At our Parish Council meeting on 10^th September 2024, we were briefed on a conservation initiative being undertaken by the folks at Walter Thompson’s (part of the FT Group)  - who own the land in question – they are well underway with plans to create a wooded area for the future in the Parish (which will ultimately have public access when established), and so preserve green space in our Parish from future housing development.

 

The design for Thompson Wood is outlined in the map below, and the aim is to make this a beautiful and useful amenity space (owned by Walter Thompson’s) for the local community where we have incorporated paths through the site and open spaces for benches.

 

There would be low density woodland areas to create gaps in the canopy whilst still increasing biodiversity and native habitat for local wildlife, in addition to new hedgerows bordering the field, to maintain resident privacy for those who are close to the site.   Mixed woodland areas will also aid with carbon sequestration and increased biodiversity.  Species will be a mixture from wild cherry, pedunculate oak, common alder, goat willow, to Scots pine, hornbeam, beech and silver birch.    Lower density areas will predominately include pedunculate oak, lime and hornbeam.

 

All of this falls under a wider initiative known as The White Rose Forest, which is a community forest for North & West Yorkshire, which aims to work with local authorities, landowners, businesses and communities to plant trees across the region and help improve the environment – it is all carefully and properly managed (you can visit www.whiteroseforest.org for more info)

 

Walter Thompson’s, as many of you know, is a big local employer here in Romanby & Northallerton, and has been responsible for building much of the Romanby we know and love over the years!  They have consulted directly with residents who border their land in question.

 

There is much to do with the project, and WT  are well underway with making it all happen – in our discussions we agreed in principle that the site would be “locked” with no access for up to 5 years to allow vegetation and trees to establish, and some design aspects may be tweaked (such as some accessible car parking in the future, so as not to disrupt nearby residents unnecessarily).

 

We as a Council are supporting this initiative, not least because of the environmental aspects, and we will work closely with the team at WT and the White Rose Forest to help ensure that this develops into a valuable community facility in the years ahead.

 

This information will go out as part of our next mail-drop Parish Newsletter in the near future, for those who may not see this/use social media etc.

 

We hope everyone will support this great initiative, and we will keep everyone informed as the project develops in the months and years ahead.

 

Best wishes,  Stuart Bradnam, Chair, on behalf of your Parish Council Team.

 

 

 

 

Back to news stories