This email is being sent to you because the Friends of Brandy Hole Copse has your email contact details on its membership records. We hope you will be happy to hear from us.

I am writing to bring you up-to-date with news from the Copse and of the Friends.

The primary aim of the Friends is to promote conservation and biodiversity in Brandy Hole Copse and its immediate surroundings. We do this by working with Chichester District Council (CDC), which has a Management Agreement with the landowner for the western part of the Copse and owns the narrower sections to the east and west of Centurion Way. The original Management Agreement expires and needs to be renewed this year; we await news of progress.

Friends' activity has been subdued since the pandemic and we hope the new Agreement, to be based on a new Management Plan, will help us gain fresh impetus this year. Our long-time Chair, Andrew Berriman, resigned last September; Vice-Chair Vincent Porter, sadly died last August; and Melvyn (Mel) Holford, our Treasurer, has been holding the fort for the Friends' Committee. Thanks are due to all three, without whom the Friends would not have survived.

To add to the challenges of 2022, CDC's Environment Officer, who enabled Green Gym working parties working with Andrew, took an ecology job elsewhere in September. Her replacement came on board in December.

My own involvement with the Copse goes back to around 2016, attending Management Board meetings originally on behalf of the Parklands community, and I currently Chair Chichester Tree Wardens (volunteers). I joined the Green Gym working parties a handful of times in 2022. As a result, I volunteered to work with Mel to help get the Friends to its next AGM - hence this email!

Whilst much awaits the new Management Agreement, we have managed some housekeeping:
* Brandy Hole Copse now has a page on Chichester Tree Wardens' website. Here you will find a copy of the Friends' Constitution and Membership Form, and
* the all important Privacy Policy that needed to be put in place before sending this email.
* CDC has agreed to host this year's Friends' AGM at East Pallant House, although we've not managed to confirm a date yet. (It may slip into June, as we'd like to promote it at Summersdale Residents' Association's AGM on Wednesday 24th May.)

It is too early to tell when Green Gym sessions will be able to recommence, although Mel and another Friend continue to undertake work at the Copse most weeks. I have been liaising with CDC's new Environment officer and will be learning more about the implications of the Scheduled Monument designation (covering the entrenchments) on a site visit with CDC's Archaeology officer later this month. The inclusion of the Copse in a Strategic Wildlife Corridor for the Local Plan Review also offers opportunities for us to assist with biodiversity enhancement projects - you can find a map showing the Corridor (from Fishbourne to the South Downs National Park) here.

It would be wonderful to hear from you, please, with feedback on how you presently use the Copse; your hopes and aspirations for it; and any ways in which you might like to help (from wildlife surveys to physical tasks to publicity and/or desk-based support and professional skills).

On a more prosaic note, please note that Nationwide withdrew our old bank account last year. If you would normally pay your Friends' membership by standing order (£5.00 annually on 1st April) we would really appreciate you checking that this is to our Lloyds Bank account:
Friends of Brandy Hole Copse --- Sort code 30-91-97 --- Account number 23438968 .
(Please include your name as the Reference for any payment, so Mel can keep track of who has paid what.)
If you would like us to check this for you, Mel keeps the master list in hard copy as Treasurer and can be contacted by 'phone on 01243 527645. I also have an electronic copy that is up-to-date as of December 2022. My 'phone number is 07788 140698.

Finally, it seems appropriate to sign-off with the Chichester Society's Tribute to Vincent Porter, published in its December 2022 Newsletter.