Alvecote Wood Ancient Woodland at Threat

[Pragma]

(A few of you may have already seen this, posted on the SWOG (Small Woodland Owners' Group) forum.)

Some housing developers have submitted a Planning Application to build 1,540 houses right next to our woods! We knew it was coming, but this is bigger than was originally proposed, and that was already terrifying!

Sadly, it is unlikely that we will be able to stop this project going ahead as the councils are under so much pressure from Government to build houses, and the developers have the upper hand.

Alvecote Wood is an ancient woodland voted the Best Managed Small Woodland in England by the RFS a few years ago. It was also the first licensee under the new Grown in Britain scheme promoting sustainable forestry in the UK with a supply chain linked to it. There is more information on the Alvecote Wood Facebook page.

I am now scurrying around, trying to build a solid legal challenge with the aim of getting the developers to agree some mitigation. They have treated the woods with some respect, but not a lot. E.g. they are saying that there will be no additional footfall at the woods because we have Private Property signs - that is a total cop-out and sadly proven over the years to be baseless. We've had a lot of problems with people trying to nick things, damaging stuff (e.g. more broken fencing and ironically one of our Private Property signs trashed a few weeks ago!), poaching, etc etc. I can cope with the current level. I'm not happy about it, but I can cope. My simple analysis and projections (using very helpful research from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, plus direct input from one of the researchers themselves) suggest a likely eight-fold increase is what we should expect in human disturbance, and probably worse than that, in fact. And more than a factor of 8 on issues with domestic cats crossing the road from the new houses and eating all our voles, leaving the barn owls nothing to eat. Etc.

The Planning Application is in its public consultation period now, until 16th February. This is where you come in, please.
I have written a bunch of example 'objection' comments related to the proposed housing development next to the woods, on the following web page:

http://www.alvecotewood.co.uk/HousingObjections.php

There are instructions on the web page and also when you follow the link to the council's website.

You can choose any number of these comments and use them to form your own response to the council.

Please, please put in your comments about this housing proposal, regardless of where you live, including even outside the UK.

Feel free to cherry-pick items that you care about and to add as many of your own comments as you wish.

You can put in more than one response, but please don't submit the same comment repeatedly.

Ideally, rephrase my words so your comments are your own, but if you think some of my words are already what you'd like to say, then go for it.

The public consultation runs until 16th February 2019. I understand you can still e-mail comments after that date and before the matter is debated by the Planning Committee, but the sooner you get something in, the better. I think it is definitely a good idea to at least submit something to the council before 16th February.

I may update that web page as more information comes to light and as I get more advice from experts. I have put an 'update date' above each block of comments so you can see if there has been any recent changes. I will try to add any new comments at the bottom of the list, with a separator that shows the date of each addition.

Thank you in advance. This is a critical time for our woods and for our local community. We do a lot with local schools as well as lots of public Open Days etc, etc. The community really value all that and it was always part of the dream that my wife and I shared from the start, 11 years ago! Very sadly, my wife (Dr. Sarah Walters OBE) passed away last April so now it is me taking care of the woods on my own, with help from friends I hasten to add.

Please share this post to any like-minded people that you know, in any country!

Alvecote Wood needs your help!

Thanks in advance,

Steve.

[Khriss]

I can carefully 'fly tip' long strands of our razor wire around the edge of the woodland, if that would help but seriously- this does need a big effort from all concerned in the industry, also pass it over to the AA, someone there may take it up too. K

[Stubby]

Can you get it made into a SSSI ?

[Pragma]

36 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Can you get it made into a SSSI ?

Thanks for the suggestion. I have looked into it and I don't think it's 'special' enough to warrant SSSI status, and besides that, it would become very restrictive on us in terms of how we manage it thereafter. Realistically, we're better off trying to protect it as it is.

[Pragma]

1 hour ago, Khriss said:

I can carefully 'fly tip' long strands of our razor wire around the edge of the woodland, if that would help but seriously- this does need a big effort from all concerned in the industry, also pass it over to the AA, someone there may take it up too. K

Thanks. The AA is a good idea. I'll see if I can find a relevant person...

 

I agree, it is a high-profile woodland and the combined facts that we won the 'Excellence' award from the RFS plus we were the first licensee under the new Grown in Britain scheme (the Queen was the second - Oops!), means it would be extra miserable if we can't even protect it, now. My wife and I, and now I, want to continue to be as exemplary as possible, and to continue spreading the word that ancient woodlands are precious and need to be protected and managed. My wife used to be the editor of the SWOG newsletter some years ago and she continued to try to educate people about chainsaw training etc etc etc on there, until just before she died. Sadly, I don't have time to continue that aspect at the moment, but I hope to be able to pick it up again in due course. Some people never listen, but many do and they are the ones that are worth helping.

 

I don't know if there is a better forum on here to get more people to see this? I usually watch the Wee Chipper Forum as we've got a wee chipper ...amongst other things ?

