Beacon Hill

NOTICE ABOUT PROPOSED CHANGES TO GRAZING ARRANGEMENTS ON THE BEACON HILL NATURE RESERVE

THE BEACON HILL NATURE RESERVE STEWARDSHIP GROUP: 
NOTICE ABOUT PROPOSED CHANGES TO GRAZING ARRANGEMENTS ON THE BEACON HILL NATURE RESERVE

1. The Beacon Hill Stewardship Group met with Nick Lane, City Parks Ranger, on 19 January, to discuss the proposals for the future management of Beacon Hill Nature Reserve. The group were reassured that City Parks understand the concerns raised by people who regularly use the reserve and are willing to continue to discuss the proposals and, where possible, to adapt them to take on board the concerns of people using the Reserve. 

The Proposals 

2. City Parks are currently considering proposals to organise future grazing arrangements for Beacon Hill that will make the best use of available resources, protect the land and wildlife and ensure open access to and across the Reserve. This involves thinking about the timing and organisation of grazing, ensuring grazing sheep have a water supply and are securely penned in during grazing periods and the coordination of sheep grazing across a number of other sites. 

3. The Friends of Beacon Hill have been informed about the proposals.

4. Some of the proposals below are reliant on achieving appropriate funding. City Parks cannot provide a timescale at this time but will continue to liaise with the Beacon Hill Stewardship Group and provide an update on the Beacon Hill Notice Board and via the Rottingdean Parish Council website before any final decisions are made. 

5. In the meantime, if you have any comments about the proposals please email cityparks@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Grazing Patterns 

6. An agreement was reached in 2010 to graze Beacon Hill Nature Reserve for 3 months each year but in 2017, the LNR was officially extended by 8.15 hectares or 44%, to incorporate the redundant pitch and putt course. To accommodate this added area, the grazing time is proposed to be increased to between 3 and 4 months per year, spread over 2-3 months in autumn and 2-4 weeks in the Spring and with the sheep off the Reserve by mid-May at the latest. This should ensure the land is well managed while preserving wildflowers and protecting wildlife, particularly nesting Skylarks.

7. Over time, the aim is to install permanent troughs to provide water for sheep in respective grazing compartments. This will reduce vehicle movement on the Reserve during grazing periods and staff time required to move, fill and return water bowsers.

8. Reducing and redefining the current system of 6 temporary grazing compartments would mean less staff and volunteer time spent moving enclosure infrastructure such as fencing. It would result in fewer sheep movements, reduce the number of permanent water troughs required, limit the disruption of pipework installation and cut a degree of costs.

9. Several compartment layouts are currently being considered by the site Ranger and the Beacon Hill Stewardship Group.

Fencing 

10. In order to deliver a more efficient grazing arrangement, a permanent stock fence is needed on Beacon Hill, to run between the existing grassland and the North and South woods. A permanent stock fence would reduce staff and volunteer time and the number of materials required to compartmentalise the hill for purposes of grazing sheep 

11. In order to ensure access to and around the Reserve is maintained, there would be a gate at every point where the fence crossed a defined path and gates could be chained open when sheep are not grazing.
 
12. The proposed fence would be constructed using stock netting and where possible this would be set back into existing scrub undergrowth and installed with the larger, 15cm square holes at the bottom. With this arrangement in place, it will provide an effective barrier to sheep but continue to allow smaller wildlife to pass through while experience on other sites has shown that larger animals such as badgers are quickly able to produce runs underneath.

13. In most instances, the stock fence would quickly become covered with brambles and undergrowth and to most passers-by, a large part of it would become almost invisible for much of the year.

14. With the fence arrangement as described above, the County Ecologist is satisfied that it will not be a barrier to wildlife.



February 2021