Fineshade Wood update

Hello again

We learned today that Forest Holidays have withdrawn their application to develop 70 cabins at Fineshade Wood! Great news!  

However, less good news ---- they are saying that they will be presenting a revised application soon. Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen. But we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to everyone who submitted an objection (there have been 183 public comments) - the level of support and encouragement has been quite amazing and very humbling and we are most grateful. Do come and enjoy a walk around the woodland as soon as you can - it seemed to have a particularly special glow in the early autumn sunshine today. 

You may be interested to know that this week we put in a request to Natural England to designate part of the wood as a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the strength, largely, of all the ecological records that FH's surveyors turned up (there's a nice irony in that!). SSSI status will give the wood a higher level of protection than it's present non-statutory status as a Local Wildlife Site.

Also please do consider signing and sharing widely the petition at http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/forest-privatisation-by-the-back-door.  

This addresses the wider issue of the Public Forest Estate being leased out for 125 years for private gain.

Finally, a determination date for the Glamping site application at Top Lodge has been set for 24th September. 

Thanks once again for all your support - we'll be in touch again when there is more news

Barrie Galpin