Brook group meets

The Ruscombe Brook Action Group still meets every month - we have our AGM next month and will be looking for new members and supporters to keep us going - much has been achieved (see point three here).

Photo: head of Ruscombe valley where brook starts

This last week in addition to the usual business we had a fascinating talk and discussion led by Simon Charter about viewing the brook as an organism. There are a number of levels at which we might do this and it helped us view the brook (or indeed any other water system) in a different light.

I do find fascinating such discussions - we've had some in the past - like the Mysteries of water - see here - indeed science seems to be waking up to the qualities of water - see "The strangest liquid: Why water is so weird". This new scientist article says: "The implications of this finding are dramatic: it suggests that a total rethink of the structure of water is needed." Available here - but enough of that for now....

Other issues discussed included:
- Watercourse Wardens and we were joined by Whiteshill and Ruscombe warden, Greg Dance for the first time
- Puckshole: Phase I: new culvert – working well with regular clearing out of trash screen every other month. Need to continue monitoring effectiveness. Phase II: we still need to make progress with the Wheeler’s Walk run-off and see if there are ways the force of the flow from Wheeler’s Walk can be reduced to lessen the erosion to the banks of the brook.
- Severn Trent: we were delighted to hear that sewer root cutting will commence in the next few weeks, but no news on further plans (see discussion here).
- I fed back on the meeting of the Stroud Valleys Water Forum re the canal - see here. Next meeting of the forum is on 21st July at 7.30pm in the Committee Room at Ebley Mill. Tony Parsons from Gloucestershire County Council Highways Department will hopefully give a talk. If anyone interested do contact me first.
- We also discussed the ongoing work of the group: agreed that there is keen interest in the group and that our work should continue. Group will next meet in July and include a walk around The Lawns to see progress there..
- Lastly we are planning another brook walk: possibly 24th August at 7pm.