A report from Keith Dodd

18 people were present; Nick Law and David Ling sent apologies.

The key item for discussion was the revision of the Management Plan which is currently taking place. The Management Group will be meeting in December to discuss a draft of the plan.

The open meeting expressed the following wishes:

• The boundaries should be clearly delineated and recorded as there has been encroachment from the farmland at the north of the site, and across the stream from gardens at the south west end of the site.

• Guidance needed on scrub clearance and management of developing woodland.

• Planting of disease resistant elms to encourage White letter hairstreak butterflies.

• Management of riverside path which gets blocked with foliage in summer.

• A single low bench should be placed by the rubble at the north east end of the site.

Alan Jones gave an update on his butterfly transect for the year. Paul Highman referred to the new bird species recorded this year, and an updated bird list was circulated by Jean Roberts.

Debbie Alston gave an excellent presentation, assisted by Nick Moyes, on Biodiversity in Lowland Derbyshire, explaining the importance of Biodiversity to all of us, and how the Rio summit of 1992 has been translated into action at a national, regional and local level.

Further open meetings will be held next year.