TWO YEARS ON...

The campaign to save Thorpe's woods has passed the two year mark and is still going strong.  On 13th July 2010, the final presentation of the Thorpe & Felthorpe Trust's 'charrette' was held at Norwich Art School.  This followed a presentation at Thorpe village hall, at which Barney Mayhew and Justin Meath-Baker - both posing as ordinary human beings - spoke about their need to find alternative uses for the exhausted conifer plantations they'd found themselves lumbered with.

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then.  The lies that were told about the woods - which originally took quite a few people in, including some local authority officers - were long ago exposed for what they were.  Everybody in the Norwich area now knows that Thorpe's woods are excellent wildlife habitats and diverse, mainly broadleaved woodlands - not the disease-ridden, overgrown Christmas tree crops of such little use or ornament that putting them out of their misery would be performing a public service. 

People also know now that there's no reason to pity the plight of the Mayhews and Meath-Bakers.  Contrary to the impression they strove to convey they are not just like the rest of us - hard working ordinary folks who need to tighten their belts in these tough economic times - but are genuine toffs with huge land-holdings and bags of dosh. There is no doubt that they could afford to keep Thorpe's woods, and even spend money on conserving them (as they told us they would love to do), without any noticeable effect on their bank accounts.

Two years on, the Thorpe & Felthorpe Trust is now on its third firm of development consultants.  First they spent a fortune on Andres Duany of DPZ.  When the hoped-for Duany golden touch fell flat (deflated by inconvenient truths), T&FT hired the Matrix Partnership.  Matrix drew up a different development concept (we published pictures on this blog). Matrix's concept shifted things around a bit but failed completely to address the fundamental flaw in the scheme, ie: that it involved flattening a wood!

Now it seems as if Matrix has followed DPZ into the recycling bin, to be replaced by the lovely sounding Socially Conscious Capital.  Socially Conscious Capital's improbably named head has been attending local authority meetings in Norwich under the Thorpe & Felthorpe Trust banner, accompanying Gail Mayhew.

As the cynical among you might expect, Socially Conscious Capital isn't quite the philanthropic, kindly organisation its name suggests.  SCC has an interesting business history and its head has a name to rival Clovis Meath-Baker's in the poshness/oddness stakes.  But you'll have to wait until next time to learn more (unless you want to do a bit of Googling).  Watch this space!

HENRY GOES APE IN NORFOLK

Rumours of dissent among the trustees of the Thorpe & Felthorpe Trust have been circulating for months.  In January we were told by a reliable source that at least one of the five trustees was opposed to the concept of destroying Thorpe's woodlands. However, because our source wouldn't disclose any names, we didn't publish anything.

Now we know that Henry Mayhew, husband of the locally notorious Gail Mayhew (see 'Meet The Mayhews' and 'Gail Warning' on this blog for much more info on who's who within the T&FT) has become so disenchanted with life as a London based mega-capitalist that he's given it all up for a hut in the woods.

The Secret History Of Our Streets, broadcast on BBC2 on 3rd July 2012 (available on BBCiplayer until 18th July and well worth watching) traced the evolution of Portland Street in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea from 1950s slummy bedsit-land to its 21st century shockingly expensive and ultra fashionable location for London's idle rich.  Past and present residents were interviewed, among whom were Henry Mayhew who was happy to recount to an audience of millions how he had only come to own his house because "my wife made me buy it".  He went on to explain that Gail (whose name he avoided mentioning) made him buy it because she thought it would be a good investment.  She was, Henry stated with a commendable lack of visible bitterness, right as always.

Henry was obviously far from happy with his lot.  The idea of living in an 'investment' had clearly become absurd to him and he craved something more meaningful.  Portland Street, Henry told us, was deathly boring, inhabited only by investment bankers who had grabbed the taxpayers' cash doled out to them by a stupid government - supposedly intended for lending to small businesses - and spent it all on their trendy houses.  I got the feeling that Henry really had experienced an epiphany.  Social justice and ecological sustainability go hand in hand and - as Henry seemed to have realised - any attempt to separate them ultimately comes to nothing.

Rather like Reggie Perrin, Henry knows in his heart, I feel, that what is right is for the remaining woods and forests of this world is to be left alone, not turned into housing estates.  Maybe it is as obvious to Henry as it is to us that the latter way spells madness. You might get half a century or so of apparent 'benefit' from 'developing' every available space, but time will inevitably catch up and the destruction of nature - of which building on Racecourse Plantation would be  a very significant part - will cause our grandchildren to weep.

While Henry moved into his converted shipping container somewhere in a Felthorpe forestry plantation, Gail moved into a nice house in Norwich's exclusive Cathedral Close.  Gail remains as zealous as ever in her quest for profitable development.

Look out on this blog for more news on recent developments.  There have been several, but due to such mundane things as serious medical conditions (now fully sorted thanks to the ever brilliant NHS) and tedious details such as the work we ordinary mortals who haven't got enormous legacies to tap in to need to do,  it may take a day or two to get these published.

