Phoenix Shed rises from the Ashlet

The original broken building

Over the last few months the Ashlet building on the South West corner of the FSC Preston Montford site has been replaced  in an extended piece of work involving many  different  people. The initial impetus for this came from a paper based assessment by FSC Head Office but the project developed into a multi-agency affair with a wide range of stake holders to consider. The accompanying images show the stages in the process.                                                                                       

The road to recovery

This sort of building is not one that usually concerns our visitors,  but they serve a vital function in providing space to put stuff.  Sheds matter; they are the unsung heroes of

additional storage capacity  

 

Seen from behind

Buildings in position

Credits for the project:

Initial paperwork-FSC Head Office Finance team

HO-PM liaison and Project  management -Chris Price and Adrian Pickles

Shed Sourcing Chris Price

Demolition and Asbestos removal-City Environmental Services (UK) Ltd

Ground  clearance and base plate preparation- Community Payback team at Shropshire Probation Service

Finishing and Electricals- Andy Powell

Phoenix sheds in position

Newt Headlines

Pond Newts- train to be a professional Newt worker

FSC Preston Montford runs various courses to train people to work with newts and the next one is taking place from April 23^rd-25^th. There are still a couple of places left on this course which will be lead by Jackie Underhill who is a vastly experienced and respected Newt worker.

To make sure the course runs successfully Preston Montford staff visited key sites in the area to check that there are still ponds with water in them. The long period of dry weather has been causing concern to people who worry about Newts: Drying out of ponds whether from natural or human causes is a major reason why newts are under threat and in need of serious protection.

The good news is that despite the dry winter the sites had enough water in to support their newt populations, a situation that has been further improved by rain in the first part of April- so the course is happening and the people lucky enough to participate will take a major step towards gaining a licence to work with Great Crested Newts.

The photographs show two of the ponds,  one at a cliff site near Llanymynech and the other a specially constructed pond in the grounds of FSC Preston Montford. If you are interested in taking part in the course please contact the field centre at FSC Preston Montford directly.

Adrian Pickles

e-mail address:  enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org or telephone the Centre on 01743-852040