Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 famously once said that if Kent is the garden of England, Shropshire is surely the secret garden of England. However, sadly, like the rest of England we have lost 50% of our orchards and 97% of our wildflower meadows in the last half century. Loss of habitat (feeding grounds and shelter) is contributing to the decline in so many of our native insects, mammals and birds.
There are initiatives throughout Shropshire trying to reverse the decline. By way of example, Restoring Shropshire’s Verges Project is making significant progress in South Shropshire and regularly offers help to our Parish Council in its attempt to restore some of the verges in North Shropshire. Thus far, work has been carried out on two verges in the centre of Welshampton. We must now wait and see whether our work proves successful. We may not see the rewards until 2026 or beyond. We do wish to work on verges in Lyneal and Colemere also but to this end we rely on volunteers within our Working Group and must look to them for any further commitment. The Parish Council aims to turn certain verges into wildlife corridors whilst always maintaining safety for road users
The Big Green Day in 2023 focused on education in respect of the Meres and the Mosses, composting, waste management, verge rewilding, meadow creation, butterfly conservation and much more. There were stands with exhibits and representatives available throughout the day to inform and advise. Further, two speakers in addition dealt with verge rewilding and meadow creation.
In October 2024 we held a further Open Day at the Parish Hall. Residents were invited to come and enjoy learning about creature habitats in their gardens and open spaces. Some took away bat boxes, bird boxes and bug and butterfly hotels made by our volunteers. Everyone also learnt where to site their new ‘creature feature.’ Cuan Wildlife Rescue, Shropshire Barn Owl Group, Summerwings and Whixall Moss were all present. Their stands were interactive and informative. The British Hedgehog Protection Society, Buglife and RSPB all provided promotional material and there was a slideshow dealing specifically with habitat loss. There were many children and young people present and all so very interested in nature. An enjoyable and educational afternoon was had by all.
The Working Group is presently considering Shropshire Council’s responsibility to create a Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS). The Parish Council like all Town and Parish Councils has an obligation to become involved with this work. The LNRS will help to shape what nature will look like in the future in the County. Through a written document and a map, the strategy will identify the actions that should be taken to improve and create natural spaces so that nature can best provide its range of benefits to wildlife and people. LNRS’s are a nation-wide initiative required by the Government and LNRS’s across the country will work together to form a national Nature Recovery Network. Our Working Group is presently working on ways in which we might focus more on Nature Recovery within our parish and to complement Shropshire Council’s work. Our parish is made up of a lot of farmland and we wish to engage with our farmers better. To this end and as a first step we held a meeting for farmers and other major landowners at The Oteley Estate, the home of the Mainwaring family in September 2025. We are grateful for the hospitality the family afforded to us. Lynn Parker, Shropshire Council’s lead on their LNRS spoke about work that is being done by Shropshire Council and the farmers and other landowners were able to share their perspective. There was a healthy dialogue and the meeting was extremely well attended. We will endeavour to engage further with our farmers in the future. In addition we have now displayed a map of our entire parish in the small meeting room at Welshampton Parish Hall. Residents are invited, when attending the hall to place stickers on the map indicating whether they have bird boxes, bat boxes, ponds and such like at their property. At some stage in the future our Working Group will consider the map to see where we might add more biodiversity. We will be able to see where there are gaps and this will help to inform our decision making for possible improvements for the future.
The Parish Council addresses biodiversity when commenting on planning applications and biodiversity has been a monthly agenda item throughout 2023 and continuing.
As for the future, the Parish Council intends to make contact with nature conservation Non Governmental Organisations as appropriate.
The Working Group will also look to carry out biodiversity audits to inform their work as necessary. The Parish Council together with the Working Group will endeavour to gather expert advice on possible biodiversity actions.
To conclude this section, the Parish Council and Working Group will endeavour to engage and inform. They will endeavour to be innovative. They will endeavour to make links with other partners for there should never be a requirement to work alone. Finally, we will celebrate our wild places.
As for other initiatives we might wish to get involved with, we wish to hear from you as to what more can be done in the name of biodiversity.