The Chair and Forum members to introduce themselves.

The Chair, Councillor Howard, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Meeting attendees then introduced themselves.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Andrew Randall.

To receive any declarations of interest from Councillors.

No interests were declared.

To approve the minutes from the previous meeting held on 14^th November 2023.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th November 2023 were a true and accurate record.

To receive updates on the action points from the previous meeting.

The Chair read through the action points from the last meeting:

The Chair added that another objective was to invite the Crown Estate. Des Sussex was in attendance to do a presentation on hedgerows and landscape, but some of the managing members of the Estate could attend the current meeting.

In regard to the Rural Site Walk, William Emmett informed that Andrew Randall, a farmer from Pinkneys Green, offered to host it in 2024.

To receive a presentation from Maria Evans and Michael Beaven, Maidenergy, on solar panels and how farmers can use them to improve their farming.

Maria Evans, Our Community Enterprise (OCE) Director, and Michael Beaven, OCE Director and Volunteer Director at MaidEnergy, gave an overview of the Furze Platt School Solar Project and the potential opportunities for rural business. OCE was a local consultant organisation which worked for charity and public sector organisations, specialising in fundraising, community ownership and renewables projects. MaidEnergy was a local community energy group.

The Furze Platt Schools Solar Project was a collaboration between local people in the Borough, and Furze Platt School. MaidEnergy organised the installation and leverage funding, while OCE conducted the work behind this. RBWM and its Climate Partnership also helped with investment.

Michael Beaven explained that MaidEnergy was a volunteer-led clean energy cooperative, made up of volunteers. Operating since 2015, it managed since then 7 local sites, including 15 solar arrays and a heat pump. MaidEnergy was financed by community investment which would usually then finance jointly owned solar energy. It worked on the basis that the site would lease their roof space to them, then MaidEnergy would finance and arrange the installation, and then sell the solar power back to the site below the grid price, creating substantial savings. Michael Beaven argued that this provided benefits to investors who use their money to make a positive difference, the site as they were getting power at a lower cost, and for planet Earth as it was cutting carbon emissions.

Furze Platt Big Solar, MaidEnergy’s largest site, produced 190.4kW of solar PV (worth the energy of 60-70 houses), saved 38 tonnes of CO2 per annum, and saved the school around £500,000 in energy bills. The site received 96 community investors (half of them being local people), including the Royal Borough’s Climate Partnership, accumulating to £248,000 of investment for installation. The school benefited from low-cost energy (including no capital cost) by retaining the solar panels.

Maria Evans then explained that community ownership was a way for local people to invest into something important to them. They tended to have a good success rate whereby they were continuous in contrast to other local businesses which had a 30% success rate. There were 440 community businesses of various models (shops, pubs, community energy, and housing). Community investment had to be led by a community benefit society (CBS), such as MaidEnergy and SaveEnergy in the local area. People could set up their own organisations, such as a farming co-operative, a local shop or pub. With Furze Platt Big Solar, the school owned the roof while the community owned the solar panel; with the latter benefiting from the low-cost energy while the former benefitted from cleaner energy.

Opportunities for rural businesses included solar panel (including roof mount, ground mount, floating, agri-voltaics), battery storage, renewable heat, retrofit, biomass, pyrolysis and other options. Maria Evans highlighted that OCE and MaidEnergy were not installers of solar panel but rather they gather quotes from installers with a survey of the building or site and then leverage the investment.

Further opportunities to rural businesses on solar  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129.

To receive a presentation from Des Sussex from the Crown Estate on the Windsor Hedgerow project.

Des Sussex from the Crown Estate gave a presentation on Hedgerow management in Windsor, particularly Windsor Great Park and Forest. The Crown Estate owned and managed a diversity of hedges, including roadside, agricultural within forestry areas, ornamental areas and gardens. The hedges served various functions, making a landscape attractive, absorb carbon, reduce soil erosion and water runoff, provide a source of biofuel, and provide shelter and food for animals. Des Sussex showcased images of the hedges across the Crown Estate.

