Pragma

Yes, they were too busy.

Hiya, There are badgers nearby, and the developers have done surveys to assess the impact on them. They go through official processes on all these things, but you do wonder how they judge relative impacts. The traffic assessment is a joke, and it's another thing where there are official models but all of us in the area know the traffic is already ridiculous and even a 1% increase will be significant. Otters are coming closer to our newly-planted Betty's Wood area, but not in residence, yet. The development is not directly touching Betty's Wood. Disturbance is a concern, though, both during construction and afterwards. With all of these things, there doesn't seem to be any longer term monitoring of what really happens afterwards. The developers do their modelling, but what happens if it all ends up becoming a problem later on? The developers are long gone by then, generally.

Thanks. I am not trying to stop the development. I think there is no chance of that. I am trying to demonstrate public opinion, as that carries weight with the Planners and Councillors. I had a meeting with the Chief Planning Officer (plus councillors) yesterday, precisely with the aim of engaging with the Planners and developer. That is a work in progress. As I said, there are lots of strands to this. It is not appropriate to publish details of that, yet, as it is all dependent upon lots of discussion and agreement. The deadline for the Public Consultation is the 16th February so I am trying to strengthen our case, should the developers not be amenable to discussion and compromise. More info on the Woods FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/AlvecoteWood/posts/?ref=page_internal I do have professional help in the form of a specialist Planning Solicitor and consultant ecologists also specialising in Planning. Again, that is to build a strong argument to encourage the developers to come to the table. It is a long haul. The bit of land you mention, if it is the piece I think you mean, we already own and we planted it up under an FC WCG scheme around 2011. It is called Betty's Wood. The developers make little mention of it, but it is now an LWS in its own right (the developers should have disclosed that fact, especially as we informed them in 2017). The bit of land beyond Betty's Wood, bounded by the canal and going further towards the M42, was in HLS but is now being farmed again. We also instigated a new Landscape Scale inititative called the Anker Valley Project, and that piece of land is part of the corridor. There is a SSSI on the other side of the canal, though, so there is still a corridor even while that field is being farmed. Sadly, we have HS2 immediately on the other side of the M42, there, and that's another story of correspondence going from us and nothing coming back... And yes, again, I am already in discussion about engaging with the new residents, on multiple fronts. There is a lot going on and I am thinking ahead, but all that is affected by what happens wrt this Application. Hence, asking people to voice their support, now, so the Planners know that people care. That affects the starting position for everything else.

Been in touch with the Woodland Trust, and I showed the local MP around the woods last week. The WT can't help, i think because there is a road between (some of) the development and our woods, and because they are plain busy on a heap of other stuff. There are lots of strands to this. Someone contacted me this morning re the BBC. Lots happening, and I'm running a business, too! Not enough hours in the day, not by a long way!

The developers did survey for Great Crested Newts on the development land. We don't think we've got GCN on our land and we're rather happy about that as, if you do have them, Natural England can put all sorts of restrictions on what you can do in the vicinity of the ponds concerned. Our management work has always been more sympathetic across all species, 'cos that's what we're about, so having relatively simplistic restrictions placed on us would be counterproductive overall. Hence, we are happy to continue in the knowledge that we don't have GCN ? Behind the scenes, I'm working on finding a compromise, through the Planners, and hopefully with the developers. The 'public' side is a matter of building the profile in the minds of the Planners and councillors, and that hopefully encourages them to put more pressure on the developers to come to the table. We actually invited the developers to talk to us back in 2017, twice. We didn't get a reply.

I'm a member of the Bat Conservation Trust, as it happens. Not had time to think about it, tbh. We did contact them years ago about doing a proper survey but never got any response. Perhaps they were hibernating ? I think part of the issue is that we are right in the northern tip of Warwickshire and near the southern tip of Staffordshire. Still something we need to pursue. Thanks for the reminder.

Yes, happy to chat about doing a survey. Thanks for the offer. I'm not sure what will happen re the Planners as I'd expect them to acknowledge that the Eco data that the developers have presented is woeful. The Planners may insist that the developers provide better data and we may then propose a local firm of consultants that are already working on our side of this. I'm having to pay them to get a detailed Eco response to what the developers have said, but there is a lot of it. Things are happening quite fast on that, now. My initial priority is to raise the profile and get as many people putting in objections, and in parallel with that, I have a meeting face-to-face with the Planners tomorrow with the hope that will lead on to a similar meeting with the developers shortly thereafter. I should know more after tomorrow.

Brilliant. Thanks loads. On a related subject, my wife and I did some milling with the Alaskan Mill setup we bought from you, using a ladder with some sculpted timbers screwed to it to get the first cut. Those bits of timber allowed us to deal with some short oak logs, probably too short to use with a bandsaw mill, and indeed some wonky logs. The setup is ideal for us, as we could do what we needed to and come back another time to do some more, since drying space is limited (once we have cut slabs of oak, they become nickable so we keep them in a lockable part of our wood drying store). That's with a GB 3/8" LoPro bar. Our last session was over a year ago and, sadly, I'll have to find someone else to take my wife's place next time. We both enjoyed the "reveal" when we lifted a slab away to see the cut surface. Timber is beautiful! ?

The developers have already done a bat survey, but it looks rather poor, e.g. complaining about one of their own recordings being poor quality. Huh? Why not do it again? I did a very brief bat check last summer and found Nathusius' Pipistrelle within about 10 minutes (as well as Common and Soprano P,. and Noctule) and the developers seem to have struggled to find much. I was in our Betty's Wood newly-planted area, immediately adjacent to the side of Alvecote Wood, and not far from a canal, so all that points at it being easier to find more bats. The developers used a firm of ecological consultants, who approached us a few years ago asking for access to our woods to do a survey. We asked what it was for, and they refused to say, so we refused access! We thought it was to do with HS2, to be honest. Hence, the developers have put together a massive Environmental Statement but it all has a gaping big hole as there is no data for the only significant bit of habitat - our woods! They could have just asked us! We would have given them a lot of species data as my wife did a lot at collating that across multiple areas. For them to continue, with such a glaring omission, makes a bit of a mockery of their submission. It is even more bizarre as we approached them in 2017 and offered to cooperate. We didn't get a reply.

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.

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.

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 ?

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.

(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.

That would probably double their sales straight away! :-)