A NEW high-rise housing development at Tice’s Meadow Nature Reserve in Badshot Lea, which aims to provide much needed new homes for 11 families who are expected to move in next spring on their return from Africa, was completed on Wednesday, August 8.

Thankfully, for once there were no planning dramas or worries about the strains on local infrastructure of another large green belt development.

This towering bijou development, featuring 100 per cent affordable housing, with commanding views of Badshot Lea and the Surrey Hills, is the Tice’s Meadow swift tower - a new home for the highly threatened bird species the swift.

Swifts are one of the UK’s most iconic birds, and “screaming parties” can be heard throughout the summer around nest sites in the local area. Arriving to breed in the UK in spring, they spend only three months here before migrating back to sub-Saharan Africa.

Swifts are true aerial specialists, spending nearly all of their life in the air, only landing to raise their young in nests on our buildings. They eat, drink, sleep and mate on the wing, and are the fastest species of bird (in level flight) in the world.

However, the number of swifts returning to the UK each year is declining rapidly, with a 50 per cent decline in numbers in the last 20 years. This decline is thought to be partly due to a reduction in suitable nesting sites as we “tidy-up” our homes and buildings, replacing old wooden soffits and fascias with plastic and filling in the cavities in our roofs and walls that swifts prefer to nest in.

The swift tower nesting box has been built by volunteers from the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group, with funding from the National Lottery’s Big Lottery Fund.

Plans for the swift tower were provided by Action for Swifts, and the planning application kindly paid for by landowner Hanson.

The swift tower nesting box was mounted on an eight metre-long utility pole donated and erected by Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) as part of the company’s ‘Be the Difference’ scheme which allows their staff to take time away from their day jobs to help local charities and communities.

The swift tower features a solar-powered amplifier and speaker that will play swift calls mornings and evenings during the breeding season to attract new occupants. This ingenious device was built to plans provided by Action for Swifts, and paid for and constructed by volunteer Trevor Birkett.

The swift tower is an important part of the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust’s ‘Saving our Amazing Swifts’ project, which aims to record the swift population of the area, and provide much needed new homes for this iconic bird.

The swift tower is also an integral part of the Tice’s Meadow Biodiversity Trail - a £10,000 investment in new infrastructure on the nature reserve to benefit both the wildlife and visitors, funded by Hanson and the National Lottery’s Big Lottery Fund.

Richard Horton, chairman of the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group, said: “It has given me great pleasure to see our volunteers work so hard on this innovative project. We are so grateful to Hanson and the players of the National Lottery for making this project a reality, as well as the generous support of SSEN.”

Graham Humpston, SSEN linesman doreman, added: “When we heard about the plight of the swifts and how the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group were in need of something - and someone - to get the swift box in place, we knew we had the perfect solution. We knew we had two suitable poles at the depot, along with a willing supply of volunteers and equipment to get the poles in place, so we were happy to help put up the swift box and an additional two barn owl boxes while we were there”.

Colin Wilson, vice chair of the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust said: “The Aldershot area is an undoubted hotspot for swifts and the support of the Tice’s Meadow Bird Group has been colossal in promoting and actively supporting the aims of the project. The beautiful location, close to existing populations of swifts and with such excellent feeding territory on the doorstep, fills us with hope and enthusiasm for this venture. This is a great demonstration of community teamwork at Tice’s Meadow and we are very grateful.”