Good news for Browick Road Community Orchard: the latest planning application for a Fibre Telecommunications Exchange near the Orchard has been withdrawn. A big thank you to all of you who supported Greening Wymondham by objecting to the Exchange being built so close to the Orchard. We understand there’ll be a further application for the building to be sited further away near the industrial park, as we suggested.

Come and visit the Orchard on one of our working days this month: September 12 and 14, 10-12am. You can join us for elevenses at 11 (strange, that!) and find out more about the Orchard. Alternatively, please come and visit us at Friarscroft Wood on September 10 9:30-12:30pm and see what progress we’ve made – this month we’re hoping to have the Norfolk Wildlife Trust survey of flora which will lead to a management plan.

A shout out, too, to the council bodies and others who have refrained from cutting some of our roadside verges (though still too many seem to be prematurely mown). In a summer which has seen a nationwide dearth of bees and butterflies, carefully managed verges offer vital corridors for biodiversity and the chance of a return in insect numbers.

Our balsam bashing has been piecemeal this year, so thank you to those that have helped us clear some of it, including the Wymondham Allotment Association and private individuals like Kerry Berrisford who have worked to get rid of Himalayan Balsam along the Tiffey. People Power is a lot of determined individuals!