrats John, Paul and co.

This sounds really encouraging. There's enough doom and gloom in conservation, its great to hear of exciting new projects that have a lot to contribute to people and wildlife.

John Badley · **Posted:** Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:06 pm

The new Frampton Marsh habitats/facilities will be formally opened to the public at 2pm on Friday 17 April. Boston Mayor Peter Bedford and Mayoress Zita Bedford will be opening the new visitor centre and presenting prizes to the three school children who won a competition to name the three bird watching hides. The opening ceremony will be presided over by Frampton/Wyberton County Councillor Richard Austin.

Complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits will be available from the visitor centre. Following the presentations there will be a series of guided walks to look at the new reserve extension. Everyone is invited to attend the event.

From Saturday 18 April the visitor centre will be open from 10am to 4pm daily (except Christmas Day). The reserve, facilities and car park are all free. The centre will have toilets, basic catering facilities (tea/coffee and some snacks) and a warm welcome!

We look forward to seeing you at Frampton.

John

John T Goy · **Joined:** Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:30 pm **Posts:** 2385

And sign posts...

John Badley · **Posted:** Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:30 pm

Temporary directional road signs will be up for 17 April. Permanent brown and white tourism signs were a little delayed by the consultations process, but will be up in late April or May.

Sat Nav to PE20 1AY get's you within half a mile.

John

Katherine Birkett · **Posted:** Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:56 pm

Apart from the local papers, are any other local media outfits coming to the opening? Any regional news people?

I think you know what (or who) I'm angling for regarding that question...... :mrgreen:

John Badley · **Posted:** Wed Apr 08, 2009 12:42 pm

There does seem to be a good degree of media interest so far.

John

Katherine Birkett · **Posted:** Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:48 pm

As he works part-time and self-employed in planning and flood risk etc, my dad went on a site visit to the Visitor Centre Hide a couple of days ago. He told me he was going and I saw a fantastic opportunity for a quick 15-minute birdwatch for the duration of the site visit. So, I was ready in two minutes' flat!

Off we went and one of the workmen saw that I'd bought my telescope et al and agreed that I could come in to the Visitor Centre hide to see the works in progress. Went into the main area of the hide and my goodness, what a facility we have coming to us! There will be underfloor heating, the toilets look first-rate (offering relief to many visitors) and there'll be a couple of vending machines there too. Plonked my scope down near a scrape-overlooking window and saw plenty of birds, which means that I'm probably the first person to use the new Visitor Centre hide in the capacity of a birdwatcher!

The only design flaw I can see pertains to the scrapeward window. The window is interrupted in a couple of places by wood panelling which means that you can't get an uninterrupted visual sweep of the scrapes with your scope or bins. A small niggle but not enough to put me off using it. The other concern is that of what visitors will do with the discarded food wrappings from the vending machine. I hope that there will be prominent litter bins in the area that will prevent a lot of litter bring dropped around the reserve. Any idea on what anti-litter measures will be, John?

I wish these hides etc were open NOW - I can't wait until the 17th! And the loos, vending machines and heated hide will mean my parents will probably not see me again!

John Badley · **Posted:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:36 am

Hi Katherine,

The interrupted view you describe was necessary to accommodate the external shutters for the windows. If we weren't so concerned about site security we would have done without them, but unfortunately that's a sign of the times.

There will be a series of bins for sorting waste, although experience suggests this doesn't work well in practice. Even in our office some visitors seem to think that tea bags belong with recycling rather than composting waste!

John

The Lincolnshire Bird Club

RSPB Frampton Marsh announcement

Who is online