A new planting bed was dug out of the grass verge at the entrance to Clover Heath. It is intended to plant the bed with a range of colourful shrubs to give all year colour and interest

200 trees were planted at Sutton Farm on 9th March 2015 by a group of 14 children from Claverley school. The trees, all native hardwoods, were supplied by the Woodland Trust.

CIB members were joined by other volunteers in a tidy up of the Bull Ring on Easter Saturday 4th April. The exercise was extended over the holiday weekend to include a litter pick of the village approach roads. A large skip, kindly supplied for the green waste by Colin Smithyman, was completely full by the time it was collected.

The Berkeley Salon Ensemble (a group of 10 musicians from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) performed a well received concert in the church on 9th May. The concert, in aid of CIB funds, was only possible because of the generosity of an anonymous benefactor who donated the entire performance fee of £2,400. This enabled tickets to be offered at only £12.50 each

This years scheme consists of Begonia Illumination series “apricot shades”, Salvia Farinacia “Victoria” and purple trailing Surfinias. Golden trailing Lysmachia has also been added to obtain contrast. The plants were all raised by Nick Bromley of Rushmere Nurseries and installed in all village planters on 6th June. The winter shrubs that were removed to make way for the summer scheme have been either saved for re-use or planted elsewhere.

11 volunteers turned out in appalling weather on 7th Nov to plant the remaining area of the churchyard alongside Church St. Around 4,000 bulbs were planted out of the 5,000 ordered. In a parallel exercise the Youth Club carried out a 300 bulb planting session at the entrance to Clover Heath. The remainder of the bulbs were planted in various locations around the village including the 5 main village entrance points

A group of 9 children from Claverley School took part in a tree planting session at Sutton Farm on 9th March 2016. In all 90 whips of native species were planted in the exercise, which was led by Paul Pickerill of CIB with the kind co-operation of Richard and Caroline Kempsey.

A party of 9 children from the school planted 100 pot grown wildflower plants in a small part of the upper churchyard on 14th April 2016. Several wildflower varieties were chosen in an attempt to enrich the diversity of the area. CIB chose to purchase decent sized plants rather than use seed which requires much more preparation and gives a less certain result. The varieties included Ladies Bedstraw, Cowslip, Field Scabious, Meadow Clary, Birds Foot Trefoil, Selfheal and Toadflax

The children will return to monitor the progress of the plants during the rest of the year. The churchyard itself provides a good facility for wildlife study and CIB has offered to fund a visit by a wildlife expert from Shropshire Wildlife Trust to run a fieldwork study session with the school.

CIB has been working with Claverley School to raise awareness of the environmental and health issues associated with littering and dog fouling. In an effort to broadcast the message more widely CIB sponsored a poster competition, offering prizes for the children producing the best designs in respect of both subjects.
The resulting posters showed considerable flair and imagination. Judging was carried out jointly by CIB and the Parish Council and choosing the winning entries was extremely difficult given the high standards achieved.
Gift tokens to the value of £15, £10 and £5 were awarded to the top 3 entries in each category. The posters will be displayed at various locations around the village.

Claverley in Bloom and Claverley School have been running annual tree planting sessions for several years and have planted well over 1,000 trees in various locations close to the village in that time.
This year’s exercise took place at Ashford Hall Farm on 20th March, with the kind cooperation of landowner Jonathan Kendrick. Over 100 whips of native species were installed by the children. CIB was able to purchase the trees thanks to a generous donation from Hager Ltd, a leading manufacturer of electrical installation equipment based in Telford.

CIB committee members and volunteers spent the whole of Sunday morning 9th April scouring the verges of the main approach roads to the village. The areas covered were from the Upper Ludstone B4176 turn-off to Cottons Holloway, Upper Aston to Bulls Bank and the road from the A458 to Pound Street. Safety was the prime concern so it was necessary to deploy vehicles with warnings signs at each end of the stretches of road involved. Shropshire Council provided litter grabs and waste sacks
As would be expected, a large amount of material was collected ranging from plastic bags, cans, fast food cartons and bottles. Altogether the exercise generated about 15 sacks of rubbish.
Some members of the team also took the opportunity to clean around 20 road signs during the exercise.
The litter pick was worthwhile although it will not solve the ongoing problem. CIB will no doubt organise further sessions in the future but thanks should go to the unfailing efforts of public spirited parishioners who routinely pick up litter as they walk the lanes. Without their contribution, the situation would be far worse.