The National Gamekeepers Organisation has provided an industry-led free grouse moor training day at Snilesworth Estate on the North York Moors (02 August) to help improve land management and enhance local wildlife.

The day gave new Natural England upland staff an insight into the day-to-day management of a driven grouse moor to better equip them with the skills and understanding to work together with land managers, farmers and gamekeepers on the restoration of upland habitats. Organised by John Clarke from the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and Simon Lovel from Natural England, the training was delivered by Snilesworth Estate head keeper, Jimmy Shuttlewood and his team. Natural England is now considering organising a future training day for hill farming later in the year.

The training looked at grouse moor management from an industry perspective, focusing on the life cycle of grouse, habitat management, predator control, medicated grit, which activities take place at different times of year, considerations keepers make in the siting of grouse butts and other infrastructure, and what happens on a typical shoot day.

Natural England uplands policy advisor Simon Lovel said:

Conservation is ultimately about people and by increasing our understanding of those who manage the land, the easier it is to find genuine shared outcomes that can be delivered utilising the local knowledge and traditional skills of the practitioners on the ground. We are planning upland ecology training for gamekeepers and farmers later in the year.

John Clarke from the National Gamekeepers Organisation added:

This has been a fantastic step towards working together in the future.

Those attending had a greater understanding of how driven grouse moors are managed and the associated range of environmental benefits, including the restoration of upland habitats. Going forward, Natural England staff, gamekeepers, farmers and land managers will be able to work better together to achieve healthy and resilient upland ecosystems, that will support thriving local communities off the back of sustainable land uses.

Natural England’s Chairman, Andrew Sells, recently spoke at the Game Fair and highlighted the benefits for conservation of moorland from partnership working.

He said:

We are also seeing more estates coming into partnership agreements with Natural England, voluntarily finding ways to enhance the environment. These deepening relationships will be vital in joining up prime wildlife sites and achieving goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan.

Over the last seven months, Highways England has been carrying out a major junction improvement at Barton Hill near York to improve safety and visibility for road users. As part of this £2.8m scheme which completed on Friday, sections of the hedgerow, a number of trees and stone from an old water culvert had to be removed.

But rather than throwing these items away Highways England and its contractor A-one+ have given them a new lease of life by working closely with Jonathan and Julian Curtoys, the owners of Sloemotion.

Highways England project manager Russell Mclean said:

We saved as much of the hedgerow as possible but sections of the hedge had to be removed. The sloe berries used to produce the gin grow on hedgerows, so it seemed like the perfect solution to donate the hedge to this local sloe gin producing firm.

We were able to reduce the amount hedgerow we needed to remove by altering some of the scheme’s drainage and this work will also help to prevent flooding in the area. Some logs from the trees were also donated to Castle Howard stately home to be used as chippings in the ground.

Cabinetmaker and artist Mark Bennett, of the Woodlark in Malton, was also brought on board. He will be taking part of an Oak tree which was removed from the site and transforming it into a bar for Sloemotion. The remainder of the tree will be used to create bat and bird boxes, which will be placed near to the A64.

Mark will also be using some of the removed hedgerows to create innovative displays for the gin company’s products and hand cut stone from the culvert will be used to adorn the company’s new buildings near Barton-le-Willows.

Russell added:

Our work to improve safety at the junction will benefit over 9,000 drivers a day. We have converted the crossroads to a staggered junction by realigning Mains Lane, extended the culvert to allow the carriageway to be widened, constructed 200m of new road and realigned 600m of the A64. We have also relocated a bus stop, an emergency telephone and a pedestrian crossing.

While we were doing this we upgraded and extended an otter fence to prevent them coming onto the A64. And we have reinstalled an old milepost and will be replacing a historic road sign that has been refurbished.

Jonathan Curtoys, Managing Director of Sloemotion, said the junction improvements will benefit his employees who use the junction.

The changes will certainly have a positive benefit for drivers but then to also donating the hedgerow, the stones and timber to local businesses it feels like something is being given back to the community. I commend Highways England and A-one+ for this – it has been a pleasure working with them over the last seven months.

Mark Bennett of The Woodlark added:

It’s great that we can use what would otherwise have gone to waste and give something back to the environment such as the bird and bat boxes.

Later this year replacement hedgerows will be planted.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.

DASA is launching this competition to seek ideas for innovative technologies that can provide an improved way to rapidly detect and locate hazardous biological agents in the field.The ultimate aim is for a fieldable system that would detect and report without users (including trained military specialists and civilian first line responders) coming into close contact with the hazard.

By detecting these hazards as early as possible and remotely, it will enable front line users to safely avoid them.

This competition has an initial budget of £500k for Phase 1. Additional funding is anticipated to be available for future phases of this competition.

This competition is now open and full details are available in the competition document.

The competition will close at 1pm on 7 November 2018

If you have any queries on this competition, please do contact us at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk or sign up for alerts.

The Renewables Obligation (Amendment) Order 2018 came into force on 20 July 2018. It strengthens cost control measures for certain biomass conversion and co-firing stations by implementing annual flexible caps on the amount of support that units not protected by grandfathering policy can receive.

The caps come into operation from 1 September 2018 and apply to 2 types of biomass co-firing and conversion stations:

• capped generating stations, which comprise only non-grandfathered ‘capped’ units’
• mixed generating stations, which comprise non-grandfathered ‘capped’ units and grandfathered ‘exempt’ units

This explanatory note explains how both types of cap will operate during 2018 to 2019 and announces the level of the 2018 to 2019 exempt combustion unit estimate which will form part of the overall station cap for mixed generating stations.