Parish and Town Councils

For this post which is I think the 200th post since I started this blog I thought I would follow up an idea which seems important to me and for the Wildlife conservation movement as a whole.
I am encouraged by the outspoken statement by the Somerset Wildlife Trust questioning the intentions of the new County Council following the change of political control. Also I am motivated by my long running attempt to persuade my local parish council to adopt a meadow as a nature reserve. Finally I am inspired by reading a book called " How to be Wild" by Simon Barnes.
The idea is that we as a local group of the SWT should make contact with the 18 parishes and two Town Councils in our area and ask them to answer questions about their activities concerning the environment. A few will be able to point to actions taken or supported.Many will find it hard to show much hard evidence. Put like this it doesn't sound very dramatic. However the point is that these authorities are the front line of governmental action on the environment and are pretty much allowed to do what they like with local matters such as setting up nature reserves or deciding on grass cutting of verges and grassy open areas. They can therefor do a great deal of damage or can do a great service to local environmental well being.

All I need to do is persuade our committee and get someone to help with telephone calls and letter writing and we can get started!!