Group Meeting – 23rd February 2018

At their end of February meeting at the Village Hall, members of Ferring Conservation Group were entertained by guest presenter, Graeme Lyons, who is the Senior Ecologist at the Sussex Wildlife Trust. He was intending to talk about the Invertebrates of the SWT Reserves, but a late change of plan led to him presenting his Top 100 Wildlife Highlights in Sussex, which happened to consist of around 80% invertebrates.

Graham who also happens to be the County Recorder of Spiders, as well as in his own words – “Bugs”, counted down his highlights from number 100 to number 1 all in the space of an hour. This was packed with useful information, and included among others beetles, spiders, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, fungi, fish and birds, and all of these had been seen in the County.

He illustrated his talk with some excellent close up photos, and some other distant shots which by his own admission were taken on the spur of the moment, including a quail that was just disappearing out of shot! The names of various species were just as entertaining – the Wart Biter cricket, the Strawberry spider (which looks just like one), the Purse-Web spider (our only Tarantula) and even the interestingly named Bastard-Toadflax Shieldbug.

The top three of his 100 were at number 3 – the Portuguese Man 0’War jellyfish seen on the beach at Portslade, number 2 – the Crimson Speckled moth, and finally at number 1 – Calosoma Sycophanta, an incredibly rare flying beetle seen by him in a field near Bishopstone in East Sussex, which was the first recorded sighting in Sussex since the 18th Century.

To conclude the meeting, Tricia Hall presented her Nature Notes, which included the first sightings of the year of frog spawn, and Ed Miller updated members on planning matters, which included the welcome news that the appeal against Arun District Council’s refusal of the plan for 23 Yurts and associated buildings on the southern slopes of Highdown had rightly in our opinion been turned down.

Waste cooking oil, greener energy and blocked drains?

How many of us would make a connection between used cooking oil as a source for cleaner energy and fewer pounds spent on cleaning and repairing drains and sewage treatment plants? The connection might not be that obvious but there is a connection and a very costly one.

It is estimated that each year in the UK 129 kilotonnes of used household cooking oil is disposed of and most of it goes down the drain. Cooking oil can and is being used to provide green, carbon neutral electricity. A litre of oil can generate sufficient energy for 240 cups of tea, or 5 hours of microwave use, or 160 hours of laptop use.

When cooking oil is improperly disposed of it is harmful for the environment and water companies have to clear blockages. 115 tons of waste was removed from the treatment plants of East Worthing and Shoreham between April and November in 2014. Money is spent unblocking, cleaning and removing waste oil and other items such as ‘flushable’ wet wipes from drains and sewage treatment plants. Southern Water cleans and unblocks drains and sewage plants because householders put oil, fats and other inappropriate items down drains and toilets.

Recycling used cooking oil for renewable electricity will, in the long run, save us all money. Recycling even a small amount of waste oil including vegetable oil from sun-dried tomato jars, fry-ups and tinned tuna oil, can be used for producing biofuels, help to lower carbon emissions and help keep the drains and sewers unblocked.

The Household Recycling Waste Centres in Worthing, Shoreham and Littlehampton provide residents with opportunities for the recycling of almost all disposable items, including waste cooking oil. For each visit to these Recycling Centre residents may recycle up to 5 litres of used cooking oil in the disposal tanks provided. The bulk of the oil safely disposed of is used to generate a sustainable energy source.

There are many examples of good and emerging reduce, reuse and recycle schemes.

Surrey Council invites catering outlets to donate used cooking oil for the production of biodiesel and in Kingston on Thames the Council offers a free cooking oil collection service as well as an offer to buy large quantities of cooking oil for reuse as biofuels. In Milton Keynes there are commercial collection points for waste oil to be reused for cleaner electricity. Huntingdon District Council provide a collection of all food and garden waste which is then reused for compost. West Sussex uses the bulk of recycled oil from its Recycling Centres for the production of greener electricity. Householders can contribute to this free of charge but catering outlets have to pay for safe disposal of waste cooking oil.

There could be opportunities for the water authority and councils to negotiate more effective processes for the reuse of waste cooking oil and other reusable substances. Savings could be used to offset council costs and reduce treatment and sewer maintenance costs. Communities can work alongside councils and other providers to improve the effectiveness and reduce the cost of the services available.

The message of reduce, reuse, recycle is still valid. By acting responsibly with what is put down the drains and what is recycled local residents can support the generation of cleaner energy and save money on drain cleaning operations.

Sources

1. Article on drains and ‘sewer – blockers’ (the public’s help in maintaining effective drainage systems). Worthing Herald 29th Jan 2015

2. West Sussex Gazette 14th January 2015. “Waste oil helps to generate energy”. Various eco/ biofuel websites and council sites.

3. Various eco/ biofuel websites and Council sites

4. London Oils ~ free collection of oil in Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk

By Lesley James

Conservation Work continues in Ferring

Members of Ferring Conservation Group have recently been carrying out more practical work in the village in order to improve our local environment and particularly to make it a more welcoming place for our wildlife.

In the first of our regular monthly small work parties, a number of members met at the Glebelands Recreation Ground in the centre of the village to carry out some practical work around the Community Orchard. The main task was to cut back the invasive brambles that had grown up in the small copse of trees that back on to the fruit trees themselves and had threatened to overwhelm them. This was completed quickly and efficiently, and without too many scratches from the enormous thorns! The trees will be very grateful for the removal of some of the competition.

The Group has also arranged the installation of a large Tawny Owl nest box and a slightly smaller bat box in the copses at the Little Twitten Recreation Ground, just off Sea Lane.

The Owl box had been in place at the Warren Pond in the village, but it hadn’t been successful and it was felt better to move it to a location where Tawny Owls have been heard on a regular basis. It was quite a technical task to mount it in a suitable tree, and the services of an excellent local tree surgery company, Mr Tree (based in Worthing), were required to complete the job safely. Proper climbing equipment was deployed the tree surgeon, Shane Jones, and he was able to abseil back down to ground level when he had finished.

The bat box had been donated by two of our committee members, Lindsey and Chris Green, and this was fixed to a suitable large Sycamore tree in another part of the Recreation Ground.

Time will tell, but we hope that the local Tawny Owls and bats approve of what we’ve done for them, especially as their natural nesting sites are reducing in number and suitability. We’ll be keeping an eye on the boxes, which are in addition to the significant number of smaller nest boxes that we’ve already put up around the village (thanks are due to committee member Graham Tuppen for refurbishing many of the boxes this Winter) , and we’ll be reporting on any developments.

The next of the monthly work parties will take place from 10am on Tuesday 6 March, meeting on the Village Green. The task will be to cut back some of the bushes and generally tidy up the area that we look after. Please bring secateurs and loppers if you have them, and wear suitable clothing.