Wildlife Not Watersports - Balderton Lake Campaign update

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We’ve reached a crucial point in our campaign! FINALLY, after months of campaigning, Balderton Parish Council has put Balderton Lake on the agenda for their Parish Meeting on 4th May. We need as many supporters to attend as possible. You can also speak and ask questions if you're a Balderton resident. We have been told a YMCA representative has been invited.

The more of us that are there, the more impact we can have. Here’s what you need to know:

When: 4th May, 18:30PM
Where: Balderton Village Centre, Coronation Street, NG23 3BD

We’ll also be presenting two beautiful pieces of artwork, made by the people of Newark, sharing how valuable and life-changing the wilderness of the lake is - without YMCA “enhancements”. 

Please save this date in your diary and join us! We really need to keep the pressure on both Balderton Parish Council and The YMCA to protect our biodiverse beauty spot. 

CAMPAIGN UPDATE

With our campaign in full swing, it’s been hard to catch a breather to summarise how things are progressing to protect Balderton Lake from planned YMCA watersports activities. Here is a round-up of recent campaign action. 

  • We held a fantastic peaceful protest back in Feb that attracted local and national media attention.

  • We’ve recently met with Robert Jenrick, Conservative MP for Newark, to express our concerns about the negative impacts caused by boating on both the wildlife and the community. We paid him a follow-up visit on 22 April at Collingham Village Hall, as part of a community event.

  • We’ve attended the Amenities, Finance & General Purpose & Full Council meetings with Balderton Parish Council to present evidence of this bad decision and challenge their decision with key questions. 

  • Sadly, despite such public opposition and lack of public consultation, Balderton Parish Council signed a license agreement with YMCA on 14th Jan 2022, for a 10-year duration, subject to the docking design being approved. 

  • YMCA continues to ignore our emails asking for copies of ecological reports, expressing our concerns and inviting them to meet us to present some community artwork calling on the YMCA to stop their Balderton Lake watersports plans. 

  • We’ve spoken to the Tarmac Estate Manager, who promised to make their Board of Directors aware of the wildlife impact of the proposal. To date, no further communication has been received. 

  • We’ve continued to peacefully raise awareness around the lake and collect signatures for our petition calling on Balderton Parish Council to ban boats on Balderton lake. 

  • We’ve been raising awareness of our campaign and promoting this petition outside Lidl and Sainsburys in Newark (with their permission). 

  • Our petition has now received 2,524 signatures, including paper signatures. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. Soon it will be time to hand in our petition. Can you share our petition once more to help up surpass 3,000 signatures? 

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Thank you!

This blog has been written and provided by SWAN (Saving Wildlife and Nature) - a local community campaign group.

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