Recent news

Unfortunately for public safety reasons, there will be no access to Knott Wood to see the bluebells this year.

This is the official statement that we have received from the landowner, the Lawes Agricultural Estate :

"LAT (Lawes Agricultural Trust) is in active discussions with the town council regarding access generally around Rothamsted Estate. We are constantly making improvements to enhance the publics safe use on a private working estate. This requires some private areas being closed at times while work is undertaken.

Currently Knott Wood is one of these closed areas – and will remain so for this bluebell season. The natural flora in the wood needs some time to rejuvenate and tree surveys need to be done to mitigate public risk in this area. We anticipate having a new permissive path open next season making it safe and accessible.

While we understand the enjoyment of seeing the bluebells we thank you for your respect in this and encourage you to visit the other well known bluebell woods in the area."

Friends of the Nickey Line can offer your local organisation talks on the History of the Nickey Line by Zoom or face to face presentation.

A small donation to the Friend’s funds is normally requested but may be waived or reduced for organisations of modest means. Contact us at friends@nickeyline.org

Friends of the Nickey Line carried out a usage survey in May 2020 to measure the very high usage being seen throughout the Nickey Line during the Lockdown. More than 50 volunteers reported counts for their section of the Line, ranging from before 7.00 until 21.00 each day for more than two weeks.

- Daily usage over the individual Redbourn to Hemel Hempstead sections was estimated at about 350 uses per day and over 1,000 uses per day for the Harpenden sections.

- Overall Nickey Line Lockdown usage was 12,000 uses per week. This is almost 3 times the last count we had of 4,100 normal uses for the Harpenden section in July 2013.

The Coronavirus lockdown in late March 2020 immediately resulted in much greater use of the Nickey Line than normal, with the widespread impression being gained of much higher numbers of users than any previously ever seen. Sample counts in late April and early May appeared to confirm this, with projected usage apparently well above the base usage of 4,100 per week counted in early July 2013.

To obtain a more definitive usage estimate, a ‘Whole Line’ survey was undertaken from 14^th May till the month end. This was mainly based on reports from volunteer users of how many people they had seen using the Line in 30 minute periods whilst they were using the Line themselves in their normal exercise breaks from Lockdown. Whilst two formal surveys had been undertaken by Friends of the Nickey Line over the Harpenden section (2006 and 2013) and one on the Redbourn Lane roundabout crossings (in 2015), this was our first major survey to also include Hemel Hempstead and Redbourn.

More than 50 volunteers reported a total of more than 280 counts overall, each count covering the ‘stream’ of users over one or more sections of the Line and ranging from before 7.00 until 21.00 on the day in question. Friends’ Chairman Dave Abernethy said, “We are very grateful for our volunteers’ time and diligence. They made the survey possible despite the restrictions and challenges we all faced in the Lockdown period.”

Survey Results

· Daily usage over the individual Redbourn to Hemel Hempstead sections was estimated at about 350 uses per day in each of these sections.

· The Harpenden sections saw much higher volumes, with user traffic estimated at over 1,000 individual uses per day.

· After adjusting for such statistical factors as single way and two way (return) use and long distance users being possibly double counted in different parts of the Line, our estimate of average daily Lockdown use across the Nickey Line was 1,740 individual uses and the weekly figure was 12,180 uses.

Friends of the Nickey Line have been awarded a grant of £1000 by County Councillor David Williams to help maintain the Nickey Line, in particular as a contribution to surface repairs. We would like to publicly thank Councillor Williams for his continued support of the Nickey Line and our work on it.

The very wet recent weather has meant very muddy conditions in sections of the Line, especially around Roundwood Halt in Harpenden. Discussions are being held with St Albans District Council on how to improve the Line's surface in this heavily used part of the Line.

Last May's lockdown usage survey by the Friends measured over 1000 uses per day on this section and the present lockdown has seen continued heavy usage despite the very wet and muddy surface.

Dacorum Council tree works are expected provisionally from 2nd March for up to a couple of months. In summary :

- Where significant defects have been identified, dead wood / damaged growth will be removed

- 16 large Beech located towards the Queensway crossing are lapsed pollards. Re-pollarding now would possibly be too stressful for the trees to cope with so they will have 50% of their canopies removed. This will appear harsh, and is actually a lot of growth to remove, but has to be carried out for safety reasons – old pollard growth junctions can fall apart.

If anyone has specific questions, please email treesandwoodlands@dacorum.gov.uk

Because of the coronavirus lockdown, we are having to go without a normal AGM so we are instead:
- issuing normal AGM report documents by email and online on our website, and
- asking members for feedback and approval of our motions by email or text.

