Golden Acres joins the call for a ban on sky lanterns

The Golden Acres group of nurseries and garden centres has stopped selling sky lanterns due to environmental reasons — and has joined the call to have the product banned in the UK.
In spring the group, which locally operates four garden centres in Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire, decided the risk to farm animals was so great that the product should no longer be sold.
Group operations director Simon Edwards said: “With so much awareness of the potential danger to livestock, and with many of our centres located near arable land or within the New Forest, we felt it would be irresponsible to continue to sell them.
“Now we want to see the product totally banned in the UK as the likelihood of hurting livestock is very high. We don’t want to stop people having fun, but in country areas it’s clearly an unwise risk to take.
Farmers around the UK have called for sky lanterns to be banned as a fire risk to barns full of hay or straw, as well as a danger to livestock.
They report that cattle have been killed by eating wire from degraded lanterns that was accidentally picked up by harvest machinery and put into winter feed.
And coastguards have warned the lanterns are easily confused with distress flares and can lead to unnecessary callouts.
The airborne illuminations are like small, hand-held hot air balloons and typically launched at outdoor parties and weddings.
After lighting the fuel cell, hot air sends the lanterns into the sky — and the increase in the number of them landing in the countryside has become a hot topic.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk       Photography by Phil Dowding

Otter spotted at West Parley coffee shop

The Dorset conservation success of the previously-threatened otter took an interesting turn on Monday, October 18, when an otter calmly wandered into a coffee shop at West Parley!
Staff at Golden Acres garden centre spotted the otter walking through the external areas of the centre until it sat in the coffee shop entrance for a few moments before moving on.
Staff member Chris Woods, who filmed the otter on his mobile phone camera and video, said: “We are about a kilometre from the River Stour and there are no other real streams nearby, so it travelled quite a way – maybe it was because we had tuna mayo jacket potatoes on the menu that day!”
Otters, which are viewed as a  barometer of river health, did not completely disappeared from Dorset rivers as they did from other UK areas, and after years of decline, their numbers are now significantly increasing.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk

Feeding wild birds increases in popularity

Feeding wild birds and attracting them into gardens has proven to be extremely rewarding for many people – and is growing in popularity, if customers at Golden Acres’ garden centres are an indicator.
Sales of bird care products at the group’s four centres in Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire are up 22 per cent on 2009 and a whopping 45 per cent over the last two years.
David Bamford, centre manager at Golden Acres at Landford, said: “Feeding birds has always been a winter activity but is becoming popular throughout the year, with around half as much product sold in the summer as during the winter.
“The RSPB now encourages the all-year-round feeding of wild birds on its website and a lot of people are enjoying seeing them regularly in their gardens.”
The RSPB says although winter feeding benefits birds most, food shortages can occur at any time of the year. By feeding the birds all-year-round, you'll give them a better chance to survive the periods shortage.
With autumn and winter coming up, David recommends putting out food and water on a regular basis. “In severe weather, feeding in the morning and in the early afternoon really helps them.”
Bird food sales are also becoming increasingly specialist, with food easily available to attract specific types of bird into a garden, such as tits, starlings, sparrows, greenfinches, robins, wrens, thrushes, goldfinches, blackcaps and collared doves.
www.golden-acres-nursery.co.uk

Groveley commissions detectors at renewable energy facility

Engineers at Christchurch-based Groveley Detection have commissioned two carbon monoxide detectors at New Earth Energy’s first low-carbon renewable energy facility in Canford Arena, Poole.
The detectors protect the Advanced Thermal Treatment room and are connected to a GDS404 gas alarm panel.
This key site for New Earth Solutions Group also accommodates its development centre and a 6MW landfill gas power station that has operated since the 1990s. The power station contributes up to 80% of Dorset’s total generation of renewable power.
The order was placed via Shaftesbury-based Wessex Fire and Security which installed the complete fire detection system while utilising Groveley Detection’s advanced knowledge in toxic gas detection.
www.groveley.co.uk

Tice creates Budgens Boost for Wimborne

Four extra jobs are to be created when a new Budgens convenience store opens at Tice Wimborne at Walford in early February.
It will more than double the size of the Tice forecourt store – currently SPAR – to occupy the whole of the frontage of the petrol forecourt. The popular garage has occupied this prominent corner site since 1964 and before then in East Street.
Tice’s original SPAR forecourt store was opened in 1996 and has gone from strength to strength, with redevelopment taking place in 2003 and again in 2007.
It will be business as usual for the forecourt, servicing and sales operations  during the improvements. At the same time, the workshops will be getting a facelift with a new automated test lane MOT bay, new workshop lifts and all the latest equipment. 
Managing director Malcolm Tice said: “Budgens ideally suits our expansion needs and we think if offers the town an excellent convenience range of food.
“There will be a large fresh food selection – including local produce - and a wide enough range to buy all you need to cook a range of meals.
“It will be especially easy for people from the outlying areas to drive to the edge of town, park for free, and enjoy a quick food shopping experience.”
The new Budgens store will be open seven days a weeks from 7am to 10pm, and will have improved free parking bays.
www.tice.co.uk    Photography by Phil Dowding