More urgent than Thorpe Woods...

Thorpe Woods matter a lot to very many people. But what if the woods were, in the end, turned into housing estates? We might boil with rage or feel physically sick, or even fantasise about plotting revenge. We'd feel deep regret and sadness about losing the woods but, in time, these feelings would fade away to memories. Ultimately, we'd carry on with our lives as normal.

But there are still people on this Earth whose very existence depends completely on the forest.  Right now, as you're reading this, the Awa people of Maranhao State in Brazil are facing genocide because of the greed of a few people for their forest.  Logging companies (where did your furniture, front door or bit of plywood come from?), mining companies (where did the metal in your car or your tin of beans come from?) and cattle ranchers (very cheap, that Brazilian beef) are systematically destroying the Awa's forest, where they have lived for thousands of years.

The Awa are one of this planet's last remaining nomadic tribes. Half of their number have never been in any contact with the outside world. They live exclusively in and from the forest. It is their life.  But it's the usual story: forest stands in the way of potential profit, therefore forest has to go.  The Awa try their best to stand up against the developers, but they can't do anything against guns and bulldozers. Many have been murdered, many more severely wounded, and all of them terrorised. The genocide has escalated dramatically in the last few months.  Brazil's minister of justice has the power to stop this, but so far hasn't bothered.  Logging, mining and ranching means economic growth, and that's what governments the world over care most about.

The Brazilian minister of justice needs to know that people all over the world know about, and care about, the plight of the Awa people, and want him to do the right thing.  Please click on the link and go to the Survival International website, and click on the "A Message Worth Sending" button.

If you care, please take a look at this link http://www.survivalinternational.org/awa  . 
It will tell you what you can do to register your disgust at the way the Brazilian authorities are failing to stop this genocide.

People Power

Today we hear that the SNUB (Stop Norwich UrBanisation) legal challenge against the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) of the Greater Norwich Development Partnership (GNDP) has been upheld by a high court judge.
After many weeks of careful consideration of all the evidence presented by both sides, the judge has ruled that the GNDP's JCS was unlawful, principally because it failed to properly consider, or consult the public on, alternatives to the 37000 new houses (plus a large amount of industrial and commercial development) they deemed essential in the 'Greater Norwich' area.
The GNDP is made up of four Local Authorities (LAs), ie: Broadland District Council (BDC); Norwich City Council (NCC), South Norfolk District Council (SNDC) Norfolk County Council (NorCC), as well as the Broads Authority (BA), which isn't technically a LA.
A key element in the JCS is the North East Norwich Growth Triangle
(NENGT, or just GT for short). The GT is, essentially, the reason for the threat to Thorpe Woods. For reasons which remain unclear, BDC decided to include the Thorpe Woods in the GT at the earliest stages of the GNDP's JCS. Inclusion of Thorpe Woods within the GT has been questioned by the BDC council members for Thorpe at council meetings, as well as by us at Friends of Thorpe Woodlands (FTW), but the answers have been disappointingly opaque.
In BDC's Local Plan (LP), which was ratified in 2006, the settlement limit of Thorpe (ie: the boundary within which devlopment would be considered acceptable) was drawn so that it clearly excluded the woods. However, when the GT was defined, the woods were included. This gave the landowners (the Mayhew and Meath-Baker families, aka the Thorpe & Felthorpe Trust (T&FT)) a golden opportunity to put 'their' woods
forward for development. Opposing development has consequently been made much more difficult for the huge majority of people who believe that destroying 200 acres of beautiful and ecologically rich woodland is as unthinkable as it sounds.
Now that the whole JCS has been deemed unlawful, we hope that a complete rethink is on the cards. A further legal hearing will take place on Wednesday 29th February, at which the judge will decide what action the GNDP needs to take to remedy the situation. He could decide that the whole JCS needs to be scrapped and started again from scratch, or he could decide that the councils involved need to modify it in various ways in order to make it lawful. There is no way of knowing in advance what the judge will decide, but we do already know that his ruling of unlawfulness was not based on some minor technicality, but on the fundamental principle that alternatives should have been fully considered and consulted on: the fact that this did not happen must mean that, at the very least, further consultation will be called for.
Possibly the best outcome, where Thorpe Woods
are concerned, is for the JCS to be rejected. If this happens, the BDC Local Plan would remain in force until the whole JCS is re-worked. In this eventuality, the situation will be that the woods remain outside the settlement limit and are therefore effectively out of bounds to developers.
Keep a close eye on the news on Wednesday to see what the implications are for BDC and the other councils. The SNUB website and blog are sure to have detailed updates on what's happening and what it all means: you can visit SNUB's blog at: http://snubcampaign.blogspot.com/
This legal ruling comes in the same week
that Wymondham Town Council finally backed down, in the face of overwhelming public pressure, from their frankly incredible scheme to sell Kings Head Meadow to ASDA (ASssociated DAiries) for a giant supermarket. Nobody in Wymondham wanted to lose their meadow, or to jeopardise the future for the many local, family-run shops in the town, yet their elected councillors hatched the deal to flog the site to ASDA regardless. Congratulations are due to Wymondham Asks Why (WAW) as well as to SNUB, both of which campaign groups have shown that people power, when well organised and based upon sound facts and good reason, can and does prevail.