Contents:

1. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

· This has been our fourteenth of operation. My thanks go to your committee who have done sterling work again throughout this year, obviously hampered near the end of our year by coronavirus restrictions

· We are grateful to all 4 local councils (Dacorum BC, SADC, Redbourn PC and Harpenden TC ) for the long term support of the Nickey Line which they all recognise as an important local amenity.

· Membership stands at 322 households, up from 307 last year. Many more people have been using the Nickey Line than are members but we do value our members and want to recruit more. We ran membership tables on the Line and external organised events. Subject to coronavirus restrictions, we intend to continue widening our support base and build on the goodwill created by the increased usage seen over the lockdown period

· We issued 2 newsletters this past year as usual. We continue to use emails to communicate with members and to receive feedback and news of problems arising on the Line.

· Our website www.nickeyline.org received over 64,000 visits over the past 12 months, up on last year’s 50,000. The website is now quite old and ideally needs improving especially to make it mobile friendly. A review is underway to develop an updated site.

· Our Facebook group “The Nickey Line” has over 432 signed up members, c.f. 270 last year. This growth has clearly been stimulated by the Coronavirus lockdown and significant higher use of the Nickey Line for the allowed exercise and recreation

· In early April we lost Roger Green to cancer. Roger organised much of our Hemel Hempstead work parties in recent years, especially litter picking and emergency work on fallen trees. He will be sorely missed. A tribute to him is on our website at http://www.nickeyline.org/home/news/?news_id=243 and Roger Thornhill’s report later in this pack provides a summary

· The Dacorum Greenspace Action Plan (GAP) was published and work role for the Friends from it was agreed with Dacorum B.C. who confirmed that FONL volunteers working along the Dacorum will be covered by DBC’s insurance

· A social event for volunteers was held at Redbourn Parish Centre on 7^th May 2019. We thank Redbourn PC for providing the room free of charge

· See Roger Thornhill’s report (item 4) for more details on walks, work parties and event attendance.

· We gave a presentation on the history of the Nickey Line in early March 20 at St John’s Church in Hemel Hempstead

· The Nickey Line has seen several significant and welcome usability improvements this past year:

· New access ramps to Hunters Oak and Spencers Park, both funded by the Spencer Park developer

· New East and West cycle ramps at Chequers Lane , Redbourn with funds obtained by Countryside Management Services (CMS)

· Funding has been obtained by CMS from local planning S106 moneys for resurfacing of the Hemel Hempstead Three Cherry Tree Lane to Hunters Oaks section

· The St Albans DC Local Plan has still to be accepted and this remains a key delaying issue for developers:

· The Crown Estate 2500 home Hemel East development has continued towards its planning application and we confirmed with them that key aspects such as a Toucan crossing for the new road and a monetary contribution towards an improved M1 crossing were still in the plans. We requested improved bicycle access at Cherry Tree Lane bridge

· The Lawes Trust proposal for Redbourn has not been adopted yet by St Albans DC but remains an arguably strong further development possibility for the future. We have yet to see a definitive proposal for the adjacent Redbourn roundabout crossings which need to reflect the problematic traffic flow from Harpenden Lane as well as the existing user safety issues

· When the recent Redbourn Lane roundabout car park work was undertaken, the entrance gap was left very narrow to deter misuse / dumping - but several users have damaged their vehicles on entering or leaving. We lobbied Herts Highway Department to increase the entrance gap for usability and safety and are pleased to report this was implemented. The gap is still challenging for larger vehicles but a big improvement for most users. We continue to recommend users to approach from the roundabout direction and turn right into the park, taking appropriate care crossing any oncoming traffic.

· The Coronavirus lockdown started just at the end of our 2019-2020 reporting year. We have had to cancel our AGM, scheduled public walks and normal committee meetings. Our work has continued behind the scenes, taking the restrictions fully into account

· Nickey Line public use during the lockdown has expanded hugely with unprecedented numbers of people of all ages using the Line for exercise and fresh air, encouraged also by the excellent spell of weather.

Our spots checks have confirmed the increased usage at the Harpenden end probably exceed our previous record measured usage there of July 2013. We have run a formal whole Line numerical survey in May with the help of local users throughout the Line – our first whole Line survey. Results will be published when the analysis is completed

· We appreciate that some people have been put off using the Line during this period by the level of usage and some lack of social distancing and inconsiderate use by a minority of cyclists and runners in particular. We believe however that generally most people have tried to observe the distancing guidelines and behaved with consideration for others

· Many people have used the Line for the first time during this period and we have received many comments of appreciation for the Line as a facility as well as our work to help maintain it. We hope this augurs well for future, post lockdown usage.

Treasure Mike Platt and independent examiner Mike Aldridge have agreed the appended figures, with formal signatures scheduled for after the lockdown when a face to face meeting is possible. Cash funds held at our year end (31 March) were £3523.39 c.f. £3697.70 last year.

b) We propose a motion to re-appoint Mike Aldridge as our independent examiner.

