nature – RUDDINGTON.info

Country Park Receives 18th Consecutive Green Flag Award!

27th July 202417th August 2024 Graham Wright

Rushcliffe Country Park has just received yet another Green Flag Award – its 18th one in a row. The accolade acknowledges Ruddington’s popular green space as still being one of the best parks in the country. It’s been named among 2,227 other places in the UK that have received the award for 2024/25, which sets the benchmark standard for the management of recreational outdoor spaces across the UK and around the world. Set in the countryside just south of our village, Ruddington’s country park consists of a diverse range of…

A Feast of Free Trees!

1st September 20231st September 2023 Graham Wright

For the past six years, Ruddington residents have been offered the chance to make our properties greener by applying for ‘free trees’ from Rushcliffe Borough Council (RBC). Over 10,000 trees have been distributed since the start of this campaign in 2018. In previous years the authority has given villagers an option of TWO trees to apply for. For 2023 the choice has been doubled to FOUR possible alternatives. However, due to the previous high demand, we’re now only being offered ONE free tree per household. This year, a further one…

New Hedgehog Highways Opened!

16th August 202316th August 2023 Graham Wright

Unlike for Ruddington’s road traffic at the moment, progress for one of our nocturnal creatures has just been made a little easier thanks to some generous, nature-loving volunteers from a nearby village. It’s after RUDDINGTON.info teamed up with Wild Things Keyworth this summer to ‘Help Our Hedgehogs’ by creating a hedgehog gap in a deserving Ruddington garden – which would be fitted with an especially carved and decorated ‘Ruddington Hedgehog Highway’ surround, too. In the end, the group’s founder, Jennifer Manning-Ohren, agreed with carpenter Simon Dunstan, artist Liz Waddell and chief gap-driller Nick Ellerby they’d…

Green Flags Galore for Ruddington!

25th July 202330th July 2023 Graham Wright

It’s been revealed that TWO local green spaces popular with village visitors and Ruddington walkers are in receipt of prestigious Green Flag Awards this year. Firstly, Rushcliffe Country Park has received its 17th consecutive Green Flag Award, once again acknowledging it as one of the country’s best parks. Ruddington’s popular green space is among 2,216 places in the UK receiving the 2023/24 award. Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Transformation, Leisure and Wellbeing, Cllr Jonathan Wheeler, joined the Friends of Rushcliffe Country Park volunteer group and Council representatives (pictured top) in…

Housebuilder’s Boost for Birdlife?

14th June 202314th June 2023 Graham Wright

Ever since the the Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2 was approved – giving developers the green light to build hundreds of new houses on large areas of Ruddington’s Green Belt – villagers have been complaining about the destruction of natural habitats and the loss of green space. Whilst undoubtedly this is true – and those four large new estates have consumed precious areas of agricultural land we’ll never get back – Gordon Dyne of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust (NWT) has learned about one positive outcome… As part of the planning application…

To Mow or Not to Mow?

29th May 202329th May 2023 Graham Wright

Many lawns, verges and public spaces in Ruddington are a little ‘wilder’ at the moment – as ‘No Mow May’ comes to an end. Promoted each year by the charity ‘Plantlife’, the initiative encourages individuals and organisations to leave mowers in sheds during the month of May so that wildflowers among the grass can grow wild to provide a feast for pollinators, tackle pollution, and lock away atmospheric carbon below ground. The question is, should more of us leave more ground untended throughout the year, not just for these 31 days?…

MP & Councillors’ Open Letter to Bloor Homes

16th May 202316th May 2023 Graham Wright

Frustrated residents next to the new Ruddington housing development off Wilford Road have received some high profile backing in their bid to proceed with the agreed tree planting there as part of ‘The Queen’s Green Canopy’ (QGC). MP for Rushcliffe Ruth Edwards and Ruddington’s three Rushcliffe Borough Councillors – Jen Walker, Mike Gaunt and Graham Fletcher – have all signed an Open Letter to the owner and Directors of Bloor Homes Ltd. It’s after the developer’s regional office suddenly reneged on its promise to allow room for a row of trees…

Help Our Hedgehogs!

8th May 20233rd June 2023 Graham Wright

Ruddington wildlife lovers are being encouraged to take action to protect the red listed mammals – with ‘The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022’ report suggesting numbers have declined by 75% in some parts of our country since the year 2000. The increased use of fencing between houses, rather than hedges, has been partly blamed. Besides established hedgerows providing a ‘home’ for the spiky creatures, hedgehogs can also travel up to a mile each night through people’s gardens if the activity of humans still makes this possible. They need around a dozen gardens…

Tree-mendous Job, Ruddington!

31st March 20231st April 2023 Graham Wright

TODAY (Friday 31st March 2023) was the extended deadline by which tree planting must be registered to be included in ‘The Queen’s Green Canopy’ (QGC) as a legacy to Her Majesty. Ruddington has seen numerous local companies, groups and individuals get involved with this national initiative. The latest to be revealed is at our Country Park, where The Friends of Rushcliffe Country Park planted 10 mature trees, including Hornbeam, Silver Birch and Crab Apple to replace trees affected by ‘Ash Dieback’ (top photo). These were funded by Ridge Clean Energy – the company which is hoping…

Bloor Blunder Scuppers Residents’ Royal Tree Planting Plans

24th March 202328th March 2023 Graham Wright

A group of eco-minded Ruddington residents is expressing its dismay and disbelief that a major housing developer suddenly changed its mind about allowing them to plant a long row of trees on its land – and didn’t even tell them! As we reported on Monday, Bloor Homes East Midlands had given Brookside Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) for ‘The Queen’s Green Canopy’ (QGC) the go-ahead to plant a line of trees on a 223-metre long strip of ‘wasteland’ between its new bungalows and their existing houses. BRAG were led to believe this ‘void’…