Author name: HBUF

This is the letter I sent to the Swindon Advertiser on 11th January 2020. It is a response to the articles of 4th and 10th January, which you may have read about.

They haven’t yet published my letter, so here it is in full:

11^th January 2020

Mr Pete Gavan, Editor

Swindon Advertiser

Letters@swindonadvertiser.co.uk

Dear Sir

Re: Hreod Burna Urban Forest

With reference to the articles of 4^th and 10^th January wherein Josie Lewis, a Wroughton resident, outlines her opposition to the planting of trees in Gorse Hill and Pinehurst: as a fellow Trustee of HBUF, I am disturbed and dismayed by this person’s attacks on our group.  HBUF is a charitable trust that, as our name suggests, exists to promote wildlife, woodland and the planting of trees in an urban area, for the benefit of the local community. 

As a matter of record, at the last full Parish Council meeting 18^th December 2019, it was agreed that the trees planted on the Cricklade Field should remain. 

This person has been fiercely against any trees on the Cricklade Field from the very beginning, and has changed her arguments each time they were shown to be incorrect.  These arguments have ranged from ‘open space’ being legally different from ‘public open space’ to the suggestion that HBUF would be breaking our lease if we planted trees in certain areas of our land. 

She says that public open space is “by definition […] a sports ground or playing field”.  This is not the case, as there is no statutory definition of this phrase.  Note, however:-

Section 20 of the Open Spaces Act 1906 states that the “expression `open space’ means any land, whether inclosed or not, on which there are no buildings or of which not more than one-twentieth part is covered with buildings, and the whole of the remainder of which is laid out as a garden or is used for purposes of recreation, or lies waste and unoccupied.”

Memorandum by The Open Spaces Society (TCP 19)

Select Committee on Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs – Memoranda April 1999

In both 4^th and 10^th January articles your explanation of the link between Swindon Borough Council, the Central Swindon North Parish Council and HBUF is unsatisfactory.  HBUF does not run the area on behalf of the Parish.  There is a lease; it existed between SBC and HBUF; it now exists between the Parish and HBUF.

The minutes of our meetings are on public record and may be read on our website hreodburnaurbanforest.com.  These will support all of the information I refer to in this letter.  They show where opposing opinions have been voiced, as well as proposals and decisions made on a democratic basis.

I am most concerned, in these worrying times of climate crisis, that this person has seen fit to denigrate all that we are attempting to do.

Mary Farragher

Secretary, HBUF With endorsement by fellow Trustees Kate Henery, Treasurer, and Sue Gwinnell, Vice Chair

This Saturday, 18th January 2020, we will be putting in the under-storey plants (i.e. holly, hazel) in the woodland of HBUF.

Meet at 10.00 in the car park beside Pinehurst Road (this is at the other end of the cycle path from the Cricklade Field). We have some spades, but it would be useful if you could bring some. Furthermore, protect your feet from the mud and the wet – wellies or walking boots de rigueur.

Huge apologies to everyone about not communicating with you for so long – mixture of hoo-ha, illness, seasonal stuff preventing us. Will up-date everyone as soon as possible.

So sorry that there has been no information for you during this last week.

I’m copying Steve’s latest post from Facebook here:

Our landlord, Central Swindon North Parish Council, has asked us not to plant any more trees until we have given them a plan of what we intend to plant and where we intend to plant them.
This leaves us with a problem. The remaining whips are in a ditch that is full of water and they are also being interfered with.
I intend to move them onto the allotments tomorrow, Saturday 21st December. If you could help, that would be most appreciated.

Time & venue: 10.00 am, where the planting has already taken place i.e. the Cricklade Field.

We shall not be planting today.

And, although the plan originally was to plant both days of the weekend, we shan’t be planting tomorrow, Sunday 15th, either.

More updates as we have them.

The weather forecast for Thursday is not conducive to asking volunteers to come out and plant trees (and my own spirit quails at trying to do so). So we will not be meeting on Thursday 12th, but would love to see as many people as possible on both Friday 13th and Saturday 14th.

We aim to start at 10 a.m. and go on till a reasonable time, given weather conditions and age of bones. We had a grand crowd today and we managed to do some serious planting.

We’ll be finishing off in the Cricklade Field (please see the HBUF map on this page if you’re unsure of where that is) on the Friday, and then moving to the area beside Pinehurst Road as soon as we possibly can. We would really like to complete our tree planting over those two days.

Once I can manage to do it, I’ll put up some photos of our stalwarts, working in the field.

To see the list of trees we’ve been planting, look at “This and That, a Blog from June”. They’re all there.

We’ll be going ahead with more planting tomorrow (Monday 9th December). The day is forecast fine, and it would be so good to see lots of people there. It’ll be the same area, the field beside Cricklade Road, and the same time to start, 10.00 a.m.

If you come by car and park in the small car park off Pinehurst Road, just follow the cycle path round on foot to the other side of HBUF.

We had greater numbers today, including a family with two dogs, three children, one grandfather and lots of tea/coffee/hot chocolate and flapjacks. And they did lots of tree planting, too.

Just a small note about how we plant – we put in the large-canopy trees first at a distance of about 2m (that’s four adult paces), and then infill with the smaller, forest-edge plants. Steve will have delineated the areas within which we plant.

We started our tree planting today in Cricklade Field. Two people who excelled themselves today were Scott and Fergus, who planted an amazing number of trees – such hard workers.

We shall be planting again tomorrow, Sunday 8th, also in Cricklade Field, again starting at 10.00. Since the days are now so short, we will be working until about 3.00/3.30.

So 10.00 tomorrow (7th) and 10.00 Sunday (8th December) to start our tree-planting . Cricklade Field is the site to be first planted. Come one, come all to this joyous occasion. Even the weather forecast is looking promising (but Sssh, just in case).

• Saturday 7^th and Sunday 8^th December
• Meet at the car park beside Pinehurst Road, SN2 1RH, at 10.00
• Follow the signs for the tree-planting
• If you’re coming on foot, go straight to the Cricklade Road entrance beside the Chinese takeaway
• Bring stout footwear and a spade (if you have one)

A lot will depend on how many people come each day and how many trees are left to plant.

Therefore, any further tree planting details will have to wait.