After many years of uncertainty, the Ship Inn Site has now been licensed to Stonehouse Town Council and the recently created Ship Inn Community Enterprise (SpICE) is working with a wide range of community partners and stakeholders to create a community canal-side space.
Consultation is ongoing to find out what you would like to see created here – look out for SpICE members at events over the summer: APT’s Three Greens Fair on August 17; the Canal Festival on September 1; and Stonehouse in Bloom’s Tea in the Old Chapel Garden on September 14. Alternatively you can complete the consultation survey online – click on the link below – or pick up a paper copy from ???? and return via ????
And today we are delighted to announce that we have taken a step closer to accessing the site with the welcome news that the first stage of professional clearing brambles and undergrowth will start on Wednesday, August 7th.
The first area to be cleared will be a metre-wide strip on either side of the reptile barriers, which will then be repaired so that ecologists can carefully relocate the small number of slow worms and grass snakes, which ecological surveys have found there.
This must take place before any wider site clearance can be undertaken and must be carried out by fully accredited personnel. To that end, the town council has commissioned JPR Environmental to carry out this task.
After the barrier has been repaired, there will be approximately eight weeks of reptile location and then SpICE will be inviting community volunteers to help clear the rest of the site – under the guidance of an ecologist – ready for the first stage of creating a canal-side space based on what you, the community, would like to see established.
Please give the team from JPR Environmental a cheer as you cycle/walk by!