As the Nature in Your Neighbourhood project came to the end of its second year, MCA members continued with their engagement with several of the Tier 1 locations that form part of the Keele University study. Having completed the last seasonal surveys of 2025, focus moved on to further formulating the Management Plans for the development of the sites.

For Haregate Verge (Carlton Terrace Crossroads / Swifts of Leek) this involved finalising the timetable for key tasks to be undertaken in Spring 2026. The main task was to select the best mix of plants and to source  the wildflower plugs. In addition, MCA member Kate Hamey (site sponsor) had to negotiate the complexities of public liability insurance and risk assessments. Kate worked closely with fellow MCA members, SWT partners and representatives from SMDC and Your Housing to ensure everything was ready to go for early April 2026. Immediate neighbours were kept informed of progress by individual letters and site specific signs designed to ensure the local community would be informed about the work being undertaken and to encourage their participation.

The plants arrived just after Easter and a small army of stalwart volunteers, together with SWT workers, worked hard to plant the 1500 plugs within a few days. Successful negotiations with Highways and the mowing contractors meant that the “Don’t mow, let me grow” signs were observed and the verges are now resplendent with the existing  dandelions, daisies and cuckoo flowers, while the new plug plants establish themselves.

Another site associated with MCA through member representation, is Cecilly Brook LNR in Cheadle. Again, the focus was on finalising the Management Plan. For this site, the local volunteer group wants to enhance the wildflower meadows as well as encourage willow tits to establish a stronghold by creating a wetland area through digging small scrapes. During early 2026, yellow rattle seed was sown in the meadow area and bramble removed and cut back.

Cecilly Brook was also identified as one of the first sites where iNaturalist QR code way-markers are to be installed and this has been arranged for mid-April when the Town Mayor will install the first way-marker. These are to encourage the local community to engage with the site and record the species that they encounter while visiting the reserve.

As well as site specific activities, MCA members continued to promote awareness of the project to encourage more community involvement. Members were present at the Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent COP held at the King’s Hall in Stoke in March 2026. Members engaged with a variety of visitors ranging from the Lord-Lieutenant of Staffordshire to members of the public, as well as representatives of over 20 environmental and educational bodies from across Staffordshire. Six Staffordshire schools were also represented and the NIYN project was explained to them as well as the wider activities that MCA is involved with.

MCA members also attended two workshops alongside SWT partners and members of the community. The workshops focussed on two of the habitats covered by the NIYN project namely the management of orchards and the coppicing of woodlands.

MCA is focusing on all things water this year and as part of that effort we are launching the first ever Moorlands Pond Map. Ponds are a vital part of the natural ecosystem but they are often overlooked. The map – based on a survey - will help restore ponds to their rightful place. The full survey will be launched shortly but for now we are inviting MCA followers to plot the location of nearby ponds by using what3words and then send the link to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

These ponds could be in your garden, at your school or college, at your place of work, in your local park or field or on your allotment. The map will then be available on MCA's website and displayed at the HuG Moorlands Green Arts Festival on Saturday 27 June at the Foxlowe.   

We will also be gathering data on the wildlife that lives in and around the mapped ponds.  Precise details of how this will be done will be firmed up shortly but it’s likely that we will employ the easy-to-use iNaturalist phone app. This would ensure that verified wildlife sightings can be logged to the Staffordshire Ecological Record, the map and database that serves the backbone of all decisions on nature recovery and planning in the county.

Most of all, though, we hope that the Pond Map project will be a fun way of  reconnecting people with one more vital element of our natural treasures.

In December, local volunteers and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust staff cleared the seating area adjacent to the River Churnet in the Sainsbury’s Nature Area. SWT warden Ros has suggested forming a Friends of Sainsbury’s Pools group – an initiative we are keen to support.

There have been very few iNaturalist surveys recorded around these pools. Members are encouraged to visit this diverse habitat and send in their findings. Nature in Your Neighbourhood will be running an iNaturalist training session if you are unsure how to use the App.

