Brickfields Community Woodland Plans
An astonishing 40 documents have been submitted by the Forestry Commission and its partners as part of the planning application to St. Helens Council. You can access them HERE although the 28 page Forest Design Plan (.pdf) interested me the most. Very comprehensive with particularly interesting information on the history of the site.
The land currently consists of some woodland, scrub and grassland but is somewhat derelict and neglected. The intention is to create new woodland, wildflower areas and other habitats to expand the biodiversity of Brickfields. There will be active management of habitats as well as “enhanced recreation provision” plus new access routes with entrances secured by “kissing gates”. The kissing gates (nice name!) are intended to exclude motorbikes, which do often spoil my walks in the woodland in Sutton Manor.
Looking out to the northwest of the site and the Cory Lord St.Helens landfill
The landfill site at Cory Lord St.Helens is expected to come into the scheme once filling operations end later this year. I wonder if the rocks in the centre of the site - which I so often repose on - will remain? There’s no mention of these but benches will be provided for weary folk like me to rest on. The work will start on the 26th October 2007 and run to the beginning of March 2008.
It's almost 18 months since soil sampling notices first appeared on the site and a lot of work has clearly been done in the meantime. The proposals look tremendous and with the newly created woodland at Sutton Manor (plus forthcoming Big Art Project) just across the way, it sounds like another welcome improvement to our environment in Sutton.