New Nature Reserve

The declaration gives all three sites added protection from development. It also strengthens the City Council's commitment to manage the sites for the long term for the benefit of the wildlife, visitors and local people.

At all the sites, strong community involvement in their care and management is important and the Council is striving to improve access for the local community and visitors from further afield - Ecclesall Woods alone receives around 400,000 visits a year. This includes resurfacing main paths, tackling fly-tipping, developing information leaflets and doing educational work with local schools and the wider community

Chairman's Report for the year 2001

(Presented to the Dore Village Society AGM on Wednesday 29 May)

This was another good year for the Society during which we contributed nearly £13,000 for the new playground equipment, donated around £700 to local good causes and over £1,000 to village projects, while maintaining a healthy overall financial position. The following is just a brief summary of some of the many issues the society has been actively involved with during the year.

Planning: Planning issues and proposed developments absorb a lot of the Society=s time, with a constant flow of planning applications for in-fill housing and extensions. Significant developments were: the threat of kennels on Newfield Lane; proposed redevelopment of the Blue Ridge site on Ashfurlong Lane; housing density concerns at Green Acres on Dore Road; and the blocks of flats overlooking Dore recreation ground. The society continues to be disappointed by the outcome of the Nab Farm redevelopment, and is concerned about the implications of the PFI to rebuild King Ecgbert School. We have contributed to the forthcoming revision of the UDP.

Publications: Dore to Door continues to flourish and makes a considerable contribution to the Society's profile and income. The 2001 Christmas Card proved popular as once again did a revised version of the duck card. Significant progress was made on putting together a new publication on the history of streets within Dore.

Events: Public meetings during the year included talks on Sheffield Wildlife Trust and Blue John Stone and there is now a regular programme of DVS guided walks in the area. A highlight was a very enjoyable coach trip to the World Heritage site of Cromford and Belper. The DVS stand at the Scout Gala received plenty of enquires and Dore Show continues to prove popular.

Traffic & Transport: Parking on the pavements and on double yellow lines, speeding, and the state of road surfaces remain as major problems. Following pressure from the society parking restrictions have been introduced on the top of Savage Lane and at the bottom of Dore Road, although the latter fails to address our safety concerns over parking on both sides of the road. Major traffic calming measures have been introduced on Long Line. Improved crossing facilities in front of the Causeway Head Road shops have still not been implemented. Dore has been promised a significant budget expenditure over the next two or three years for a speed management scheme based on a forthcoming review of traffic problems in the village.

Dore Playground Project: The new playground now has a surrounding fence and seats with landscape planting scheduled (to be paid for by the society), but no sign yet of the council completing the basketball area, despite an undertaking from the DVS to fund this.

Environment: As well as the flower tubs, a first planting of daffodils on approaches to the village has taken place. The Society is active in support of Friends of Ecclesall Woods and Sheffield Wildlife Trust=s management of the new Blacka Moor nature reserve. Local environmental issues are discussed at each committee meeting, with roadside tipping having proved a particular concern.

Dore Collection: The collection and recording of information and items continues. This includes the purchase of a Pearson longcase clock made in the village during the 1750s and now on display in the society's rooms at the Old School. Members of the committee are available in the rooms from 10 - 12 noon on the first Saturday of every month, to discuss local issues with members or talk about the work of the Society and local history.

Internet: The Dore web site, www.dorevillage.co.uk continues to attract viewers from around the country and overseas, but due to illness has not been maintained as frequently as wished.

People: Membership for 2001 was just over 700, another comfortable record and essential in enabling the society to maintain its activities. We can now reclaim tax on a large part of our income from subscriptions and donations which should help the society's budget in the coming years. The Society continues to receive widespread support from within the community and from past residents, but we would welcome more suggestions for local initiatives and anyone with time to contribute in order to enable us to achieve still more in the year ahead. This does not require joining the committee and you can put in just as much time as you wish.

I wish to place on record my particular appreciation for their help to: fellow members of the committee, including Gillian Farnsworth who left the committee after many years of invaluable input especially on planning issues, helpers on the Dore Collection and at the Dore Show; deliverers of Dore to Door; advertisers; Green's shop for collecting subscriptions and selling DVS publications; and all those active supporters and members - wherever they may live.

John Baker. Chairman, Dore Village Society

The Wildlife Garden

In 1999 (the latest year we have published statistics for), an estimated 5.9 million Britons had home and leisure accidents which resulted in them visiting their local hospital. Of these, nearly 350,000 people, which is equivalent to the combined population of the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the Scilly Isles, attended A. and E. departments after an accident in their garden. The report also gives the causes of these accidents, with just about everything from lawn-mowers and hedge trimmers cutting through electrical cables to 'bird-baths' being blamed, but do wildlife gardens pose any special risks?

The problem is that these statistics, although they might at first seem comprehensive, do not in fact give us sufficient details to answer this question. Take for example nettles: many wildlife gardeners grow a patch of these stinging plants to encourage butterflies, but there may well be other gardeners who grow them to use their young shoots for food. Presumably these nettles are as hazardous to both gardeners, despite their different reasons for growing them. However, what the statistics do clearly show is that young children are at risk from something most wildlife gardeners have: a pond.

In the Sheffield area, University researchers have put the number of ponds in private gardens at around 25,000. Whether these have been made in the hope of attracting an amphibian slug-killing force or simply as a manifestation of the current water-feature-fad, one thing is certain, they pose a threat to young children - it only takes water 7cm deep to kill a toddler. This means that water-butts need to have secure lids fitted, while buckets and paddling pools should be emptied when not in use and ponds covered with a child-proof grill. The best advice for families with young children is not to have a pond at all, but according to the Consumer Affairs Directorate, "small children are more likely to drown in someone else's garden pond than in their own". I wonder just how many allotment owners collect water in old baths and open barrels?

Another common cause of accidents are plants. If we grow berries for the birds, plants for the bees and have a thorny hedge to keep out the neighbour's cats, how can we expect toddlers to know just which plants sting, have poisonous berries or may give rise to allergic reactions? Again, the easy answer is not to grow thorny or poisonous plants if you have young children, but how many of us can honestly say we know all the hazardous plants in our plot? Also, what happens when they visit someone else's garden? Supervision is vital, but even with the best will in the world, it is difficult to supervise children 100% of the time. The key to plant safety for children is education, education and education: teaching them not to put berries, leaves and seeds in their mouths or up their noses.

For the elderly though, the most common cause of garden injury is from falls. It would be nice to think we could prevent falls by simply re-designing our gardens.

Take for example steps: a single step is far more likely to result in a fall than if there are two or more. Also, it might be tempting to blame our current love-affair with wooden decking as the slippery source of many of these accidents, but in truth, most arise due to tools left lying around and negligence.

I for one cannot criticise other people for being untidy when I am probably one of the most untidy gardeners in the country, but it is simple things, such as leaving the rake on the lawn pointing upwards; the hose-pipe left lying on the patio whilst you go inside for a coffee and the broken paving slab you have been meaning to repair since last summer, which are the real villains. Even if we are as orderly as an infantry soldier before kit inspection, some surfaces are far more hazardous than others. Take for example the stones around my pond: although they are perfectly safe to walk on when dry, when wet, often due to the vigorous bathing activities of starlings in summer, they are as lethal as ice.

Whether wildlife gardening is any more or less hazardous than 'normal gardening' is impossible to tell, but for many people it is certainly far more rewarding. All you can do is try to minimise the risks and hopefully will have an accident and hospital-free summer, with time to enjoy the wildlife your garden will attract.

Jack Daw