Penny and Jane took part in the annual BSBI New Year Plant Hunt and found 12 native flowering plants, considerably better than our scores in 2023 and 2024, when we found three each year! 

In news from the NIYN project, Penny has just run a coppicing workshop at Ladderedge Country Park. This is a busy time of year for tree planting and there are opportunities to sign up for a session with the Dane Valley Climate Action Group or with the Manifold CAN group. As usual, the local SWT groups at Rod Wood and Swineholes Reserve always welcome new volunteers.

Finally, we were thrilled that the initiative to wake up the apple trees in two of the community orchards that we manage went off so well. The full details are covered in our Spotlight article.

Leek is lucky to have no less than five community orchards across the town but, while the trees are now thriving, there is still limited public awareness of their existence.

The young fruit trees were planted, with care, by council contractors during the lockdown in January 2021, mostly on areas of land surrounded by residential housing. There was, however, no plan for future management or community engagement and the trees were effectively left to their own devices for the first few years.

Moorlands Climate Action stepped in, offering to take over the management of the orchards from 2024 onwards. The district new council agreed, and MCA volunteers now regularly maintain the trees. The January 2026 Wassailing event, organised by MCA, was designed to stimulate wider community involvement – including alerting residents to the fact that their local orchards yield free fruit just a short stroll away.

The location of the five orchards is shown on the maps above. Three are in the West End of Leek, one is at the top of Brough Park and another by Haregate Community Centre.  Each orchard has a mixture of plum, apple, crab apple, pear and hazel trees.

During the first spring that MCA looked after the orchards, each tree was given a 60cm cardboard mulch mat covered with bark chippings to prevent grass and weed growth around the trunk - and to protect the tree bark from contractors’ strimmers!

The future yearly plan for the orchards is:

Read more: Our Community Orchards in Leek

Nature in Your Neighbourhood is halfway through its second year, and MCA members were once again heavily involved in the next phases of the National Lottery-funded project.

Baseline surveys for most of the sites were completed earlier in the year and now the focus has moved on to one or more seasonal surveys. Once again members were on hand with their quadrats, field guides and general enthusiasm to observe and record what the sites had to offer during the late summer and early autumn period.

Completed in partnership with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Keele University and members of the local groups affiliated to the sites, these surveys form a key part of understanding how each site changes as the year moves through its seasonal cycle. Members were keen to build on their surveying skills and knowledge, whilst enjoying the vagaries of the British Summer!

But as always, the sun shone on Haregate when Swifts of Leek members did their surveys on the junction site near the bottom end of Carlton Terrace. Because this site is on land managed by the county council and is highly visible to residents, it brings its own issues. But local people have been enthusiastic about what we aim to do - even lending a hand with the surveys - and it was always a priority to have at least one of the project sites in an urban setting. 

Read more: Nature Coming to a Neighbourhood near You 

In our last issue we reported on the Water Blitz monitoring done in the Moorlands in April, including the contributions of several of our members.  Across the UK, thousands of citizen scientists uploaded data in 4,017 surveys, 3,279 of which were collected in England. Sadly, the data indicate that England has the worst water quality in the UK, which is consistent with the findings of the Great UK Water Blitz events from June and September 2024.

Clearly, ongoing monitoring is vital and we in MCA believe it’s important to help maintain the impetus and help keep the issue in the public eye.  We’ve been asked to return in September to the same locations, so that they can be monitored consistently over a period of time. Given that we all enjoyed the process in April, we are definitely keen to return and maybe recruit more volunteers.  Baldrik, our beaver mascot, particularly enjoyed his time on the Churnet, although he's not convinced he learned much from the induction session provided by MCA member Mark Johnson.

You can find more information about the Great UK Water Blitz on their website, where you can also register to get a testing kit for this September (19-22).  Registration is essential if you want to have your own testing kit.  There’s a limited number of kits available and so far more than 4000 have already been allocated out of 6500. You can register an interest independently of MCA but we would prefer to coordinate our approach, so do let us know if you would like to join us via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..