THE next meeting of Barry and Vale Friends of the Earth will be in the Castle Hotel, Jewel Street, Barry, at 7.30pm on Tuesday, October 7. Following the Group's last meeting, a letter has been sent to Cllr Rob Curtis, the Vale's Biodiversity Champion, asking for urgent action to protect our environments.

Dear Cllr Curtis,

At the last meeting of Barry and Vale Friends of the Earth, members were disappointed to hear that the part-time Biodiversity Officer, who worked in effective partnership with Erica Dixon (Vale Ecology Officer), had been made redundant. We feel that the protection of the Environment has to come up higher in the Vale Council’s list of priorities. Erica had given a presentation on the ‘State of Nature’ to the FoE Group and the Group agreed to ask you, as the Vale’s Biodiversity Champion, to request that you will ensure the appointment of a full-time Biodiversity Officer, wherein one of the first tasks would be to put a Green Belt in place around Barry, beginning with the already protected Ancient Woodlands. The next task should be the re-establishment of an Environmental Studies Centre at Weycock Cross, for the children of the Vale to extend their awareness of the world in which they live, in a natural environment. We trust that you will agree to these proposals,

Yours faithfully,

K R Stockdale

Barry and Vale FoE Coordinator