Community Involvement

Here at Suffolk Secrets we are proud to be an active part of the community where we live and work.  Here are some of the ways we get involved:

• We are very proud to have raised more than £28,000 for the Suffolk Coast and Heaths CONNECT scheme which raises money for conservation projects on the Heritage Coast.
• We have recently joined an initiative organised by the Marine Conservation Society called Beachwatch and Adopt-a-Beach.  Beachwatch takes place on the 3^rd weekend of September and approximately 350 teams throughout the country clean up their local beach.  We have adopted an area of beach close to the pier in Southwold and have opted to monitor our section 4 times a year – December, March and June, in addition to September.  Apart from helping to keep our local beach clean, all the litter is logged and used for MCS reports and it has proved to be a good teambuilding exercise for our staff!
• We are members of the Southwold Chamber of Commerce and the Aldeburgh Business Association so we can find out about what is going on in our towns on a day-to-day basis.  We also sponsor various events in both towns such as the Southwold Christmas Lights and the Aldeburgh Carnival.
• We actively promote the sourcing of local produce and services for use by our customers.
• Snape's community woodland which now has new fencing, gates, a sign, a pond, trees, stakes and tubes as a result of kind donations from our visitors. Strong links have been made with Snape Primary School and the children are involved in design, planning, planting trees and caring for the school nursery.
• We have funded the provision of Suffolk Wildlife Trust wildlife borrow boxes at Foxburrow Farm. These provide children visiting the farm with practical resources such as binoculars, field guides, reference books, magnifying and viewing equipment, compasses and a simple microscope. Each box also contains worksheets produced by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust to enhance ecological activities back at school and to link the children's daily environment to the wider enjoyment of the AONB.
• If you are a keen bird watcher, you'll be delighted to know we have supported the purchase of a RSPB telescope for Havergate nature reserve. The telescope is being used for surveying and monitoring work on Havergate Island. The island is home to nationally important numbers of breeding avocets and terns and in autumn and winter the island provides a haven for large numbers of ducks and wading birds. In addition to birds, the lagoons support a wide variety of specialist invertebrates including the rare starlet sea anemone.
• We are also helping Owls to breed by erecting at least 20 barn owl nest boxes as part of the Suffolk Community Barn Owl Project. The aim of this project is to erect as many barn owl nestboxes as possible. In addition, the project team is going to aim to locate all existing breeding pairs of barn owls as part of the British Trust for Ornithology Barn owl monitoring programme.
• Our donations have also gone towards building wooden steps to aid access to Top Hat Wood which surrounds the National Trust Sutton Hoo estate. The path leading through Top Hat Wood is on one of the main visitor paths around the Sutton Hoo estate and is well used. The steep slope at the top of the route has become very degraded and the National Trust aim to build wooden steps through this section for a length of 20 metres. The most recent project that we funded is the planting of Marram Grass at Walberswick, just across the estuary from Southwold. Marram Grass is vital to protect the sand dunes from erosion. Without this the valuable and rich ecology will just disappear.

So thanks to our funding and all of our kind visitor donations, not only will the Suffolk landscape and wildlife benefit hugely, but on visits around the county you too will reap the rewards.