Apologies for All the Acronyms Gathered Here (AAAGH)!

A Fresh View of Thorpe Woodlands

Comment by Sid Norton on Iwitness24 after his first visit to Thorpe Woods.

I have heard so much about Thorpe Woods and the plans to build in there, I thought I would take a look for myself today and after spending several hours exploring the area, I can only say it would be an absolute travesty if one single house was allowed to be built in these woods. As an amateur naturalist it is quite obvious that these woods are not only beautiful but are rich in wildlife especially the bird population, which I would go as far to say that it could be unrivalled in Norfolk, now that’s a bold statement, isn’t it? Now building on arable land is bad enough, but building in woodland is a serious no, no and should never be allowed to happen as we will all be so much poorer if these unscrupulous developers and land owners are ever allowed to get their way. It’s such a pity one of our wildlife trusts, perhaps Norfolk Wildlife Trust don’t considering raising money and purchasing this land for the benefit of all. I for one would have no hesitation if giving money to what would be an extremely worthy cause. What do you think?

Flourishing Fungi in Thorpe Woods

(Read on for article 'Flourishing Fungi in Thorpe Woods')

The Thorpe woods gallery now has a new section dedicated to some of the simplest and less obvious plants, the Fungi that form an essential link in the intricate life of the woodland habitat.

The abundance of fungi that's been present this Autumn is evidence of the wealth and heritage of life in the soil of Thorpe Woods. The fungi, many only flowering in the autumn, are ever present in the soil and in the living and fallen trees processing and passing on the essential elements of life to the next generation of plants and trees which in turn support all the life of the woods.

This year, photographers, naturalists and friends of the woods have photographed a growing selection of the fruit of some of these fungi species, and with photographer David Boulton
now adding to the Gallery and fungi expert Tony Leech helping where possible to name those discovered, it should be possible to build up a good partial record.

If you'd like to add to those discovered you might still have time before winter arrives and many die back until next year, Also some fungi do survive the colder weather and others appear in very early spring.

Please note if you go looking for fungi that many species are beautiful but some are seriously poisonous.

QUESTIONS ABOUT QUESTIONS

Friends of Thorpe Woodlands have raised concerns with Broadland District Council's planning department over a Draft Framework Document for the North-East Norwich Growth Triangle. The document states that the environmental value of Racecourse plantation has been questioned. The doubts over the woods' "ecological and arboricultural values" can only have been raised by the landowners, who hope to make millions from developing the woods.

FTW are also concerned about the document's description of Thorpe woodlands as simply "coniferous plantation" and again later as "coniferous commercial with some broad-leaved woodland". Surely the planners ought to know by now that the woodlands are over two thirds semi-natural broadleaved and mixed woodland (which is only increasing), with some isolated areas remaining of conifer plantation.

Thorpe woodlands was understood by it's owners over a decade ago to be a varied and improving habitat, all designated as a County Wildlife Site since 1997. This was confirmed for them in the "Thorpe Estate Forest Plan for 2001-2020'" which was produced for the landowners in 2000 by a forestry consultancy. The description in this present planning draft seems closer to the misleading description of the woods used by the owners at their failed planning Charrette last year.

Members of FTW have requested that, as the final version of this document will form the framework for future decision making, the unqualified statements seeking to minimise the woodlands' value are explained and attributed to those who would profit from them. And, in the case of the woodlands' description, that those points are corrected as they are clearly inaccurate and render the woods more vulnerable than they deserve be.

Also worrying, in the same draft document, is the fourth planning option titled "Urban Extension" (see above with Racecourse wood outlined for clarity).

Under this option, Racecourse plantation - the heart of Thorpe woods and the County Wildlife Site - is zoned for housing development with new roads. This is especially concerning as, by BDC's own criteria, the recognised ecological value of Racecourse should provide strong protection against development.

We wonder what BDC's Conservation Team will have to say about this: last year they told FTW that they had decided they couldn't put a Tree Preservation Order on the woods because: "we don't consider the woods to be under immediate threat from development". Well they are now, under one of BDC's own planning options!

The document containing all these inaccuracies and unattributed challenges to the importance of the woods is only a draft, meaning that there is scope for corrections and changes to be made. FTW will be pressing for such changes. It is vital that BDC's material is as factual and throughly researched as possible before it becomes finalised.

Some very significant new information about the ecological importance of the woods is expected to materialise very soon, which BDC will need to consider carefully before proceeding with their draft framework plan. Keep watching the blog for updates!