Access to Coldhams Common during the Cambridge Folk Festival 25 - 28 July 2013

Friends of Coldham's Common are receiving mixed messages from the City Council about use of the common during the Cambridge Folk Festival for camping.  As far as we are aware there are no restrictions in place on your access to the common over the festival period, and if there is an attempt to intimidate you on this point by the stewards, please report it to the site office or by e-mail below.  PLEASE CAN YOU ALSO LET US KNOW OF ANY INSTANCES IN WHICH YOU ARE DENIED ACCESS OR FEEL INTIMIDATED SO THAT WE CAN TAKE THIS UP WITH CITY COUNCIL. 

Please also be aware that the visitors on the common [ despite them driving, camping and trampling all over the Local Nature Reserve which as we all know is so precious that it can only be managed by grazing ] are indeed guests in our local community and that we should treat them as such, so that they have a lovely weekend sharing our common.

The following is from the letter to residents sent out sometime in July and is all the definitive information we have  :

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In case of enquiry contact Eddie Barcan
Direct dial 01223 457515
Fax 01223 457529
Email eddie.barcan@cambridge.gov.uk


July 2013

Dear Resident

Cambridge Folk Festival, 25 - 28 July 2013

I am writing to inform you that once again Coldham’s Common is to be used as a campsite for patrons of the Folk Festival.

Every effort will be made to ensure that any inconvenience to the residents during this period is kept to a minimum. The arrangements for the weekend are as follows:

1. Folk Festival patrons will arrive at the site from 10.00am on Thursday 25 July onwards. The site will be vacated on Monday 29 July.

2. A regular bus service will be provided running to and from the site to Cherry Hinton Hall.

3. The campsite will be stewarded throughout the weekend.

4. Should you experience any problems resulting from the camping arrangements on
Coldham’s Common please do not hesitate to contact the Coldham’s Common site office on 01223 213970 or the Festival HQ at Cherry Hinton on 01223 214220 - operating from Thursday 25 July to Monday 29 July, 9.00am - 12.30am (2.00pm Monday).

Please note that there will be a children’s poetry concert on Sunday 28 July between 12.00pm and 1.00pm at the main site (Cherry Hinton Hall) with John Hegley (Doors open at 11.00am).

Tickets are limited and available in advance to City residents from the City Centre Box Office and at the Cherry Hinton Hall site box office, subject to availability. They cost £4 for accompanying adults and £2 for children under 14 years old (children must be accompanied by an adult).

We are confident that this year's Festival will continue its tradition of being a successful, trouble-free event. We would like to thank you and all local residents for your continued co-operation and support of the Festival.

If you have any queries, in advance of the Festival, please do not hesitate to contact Elaine Midgley, Arts & Events Manager during office hours on 01223 457592 or elaine.midgley@cambridge.gov.uk (Cambridge City Council).

Yours sincerely

Eddie Barcan
Festival Manager
Cambridge City Council

Summer social - butterflies, Butts and Joanna Lumley - Saturday 20 July 2013

The summer social for Friends of Coldham's Common on Saturday 20 July was an excellent day out with superb weather and convivial company, consisting of a butterfly walk inspired by Janet, who was inspired by Joanna Lumley and the Big Butterfly Count [http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about or http://butterfly-conservation.org/ ] and then a picnic on top of the rifle butts, serenaded by Neil on the guitar.

The summer sun brought out not only the Friends, but an unexpectedly large numbers of butterflies : the Triangle had lots of Large Skipper, Essex Skipper, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Comma, Large White, Green-veined White, and Six-spot burnet. If you want to check out what these all look like Butterfly Conservation have a poster here :  Butterfly Conservation id guide

The Pyramidal orchids were in bloom and there was abundant Lady's Bedstraw, Tall Meliot and Spiny Restharrow, but Knapweed, Red Clover, Thistles and Brambles were most popular with the butterflies.  Bird's Foot Trefoil was in flower on the top of the butts and much of the football pitches. 

Spiny Restharrow

  
Disappointingly the rest of the common walked was almost butterfly free, those on the LNR doomed by the early hay cut for the Folk Festival, presumably just as they were hatching; those on the northern common - well let's face it with 22 Long-horned cattle on only 8 hectares since April, there aren't really any plants left - let alone the butterflies dependent on them.



However the highlight was Marbled Whites flying on the Triangle, at what is perhaps their only site in the city itself. This and the other butterfly species appear highly dependent on the tall grassland in the Triangle for their larvae and it is most likely that they have been driven to extinction by inappropriate grazing management elsewhere on the common.  We only hope that we can make the council see sense and not extend their grazing onto this area and destroy this final refuge. Neil's rendition to us of "Knock-knock-knocking on Heavens Door" could though be seen as somewhat prophetic.

Marbled White

The Friends put these thoughts calmly aside to drink tea, eat scones, Pringles and macaroons and admire the view from the top of the Butts. Roll on summer sun !   Thanks to all and Joanna Lumley for a great afternoon out.