Seven Fields: A Local Nature Reserve Deserves Local Accountability

What autumn brings

Seven Fields: A Local Nature Reserve Deserves Local Accountability

As the leaves fall across Swindon, the Woodland Trust’s #NaturesCalendar project is helping to reveal how seasonal change, maintenance and local management impact the health of our trees.

In Seven Fields, this year’s late hay cut and the absence of any public consultation about its future have raised serious concerns. While Swindon Borough Council is seeking views on the borough’s Country Parks, Seven Fields, a legally designated Local Nature Reserve with an existing Management Plan has been excluded from that process.

That plan sets clear expectations: regular maintenance, seasonal hay cutting and biodiversity monitoring. Yet repeated delays risk undermining both the ecology and the protections that status should guarantee. When management slips, habitats degrade and so do the legal and public safeguards that keep development at bay.

Citizen-science data such as leaf-fall timings could soon help evidence what we already see on the ground, that inconsistent maintenance is accelerating decline.

I will push for the urgent renewal of the outdated Seven Fields Management Plan and ensure that every responsible party upholds their obligations within it. The outcome must be fair funding, transparent reporting, and proper enforcement, the foundations of genuine local accountability. This document can no longer sit neglected; it needs immediate revision to reflect the current ecological realities and community expectations.

How residents can help:

✅ Record your seasonal observations at https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk/# to help evidence the impact of changing weather and maintenance patterns.

✅ Share your photos, findings, and local observations with me or Haydon Wick Parish Council - including reports of antisocial behaviour, graffiti, or areas where footpaths and access could be improved.

Submit feedback directly through the parish reporting form:

https://form.jotform.com/251343243383048.

Collectively, we can protect the integrity of our Local Nature Reserve before neglect becomes irreversible.