A few years ago, the Crown Estate sought to increase its landscape restoration and hedge and tree planting around the parks and agricultural areas of the Estate. This would involve the rebuilding of heritage features lost from the landscape (e.g., rows of trees) and add, for example, in-field trees and hedgerows.

The scheme faced some challenges such as the 2023 heatwave. In addition, there was a high population of deer and other wild animals roaming the Estate. In response, protective fencing had been installed to protect the hedges from the livestock and roaming wild animals. A diverse species of plants had been planted across the Estate, mostly a mix selection of shrubs, such as hawthorn, hazel, holly and blackthorn. There was an objective to create green lanes with the hedges which would allow public rights of way. The hedges would also be able to provide a large volume of fruit and berries for wild birds and mammals.

In terms of trimming, which was a regular challenge, some hedges in the Crown Estate were trimmed annually while others were trimmed infrequently. In terms of benefits to carbon, wildlife and landscape, the Crown Estate considered the height and width of hedges, such as allowing them to grow wider and higher for a period and then cut them. Late winter cutting provided the benefit of leaving berries for wildlife to benefit in the early stages of winter. The Crown Estate marked hedgerow trees to be left alone, taking into account that too hedgerow trees could shade out the hedge, and thus sought to strike a balance.

A team of volunteers conducted hedge laying at Windsor over many years at the Crown Estate, particularly creating stock-proof hedging which would reduce the need for fencing and fence maintenance.

Under this scheme to restore the agricultural parts of the Crown Estate, Des Sussex believed that around 10 kilometres of new hedges had been planted in the last 3 years. He conveyed that the landscape and hedgerow planting was making significant changes to the farming system, such as in-field trees having a positive impact the productivity and management.

Geoffrey Copas commented that hedgerows on a farm had too many disadvantages which outweighed the benefits due to the cost of maintenance and thrips (insects) living in hedges and affecting soft fruits.

Des Sussex responded that there were potentially some stewardship grants which could off-set the costs of hedgerow management and planting, though he nevertheless acknowledged the costs of hedges and the big commitment which could then have a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 130.

To receive an update on rural crime from Thames Valley Police (TVP).

Sergeant Catherine Griffiths, Thames Valley Police (TVP), gave the rural crime update. She first off informed that Natasha Gidda, the new Inspector at Maidenhead and Windsor, was keen to mitigate rural crime, such as through working with the Rural Crime Taskforce. She then shared some crime figures:

·       From December 2023 to February 2024, 26 rural crimes had been reported. Some were repeat offences at the usual locations, such as lamping and hunting. The most common crime in Windsor and Maidenhead was wildlife crime, consisting of catapulting of wild birds.

·       TVP dealt with 16 confirmed offences as well as dealt with three offenders in December 2023. TVP also dealt with five offenders catapulting swans in the Town Centre during a Rural Crime Week.

·       There were 6 offences of lamping between December 2023 to February 2024. Lamping was difficult to tackle as callers may see vehicles driving on land but do not see a crime in progress and therefore confirm an offence.

·       Informative packs were distributed during Rural Crime Week which included information on how to sign up to the rural crime WhatsApp group.

·       The WhatsApp group had around 68 people. Despite some reservations, Sergeant Catherine Griffiths encouraged people to use it to help TVP.

·       The Rural Crime Taskforce visited 10 farms in Windsor, 20 farms in Maidenhead and targeted operations in the wider area.

·       TVP had worked with Surrey Police to tackle lamping and wildlife crime.

·       There was no trend or spike in any sort of crimes or in any specific area. There was a reduction in hair coursing but there was an increase in wildlife crime.

The Chair asked if the digital version of the informative pack could be shared so that it could be circulated after the meeting. Sergeant Catherine Griffiths agreed.

ACTION: A digital copy of the informative pack be circulated to Forum attendees.

