Category: Wildlife

Concerns Over Ruddington Tree Felling

Graham Wright

Anger has been expressed over the timing of the removal of mature trees at Ruddington’s former Youth & Community Centre site next to The Green. After three, large Leylandii were chopped down there on Monday, villager Margaret Burrell contacted RUDDINGTON.info to say: “I’m absolutely disgusted that the Parish Council have chosen the breeding season for birds as the time to chop down all the trees on the old Youth Centre site. This site has lain empty for years and, despite being promised a temporary parking facility after the buildings were…

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‘Open Gardens’ Countdown Begins

Graham Wright

The organisers of a popular, village weekend – which takes place only every other year – say programmes for this summer’s event are now on sale. Ruddington Open Gardens 2024 is being held on Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd June from 2pm until 6pm. This time around, 13 private gardens around the village will open for viewing, plus the gardens at The Cottage Hotel and behind the Debbie Bryan Gallery on High Street. Hareham Gardens and Paradise Gardens allotments will also be open to the public. ‘Live’ music is…

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Country Park Parking Price Hike

Graham Wright

Visitors who travel to Ruddington’s country park by car are being warned about substantial increases to the parking charges there this month. Following removal of the previous £1 all-day rate, from Wednesday 1st May 2024 those using the official parking at Rushcliffe Country Park now have to pay £1.50 to stay up to three hours and £3 hours to stay any longer than that.  That’s a rise of 50% and 300% respectively on the previous tariff. The cost of the annual car parking permit, for frequent park users, has also shot…

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Play Area Refurbishment Plans Announced

Graham Wright

Plans to refurbish the children’s play area in Ruddington’s country park have been revealed today by Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC). The authority says the changes at Rushcliffe Country Park will be made after the Easter holidays in April as part of its £175,000 of investment into local facilities. Works will include replacing the existing central space net with a new Kanope Tower multi-play unit featuring 14 different play elements and a new wooden trail. RBC  says this will offer panoramic views of the park, increase play opportunities with a new pendulum pod swing…

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A Smoke-Free Ruddington?

Graham Wright

Residents and businesses in the village are being invited to share our views on a proposal to expand an existing ‘Smoke Control Area’ to cover all of Rushcliffe. Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) is considering revoking its existing Smoke Control Order in West Bridgford and Edwalton and replacing it with a single Smoke Control Order, covering the whole of the Borough, including Ruddington. The authority says its proposed plan is in line with the government’s air quality strategy which seeks to reduce levels of very fine particulates. This is with the…

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2024/2025 Ruddington Council Tax Rises

Graham Wright

Ruddington residents now have a better idea of how much more we’ll need to budget for from this April, following our County Council’s annual announcement today (22nd February 2024). During the full Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) budget meeting at County Hall it was agreed their Council Tax precept (the biggest share of the bills we pay) will rise by 2.84%, making it one of the lowest increases in the country. NCC has even created two handy pie charts (below) to show where the Council’s budget comes from and how it is…

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Kids’ Fun Run Turns Ten

Graham Wright

It’s hard to believe that Ruddington’s free, weekly park run for children aged 4 to 14 and their families is now a decade old! When Rushcliffe Junior Parkrun was launched in Rushcliffe Country Park, at 9am on Sunday 2nd February 2014, it was only the eighth junior event to be set up in the world – and yet it managed to attract 118 participants and 20 volunteers for the very first one. This 2k ‘fun run’ was set up to encourage kids, families and friends to enjoy exercising in open spaces,…

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Junction Works to Last Until October!

Graham Wright

After another short period back on the old traffic lights, following the timely completion of cable re-routing work by Virgin Media, potentially disruptive work resumes at the Kirk Lane/Loughborough Road/Flawforth Lane crossroads this week. Since this major highways project began in July 2023 – to improve the layout and install or reconfigure utility connections at the busy Ruddington junction – it has caused major frustration due to long, peak-time delays for drivers and bus passengers, and had a significant impact on nearby residents. The latest bombshell from Via East Midlands is that it now anticipates…

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‘Have Your Say’ on New Development Design

Graham Wright

Ruddington’s green spaces have seen significant shrinkage over the past few years as a result of infill housing within our village and, most recently, because of the ‘Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2’. Not only was planning permission granted by Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC) in 2020 for hundreds of new homes on four large areas of our village’s former Green Belt, developers are also continuing to benefit from ‘windfall’ land which wasn’t originally included but had its ‘protected’ status removed at the same time. So far this has allowed a significant…

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Swapping and Sowing Seeds for Spring

Graham Wright

It’s now over a year since Ruddington’s last remaining public telephone box, in front of our War Memorial, was saved for future generations by being put to a completely different use. Adopted by Ruddington-based charity The Mustard Seed Project (Uganda) for just £1, since being launched in October 2022 {top photos} the kiosk has served as a seed exchange; dubbed ‘The Mustard Seed Box’. With spring now just around the corner, Trustee Clement Dixon thought it would be a good time to remind villagers about this free facility for all who enjoy…

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