[Diggers350] Woodlands.co.uk

[Fran Ryan]

I have fantasised about setting a national community land trust and 
fund, to buy the woodland for the benefit and use of local communities. 
this would be a way of securing it in the public domain in perpetuity. 
Maybe community bonds could be part of how it could be funded. Sadly I 
don't have the energy or time or expertise to do this.

But with so much stuff on the verge of being sold off (other bits of 
land such as county farms, school playing fields etc,) all then gone for 
ever it would be great if we could muster some energy to make a 
concerted effort to capture the land for local people for ever.

Fran Ryan
Oxfordshire Community Land Trust

On 10/02/2011 13:12, Ben Mathers wrote:
> I did get in contact with the folks managing their South Wales
> properties asking about their attitude to One Planet Development and
> whether there was anything in their covenant stopping people from living
> on the land and the woman I contacted definitely said that there wasn't.
> The only issue she thought would be with the planning department...
>
> Wouldn't it be great though if someone could buy these bits of woodland
> and then split them up and sell them for the £1,800 that was paid, does
> anyone know of anyone thinking of doing something like this? Even if you
> were to sell them for £2,800 you'd still be making a whopping £54,000
> profit for doing nothing! I mean if a trust was set up to do something
> similar that money could then go into buying some more land and doing
> likewise, obviously with a strict covenant on the land ensuring low
> impact principles with areas of common land etc etc. I know this is
> probably something most people on this email group think about, but
> really it wouldn't need a very big initial outlay (well not very big for
> some people at least!). What is stopping people I wonder?
>
> Ben
>
> On 9 February 2011 10:01, John Boshier <john at permaculture-jb.me.uk
> <mailto:john at permaculture-jb.me.uk>> wrote:
>
>     They may be unpleasant, but they do seem to be open to discussing One
>     Planet Developments in Wales, See
>     http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/woodland-economics/one-planet-development-in-wales-a-policy-for-low-impact-sustainable-livin/
>
>     . I think the wording has changed a bit, as when I looked on their site
>     recently I think they said they would not object to it, and I've heard
>     this from another source.
>
>     If anyone knows more I would like to know. I'm going to be producing a
>     One Planet Development newsletter, and am organising meetings to help
>     people get started on low-impact development in Wales. You can sign up
>     to the newsletter at http://www.eco-hamlets.org.uk/newsletters.php ,
>     and
>     I'd welcome any contributions to the newsletter.
>
>     John
>
>
>
>     On 07/02/2011 00:14, offgriduk wrote:
>      > I see the unpleasant woodlands.co.uk <http://woodlands.co.uk> was
>     one of the early beneficiaries of the forest sell-off (Sunday Times
>     6/2/11) - buying 54 acres of glorious wood near Market Rasen.
>      >
>      > They paid GBP1800 per acre and will sell for GBP9000, removing
>     the wood from public access and at the same time preventing the new
>     owners from doing more than asset-stripping through the restrictive
>     covenants they add to the sale - such as no living on the site.
>      >
>      > I would like to have a go at preventing woodlands.co.uk
>     <http://woodlands.co.uk> from buying further forests in the current
>     selloff - if anyone has the necessary info, please send to
>     nick at off-grid.net <mailto:nick%40off-grid.net> and I can put it
>     fully in the public domain
>
>
>