Mentioning a case where a police officer he had contact concerning trespassers, in which he mentioned that he was only officer covering Bracknell, Slough, Maidenhead and Windsor, Peter Prior asked if police resources had improved. Sergeant Catherine Griffiths answered that resources had increased, particularly neighbourhood policing, with an increase in police officers being employed. The Rural Crime Taskforce had 10 officers as part of it.

John Baldwin, a resident, asked about the impact of TVP tackling rural crime within the Borough, particularly on organised crime and the theft of farm equipment on farmland, and wondered if further information could be provided. The Chair mentioned that Police Inspector Stuart Hutchings gave a presentation at the previous Rural Forum meeting in November 2023 which covered the theft of farming equipment and how it was tackled, and that there was a time lag between an offender getting arrested and TVP being allowed to reveal details of the case (around 2 years). John Baldwin clarified that TVP could have shared the scope of their operations. The Chair suggested that Sergeant Catherine Griffiths could share that information with him.

ACTION: Sergeant Catherine Griffiths to share information on the extent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 131.

To receive any comments and updates from the rural and farming community as well as consider a Rural Site Visit in summer 2024.

Nick Manderfield, a farmer, gave an overview on the issue of TB (tuberculosis), a bacterial infection which caused respiratory problems, affecting cows, humans and various wildlife. He highlighted that TB needed to be controlled on the grounds of animal, as well as human, health and welfare, particularly as it could be transmitted to humans in milk before pasteurisation. Thus, he conveyed that managing TB within the livestock was vital to control this, though vaccinations were no where closer to being implemented. As TB easily spread through airborne transmission, it could easily spread to farms trough cattle movement. As such, farms had to enact stringent testing both before and after they moved cattle.

A pressing issue Nick Manderfield stated was TB being spread by wildlife movement, notably roaming deer and badgers, and then spreading it to cattle. He mentioned a couple of TB breakouts on his farm with the second one causing him to lose 20 cows. From this, alongside continuous testing by farmers, Nick Manderfield conveyed that landowners in East Berkshire needed to impose managed wildlife control to inhibit the spread of TB.

William Emmett added that badger culling in England had effectively reduced TB cases. Meanwhile, TB in Wales was widespread due to badger culling being prohibited.

Nick Manderfield then discussed the general state of the farming industry. He explained that arable farmers were experiencing difficult times with feed wheat prices at £60 per tonne; while input prices had declined after the War in Ukraine, this was not enough. While he acknowledged that energy security was vital, Nick Manderfield stressed that food security was vital and should be brought to more attention. While there had been green schemes on some farms, such as growing wildflowers, he commented that every acre of land taken out of food production in the UK meant that 2-and-a-half acres of rainforest being destroyed in Brazil, in reference to John Bloomer’s earlier comments.

Nick Manderfield stated that the problem was not farmers affecting the environment but rather the increasing UK and world population which led to increasing food demand. He further highlighted that there was more incentive to enter wildflower schemes as it was becoming more uneconomical to graze livestock, which then led to the reduction of livestock in the area. He also asserted that the urban population did not recognise the conservation work which the framing industry had done and stated that there should be greater appreciation from urban residents on the conservation work which farmers had done. He suggested there could be greater interaction between famers and urban customers to help them realise this. To sum up, Nick Mandefield stated that green land within the Borough was conserved and maintained by the farming community, that the farming community declining would mean that this land would no longer be maintained, highlighting that farmers could not be green if it was financially unsustainable. 

Nick Manderfield then briefly mentioned the weather patterns, particularly the heavy rainfall in 2023 and January 2024. This had caused crops to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 132.

Forum members and attendees to suggest any topics and agenda items for future Forum meetings.

Items suggested for the next meeting:

·       Invite the Crown Estate.

·       Invite a Planning Officer.

·       Mental health and loneliness, potentially by someone from the FCN and RABI.

·       A tree officer to talk about on TPOs, legislation on tree planting, and how farmers and landowners could work with them.

To note the next Rural Forum meetings:

·       19^th November 2024

·       25^th March 2025

The Chair confirmed that the next meeting of the Forum would be on 19 November 2024, followed by the next one on 25 March 2025.