· Diana Ortega resigned following personal time pressures. I wish to thank her for her support during the year

· Karen Summers from Hemel Hempstead joined the committee during the year. Roger Thornhill and Geoff Bunce are resigning in accordance with the constitution and re-standing.

c) We propose a motion to accept Karen Summers, Roger Thornhill and Geoff Bunce as committee members.

NL Volunteers Work Results for the year following the May 2019 AGM + Work Events on the Nickey Line, AGM May 2019 to Early May 2020

We thank our volunteers for another stellar contribution to help improve the Nickey Line along its entire length - but the year finished very sadly, with coronavirus lockdown and the death in early April of our super volunteer at Hemel Hempstead, Roger Green, following a short illness. Roger’s dedication to the NL was incredible, and his death has left us with a huge hole to fill.

Roger, more than any of our volunteers, was very knowledgeable about the artefacts and structures on the NL, and keen for users to appreciate the beauty of the bridges.

He started on the Midland Road Bridge several years ago, almost totally covered in ivy when he began, and gradually engaged with people walking the line, persuading them to help in his efforts, which also extended to clearing fallen trees and branches, changing the notice boards at the HH end of the line, removing graffiti and conducting monthly litter picks. He was also a key contact with DBC, contributing to their GAP Action Plan, and ultimately to agreeing a way of us working on the NL under their insurance.

Roger led several walks for the Friends at HH, a popular one being tracing the route of the lost end of the NL which he ran numerous times, while also leading a walk of the length of the line on behalf of the Railway Ramblers. He was to have co-led the HH Spring Watch Walk in May this year, which disappointingly has had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown. Roger inputted hugely into the route, and we hope to run this next spring as ‘The Roger Green Hemel Hempstead Memorial Spring Watch Walk’.

In all, 25 volunteers worked on the line, contributing 485 hours before Covid-19 lockdown in mid-March. Since we first started running work parties, we have clocked up 4,329 hours!

Roger Green kicked off our winter work programme in September by organising a series of work parties in the vicinity of the Cherry Tree Lane Bridge, primarily to further expose the bridge and to let more light in to encourage the flora. Later in the month Geoff, Ian and Roger Green cut the scallops opposite Knott Wood, a task we undertake each year. Roger Green also ran a large number of smaller events throughout the winter months at the Hemel end of the line.

October saw us coppice a number of large hazels opposite the lower end of Knott Wood, with some of the large branches being placed to discourage people walking on the grass edge of the scallops nearby, where most of the better botany is to be found, while in November we extended the laid hedge on the west side below Knott Wood.

In December, CMS ran a work party with our volunteers in attendance, continuing the coppicing of numerous large hazels between Chequer Lane and the M1 tunnel, and helping to cut the new orchard which gets overgrown with vigorous bramble growth. (Four fruit trees have survived.) Later that month (our Xmas event) we opened up the sight lines at the Ambrose Lane Bridge.

We successfully applied for 100 free trees under the I Dig Tree Initiative, run by the Conservation Volunteers (a mix of hawthorn, blackthorn, dogwood and grey willow), and in January we planted the first three species where we had laid the hedge two months earlier .

We worked at Godwin’s Halt in February, extending the clear area we opened up two years ago, and returned to Ambrose Lane Bridge to further open up the sight lines to the bridge in March.

We ran a number of walks during the summer, and it was gratifying to see them so well supported by the general public, with each having 20+ people attending:

Early this year we trialled a winter tree ID walk - 10 attended, despite very limited publicity, which shows a healthy level of interest.

Covid-19 and lockdown led to us having to cancel the Volunteers Thank You event, the Dawn Chorus, the Hemel Hempstead Spring Watch Walk, while two further planned walks this coming summer have also been cancelled.

The Friends supported the Harpenden Wildfest in Lydekker Park, Harpenden (July), The Redbourn Classic Car Rally (September) and the Seniors Fair in Harpenden (October).

5. PLEASE EMAIL US AT FRIENDS@NICKEYLINE.ORG WITH ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS AND TO AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH OUR 3 MOTIONS:

b) We propose a motion to re-appoint Mike Aldridge as our independent examiner

c) We propose a motion to accept Karen Summers, Roger Thornhill and Geoff Bunce as committee members.

CPRE (Council for the Protection of Rural England) have awarded a commendation to Friends of the Nickey Line in this year’s CPRE Hertfordshire Awards.

Our thanks go to all our volunteers who have helped in our work that has gone towards our receiving this award.

Our Facebook Group “The Nickey Line” is available for all Nickey Line users to publish pictures, comments and stories about the Line.

News

Survey Results

NOTES TO THE EDITOR

Contents:

1. CHAIRMAN’S REPORT