[Khriss]

" Wee Semi Natural and Historic lovely Woodlands" rolls off the tongue nicely. I would do that mate, profile up yr woodland n start a thread. I never even knew it was there and I worked round Solihull fr a while. K

[Pragma]

4 minutes ago, Khriss said:

" Wee Semi Natural and Historic lovely Woodlands" rolls off the tongue nicely. I would do that mate, profile up yr woodland n start a thread. I never even knew it was there and I worked round Solihull fr a while. K

This one is my thread ? The question is which forum to start another one in? This seemed the most appropriate, but perhaps not widely read?

 

I've just messaged Steve Bullman, actually, as he may have some suggestions as well. If you're in Solihull, you'd be welcome to come to one of our Open Days etc. The next one is on 31st March.

[Squaredy]

8 hours ago, Pragma said:

(A few of you may have already seen this, posted on the SWOG (Small Woodland Owners' Group) forum.)

Some housing developers have submitted a Planning Application to build 1,540 houses right next to our woods! We knew it was coming, but this is bigger than was originally proposed, and that was already terrifying!

Sadly, it is unlikely that we will be able to stop this project going ahead as the councils are under so much pressure from Government to build houses, and the developers have the upper hand.

Alvecote Wood is an ancient woodland voted the Best Managed Small Woodland in England by the RFS a few years ago. It was also the first licensee under the new Grown in Britain scheme promoting sustainable forestry in the UK with a supply chain linked to it. There is more information on the Alvecote Wood Facebook page.

I am now scurrying around, trying to build a solid legal challenge with the aim of getting the developers to agree some mitigation. They have treated the woods with some respect, but not a lot. E.g. they are saying that there will be no additional footfall at the woods because we have Private Property signs - that is a total cop-out and sadly proven over the years to be baseless. We've had a lot of problems with people trying to nick things, damaging stuff (e.g. more broken fencing and ironically one of our Private Property signs trashed a few weeks ago!), poaching, etc etc. I can cope with the current level. I'm not happy about it, but I can cope. My simple analysis and projections (using very helpful research from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, plus direct input from one of the researchers themselves) suggest a likely eight-fold increase is what we should expect in human disturbance, and probably worse than that, in fact. And more than a factor of 8 on issues with domestic cats crossing the road from the new houses and eating all our voles, leaving the barn owls nothing to eat. Etc.

The Planning Application is in its public consultation period now, until 16th February. This is where you come in, please.
I have written a bunch of example 'objection' comments related to the proposed housing development next to the woods, on the following web page:

http://www.alvecotewood.co.uk/HousingObjections.php

There are instructions on the web page and also when you follow the link to the council's website.

You can choose any number of these comments and use them to form your own response to the council.

Please, please put in your comments about this housing proposal, regardless of where you live, including even outside the UK.

Feel free to cherry-pick items that you care about and to add as many of your own comments as you wish.

You can put in more than one response, but please don't submit the same comment repeatedly.

Ideally, rephrase my words so your comments are your own, but if you think some of my words are already what you'd like to say, then go for it.

The public consultation runs until 16th February 2019. I understand you can still e-mail comments after that date and before the matter is debated by the Planning Committee, but the sooner you get something in, the better. I think it is definitely a good idea to at least submit something to the council before 16th February.

I may update that web page as more information comes to light and as I get more advice from experts. I have put an 'update date' above each block of comments so you can see if there has been any recent changes. I will try to add any new comments at the bottom of the list, with a separator that shows the date of each addition.

Thank you in advance. This is a critical time for our woods and for our local community. We do a lot with local schools as well as lots of public Open Days etc, etc. The community really value all that and it was always part of the dream that my wife and I shared from the start, 11 years ago! Very sadly, my wife (Dr. Sarah Walters OBE) passed away last April so now it is me taking care of the woods on my own, with help from friends I hasten to add.

Please share this post to any like-minded people that you know, in any country!

Alvecote Wood needs your help!

Thanks in advance,

Steve.

Have you spoken to the Woodland Trust in the area?  I would be amazed if they didn't help, with contacts and possibly pointers to legal matters and possibly with publicity.  They don't only protect the woods they own.

[Khriss]

Certainly also get a bat survey done ( or i can come up n do it in March) could enhance yr case on site protection. K

[Pragma]

7 hours ago, Squaredy said:

Have you spoken to the Woodland Trust in the area?  I would be amazed if they didn't help, with contacts and possibly pointers to legal matters and possibly with publicity.  They don't only protect the woods they own.

Yes, thanks, I have spoken to them and they can't help as the housing is over the road, basically, rather than being on the same side of the road as our woods. That's actually not entirely correct, as part of it _is_ on the same side of the road, but the developers have allowed a larger buffer strip, there.

 

I rather think they are flat-out with other sites, honestly.