At the Elmsett Greenlife Grove Scheme AGM on June 30th, the following indicated a willingness to belong to the Steering Group: Sue Mackie, Margaret Nelson, Maria O’Donnell, Jackie Parkinson, James Seeley, Alison Grant, Blanche Seager, Liam Glennan, Diane Diss, James Hitchcock and Sue Gull, who will take over the treasurer’s role from Celia Wright. Since the AGM, Hilary Furlong has joined the group.
Margaret (as Chair) reported on the scheme’s progress over the last year, saying that our success in getting the scheme going took some by surprise. She thanked those who’ve made it possible to get this far: Sue Mackie MBE, for her hard work as EGGS Secretary; Grenville Clark from the Green Light Trust, for his advice, support and encouragement; Paul Marshall and the children and staff of Elmsett School for their enthusiastic involvement; Celia Wright, for keeping the books - we’re sorry to lose her; James Hitchcock, for the bridge and notice boards; Babergh District Council, in the form of Peter Berry, for a grant to pay for the latter; all the active members of the group, for their practical help and involvement; Gary Battell from the County Council and Mark Nowers from the RSPB, for their advice and support.
Some local people have made gifts of money or trees, and we’re hoping that more will follow. We’re providing certificates to mark their generosity.
Keith Young from Partridges in Hadleigh has said that they’re willing to give us a discount on any tools we might need, so we hope to provide them with a list soon.
The Steering Group will elect its officers for the coming year at its next meeting in September. Margaret won’t stand for re-election as Chair, so this vacancy must be filled.
Alison Grant reported on the school’s involvement with the scheme. The tree nursery has been filled, emptied and filled again ready for this year’s planting. The children have been learning about trees. In September, younger children collected seeds from the hedges around the wood to sow in the nursery. The older children were eager to use tree nursery stock to begin the school plot. Grenville Clarke led these sessions and presented certificates to children who’d attended the village planting. We thank the PTA for buying a tree for each member of staff and child. The school has been busy building nesting boxes, looking at water conservation, and developing the gardening club. Hopefully, there’ll soon be water butts to irrigate the nursery, bought with a grant from the Recycling Fund. Grenville came to the school again in May to work with Year 5 and 6 children on tree identification, check the trees planted last November and fill the tree nursery, aided by Blanche, Jackie and Hilary from EGGS. The school is grateful to Grenville and Margaret for their input into the school project; the children have gained a great deal.
On 3rd September, members of the Steering Group, Grenville Clark and Duncan McLennan from the Village Hall Management Committee met Peter Tilley, Suffolk County Council Access Development Officer, who gave advice about how we might provide access to the wood for disabled people, as we’re obliged to by the Disability Discrimination Act. At a subsequent meeting, a majority of the Steering Group voted to ask Suffolk County Council to upgrade the public footpath and investigate the possibility of a parking space for two cars at the end nearest the school.
The next working session at Buckle’s Wood will be in September. Please look out for notices nearer the time. The working session on 24th June was poorly attended, so we hope more people will turn out next time.
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Last year, with help from a lot of willing volunteers, we raked and heaped up grass from about 3 acres of the field, planted and mulched over 1500 trees and shrubs 
