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07
Aug 2024
Sale completed to save 60 acres of green belt at Knaresborough
The sale of 60 acres of green belt land has been completed in Knaresborough, to save it from development.
The land, between Harrogate Road and the Beryl Burton Cycleway, once formed part of the ancient Royal Forest of Knaresborough.
It will be named Knaresborough Forest Park and will link up with Long Lands Common to create a green corridor stretching almost continuously from the River Nidd in Knaresborough to the Nidderdale Greenway near Bilton.
Long Lands Community was successful in creating Harrogate’s first community-owned woodland and nature reserve in 2020 following a £400,000 community shares offer.
The purchase of Knaresborough Forest Park was funded by a £410,000 grant from the George A. Moore Foundation in Knaresborough, a £300,000 loan from We Have The Power, a philanthropic organisation which allows community groups to buy land and repay the loan through share schemes, grant applications and fundraising, and other donations totalling £100,000.
Almost £80,000 has been raised so far by a share scheme to pay back the £300,000 loan. You can donate here share scheme is now live and can be accessed here:
The loan will incur interest charges in three months’ time, so campaigners want to raise the sum as quickly as possible.
Supporting the initiative at last year's Starbeck Community Day.
August 13 celebration day
Now that the sale is complete, work can begin on the land.
Volunteers will be sought to get involved with activities such as tidying up hedges and repairing fences and gates, before getting started on long-term projects for the land, which include rewilding and some reforesting, as well as creating a community food field and an education area for learning land-based skills.
Volunteers will also be required for tasks such as admin, IT, volunteer co-ordination and grant applications.
All supporters are invited to join a Knaresborough Forest Day celebration on Tuesday, August 13. The annual day has been created by Knaresborough Town Council to commemorate the enclosure of Knaresborough Forest in 1770, an act which deprived the people of access to large areas of previously common land.
Long Lands Community will be celebrating the restoration of the land to common ownership through their purchase of KFP.
To celebrate Knaresborough Forest Day, the town council is organising a guided walk at 10am from the castle to the Knaresborough Forest entrance at the bottom of the Beryl Burton cycleway. Supporters who wish to take part will arrive at the riverside in time to be guided up the cycleway by one of the team and join in the Long Lands Community celebrations.
Alternatively, supporters can meet for the Long Lands event at noon at the junction of the Beryl Burton Cycleway and Bilton Hall Drive.
Geoff Freeston, site lead for the KFP team, said:
We are hugely grateful to Renaissance Knaresborough for having the vision to launch the Knaresborough Forest Park campaign in December 2022. We also owe KFP ‘s existence to the George A Moore Foundation, for offering us such a generous grant early in the campaign, and to We Have The Power – without support from those organisations, we could not have bid for the land.
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