NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2012

Dear Friend of Woodcroft

Site News

We are pleased to be able to tell you that we have reached agreement with the Council over exactly which part of the Woodcroft site will be sold for development – and the area to be retained as wild space.

The Council have issued a 4 page brochure to those backing on to the site setting out the concepts for both development and wild space in some detail. Click here to see the LBE brochure including the concept development plans for just 5 large houses in keeping with the area. You will need to zoom in to read this. The auction is due to take place on 9th February.

Further discussions since the production of the LBE brochure have resulted in the area shown being reduced from 1.6 acres to an “L” shaped area of 1.5 acres, avoiding the need to move the apiary and retaining a reasonably sized community space on what was the cricket pitch.

The wild space will be 3.5 acres for the Enfield community to have the fantastic opportunity to continue to develop a premium educational wild space for everyone's benefit. Click this link to see the plan overlaid on the existing Woodcroft Wildspace Site Plan and compare.

Our thanks go to Cllr Andrew Stafford and the supporting officers with whom we have enjoyed an excellent working relationship to achieve this equitable compromise to the benefit of both the development and the wild space.

BTCV – www.btcv.org On Saturday 14th January BTCV brought a group of Community Service young volunteers along. They moved the dead hedge and cleared an area to enable us to move the container to the wildspace part of the site. We had some excellent feedback – take a look here.

What's coming next?

On site – container move on Saturday 28 th January and the toilet block the week after. Transplanting the Sensory Garden both weeks. Please come and help.

Licence - The purpose of the Licence is to give us continuity of access to the Wildspace area whilst the details of the Management Agreement are worked out. The Licence is therefore seen as a short term measure.

Management Agreement - The structure of the Management Board remains as presented as three LBE, two Woodcroft and one from a 3rd party group. No further details are available at this time.

Site Planning – We need to re-plan the site layout to move key features around to suit the 3.5 acre site and welcome everyone's contributions. Do get in touch via enquiries@woodcroft.org.uk to come and get involved in the secure future of Woodcroft Wildspace.

N21 Festival – Woodcroft is contributing to the N21 Festival due to be held during the week of 16th June - http://www.n21.net/the-n21-festival-winchmore-hill-grange-park-highlands-enfield-london-2010.html by hosting a part of the festival activities. More in due course.

As always, we welcome your observations and support. Please copy this letter to your friends and neighbours who do not have e-mail as we are only able to communicate via e-mail at this time.

Best regards

Bob Ladell & Gary Garber