The following is a copy of a letter sent to the Bishop’s Stortford Independent newspaper by one of the founders of the Thorley Lane East Woods Action Group:
As one of the founders of Thorley Lane East Woods Action Group I have been asked to say a massive thank you to our local community for all the support over the past few weeks.
We were notified as a bolt out of the blue that a local 3-acre woodland (the Woods) situated in Thorley Lane East (between Thorley Park and St. Michael’s Mead) had been potentially sold and was now being broken up into pieces and sold again. Listings of these parcels of the Woods were being uploaded by auction houses and estate agents alike. Some as single plots, some as larger parcels. What has been consistent though is the lack of information being shared by them to prospective purchasers regarding the Woods’ current protective status and the commitment and liability ownership of a woodland brings. We believe all the agents involved are marketing these plots as a ‘come and buy me for future development’ price (some 8-10 times higher than current standard woodland rates).
Thus, the Thorley Lane East Woods Action Group was born, with a mission to protect the Woods for the benefit of our current local community and for successive generations. We aim to do this by:
- ensuring that all potential buyers are made fully aware of the limits and liabilities involved in owning a piece of the Woods;
- encouraging potential buyers to exercise extreme caution when taking part in a speculative bidding process based on the Wood’s supposed development potential; and
- highlighting and celebrating the invaluable contribution made by the Woods to the area’s biodiversity, ecosystem and local community.
In the space of a few days our wonderful community has come together in support of saving this ‘green lung’. As well as practical support (building a website, designing signage, conducting land registry searches, increasing awareness to a much wider political audience, teaching us about biodiversity, setting up emails etc) your personal support through joining our Facebook Group (over 400 members in 10 days!) and donating to our GoFundMe for our admin costs (currently over £700 has been donated) is truly admirable.
Whilst being put into a situation of having to defend the potential destruction of yet more woodland, what has been warming is the number of like-minded, generous, local people coming together for the good of our community. Please visit our website www.thorleywoods.org or join the Thorley Lane East Woods Action Group on Facebook. We are particularly keen to hear from those of you who are prepared to be actively involved (as opposed to just receiving updates). We want to tap into all the skills, expertise, knowledge and time kindly offered by our community, which we will need to mobilise to be an effective fighting force in the future.