Friends of the Fallowfield Loop

Next members' meeting: Monday 20th March, 7.30pm, Union Chapel, Wellington Road, Fallowfield.

Sherwood Street hedge

We planted this hedge on 8th February 2015.  It was our second attempt after the first planting of small shrubs were accidentally mown down by Sustrans contractors!  Over the intervening eight years most of the double row of trees and shrubs round the Sherwood Street/Wellington Road corner and the single row by the fence on the left of the entrance have grown well. Ian Barker's work group gave the plants a good pruning workday on 2nd February.  Most of them were cut back well, but a few were deliberately left as taller specimens.


Update – Mayor's Challenge Fund Development and Improvement Project.

The latest news is that there has been no progress in acquiring further information about what might be planned for the Loop and (more likely) the 'Yellow Brick Road' from Debdale Park to the Ashton canal.  This is despite several FotFL members lobbying their councillors by email and visits to their surgeries.  Our Chair has been promised a report from Cllr Tracy Rawlins, the Council's Executive member for Environment and Transport, but this has yet to materialise.

On a related issue, it is reported by a member that the long promised work is about to start on improving the Yellow Brick Road. In particular, it may be that the steep junction where the Fallowfield Loop goes over the Yellow Brick Road at Debdale is going to be eased. If you pass this point please let us know of any progress!

Information from a Council Press Release dated Feb 26th:

 'The feedback from past surveys/consultations has been used to inform the Council's plans for using  £300,000 Safer Streets funding that include the following measures.'
    • Site clearance and landscaping
    • Access point improvements with new entry markers and illuminated bollards
    • New and replacement signs along the whole route, and linked to access point
    • New fences, guard rails and barriers.
Additionally, the funding will look at areas that need resurfacing prioritised such as where tree routes have caused the current surface to buckle/break up.

Orchard projects and workdays

Dick Venes reports that Ian Barker's Sustrans volunteers have had a very productive two months.  Together with personnel from the Orchard Project the newest orchard ('Chervil') trees were cleared of surrounding growth and pruned as necessary.  At another session at the Levenshulme 'Quadrants', the volunteers tidied round and weeded the Incredible Edible Levenshulme's raised beds and pruned most of the Levenshulme orchard apple and pear trees.  The group has also worked on the willow maze and overgrown vegetation in the Abbey Hey section of the Loop.
In addition, the remaining apple and pear trees in Levenshulme and those in the Fallowfield and Debdale orchards have also been pruned.  The soft fruit trees are earmarked for pruning in the summer, as they are more susceptible to fungal diseases at this time of year.
If you are interested in helping with orchard work please contact Dick Venes via email: rjvenes@waitrose.com.

Litter picking

Charles Kinniburgh reports:
    1. On 10th February, an enthusiastic group of parents, pupils and teachers from Cringle Brook Primary School joined in on a litter pick organised by the school.  They concentrated on the section of the Fallowfield Loop between Slade Lane and Lindleywood Road and retrieved an impressive 31 bags of litter in little more than an hour.  They were ably supported by Zoe from Keep Manchester Tidy who provided the equipment. Erica and I from FotFL/Sustrans assisted where we could.  If you have a child at a school near the Floop and are considering holding a similar event, feel free to contact me for advice.
    2. Alston Road, which crosses the Loop just past the Debdale Park exit, in particular was very littered. It is a popular route for school children and in its current state sends them the wrong message with regard to looking after the environment.  So we organised a litterpick on 2nd March and cleared the road up, plus the adjacent playing field. 

Tree work on the Loop

Some of you will have noticed tree work taking place along the Loop between Slade Lane and Levenshulme.  It has been pleasing to see that Sustrans put up some very useful signs about the work, so that Loop users were well informed about the reasons for the work.  This is particularly good as many people get rather agitated about tree loss.  In the past, environmental surveys of the Loop have highlighted the variety of habitats along the route, and self seeded tree removal and pruning helps this biodiversity.

Sign boards

At the Levenshulme quadrants work day, we 'broke in' to the heavily graffitied signboard and found that the Loop map under the plastic cover was in very good condition.  The signboard at the Debdale Park exit was recently cleaned up successfully with paint remover but several others, including Levenshulme, look to be beyond recovery.  We have measured the polycarbonate plastic cover at Leve and are looking to replace the really badly defaced covers at several other locations.

Nature News

The January and February Sunday walks saw 2023 off to a good start. Despite being a grey murky morning, the walk round the Gorton Reservoirs gave us a good count of bird species (28) both on and around the water. The February walk from Withington Road to Platt Brook,on a much brighter day,gave a count of 25 bird species and many signs of spring with hazel catkins showing and many trees and bushes in bud. A pair of long tailed tits were seen preparing to nest in the brambles.
A big thanks to Erica for tirelessly recording and counting all of our sightings over many months 😄!

The March walk will start at the Quadrants (Crayfield Road) at 10.30 on the 26th. A separate reminder will be emailed nearer the time.

The future of the Friends

Currently we are operating with a soon to retire Chair, no Hon Secretary and a stand in Hon Treasurer.  Past appeals for members to volunteer for Officer positions have failed to attract anyone so far, so we are currently facing disbanding the Friends organisation at the next AGM.  If this happens, our Constitution states that ' in the event of the dissolution of the Association, once all liabilities have been met, any money or property left over shall be transferred to such charitable organisations as members deem suitable.'

If you are interested in helping the Friends group continue in the future,the time to volunteer is now!