The Forest of Marston Vale

With this in mind, the Forest Team continue to encourage everyone - including those who live and work in and around the Vale, visitors to the area, and children from surrounding schools - to become involved.

We try many new approaches and have been inundated with people who wanted to run around in mud, chase wizards and hunt bugs, all in the name of being part of the Forest of Marston Vale.

Community Forests : a far-reaching concept

A massive change is under way in the countryside in and around many English towns and cities: millions of trees are being planted and managed. The vision of these new forests is compelling enough but there is far more to England's Community Forests than trees.

The forests contain many areas which are run down or neglected, but now there is confidence in the future and a focus for people to work together to improve the quality of their environment and enjoyment of it.

The 12 Community Forests deliver a wide and diverse range of benefits that are maldng a positive contribution to:

• providing high quality environments for people to live, work and relax in
• managing new and existing woodland to encourage enterprise, jobs and training
• maintaining and creating new habitats for protection and enhancement of flora and fauna for generations to come
• providing people with access to a wide range of sport and recreation facilities which can help to improve their quality of life
• encouraging people to participate in new skills such as community arts, that create a sense of place and pride
• helping people understand the natural world and giving children an outdoor classroom

A Community Forest is a simple concept with universal appeal. Rooted in the ancient and fimiliar idea of the forest, it offers a clear and positive vision of a better quality of life which we can all share.

Only 7% of England is wooded: the second lowest percentage of tree cover in the European Union. The Community Forests will help to bring about a huge increase in coverage. In each Forest, up to 30% of the area will be planted - providing a wooded framework rather than blanket coverage with trees.

The forests contain many areas which are run down or neglected, but now there is confidence in the future and a focus for people to work together to improve the quality of their environment and enjoyment of it.

The programme, not surprisingly, is proving popular. Trees, a high quality environment and community regeneration are a winning, combination.

Case Study 1 - Rectory Wood, Cranfield

The first phase of tree planting followed community consultation, with over 500 people attending 6 public planting events during the winter of 2003/4. In 2007/8 phase III was completed, bringing the total planted area to around 36ha. When complete, Rectory Wood will link the expanding local community to over 350 hectares of woodland and open space, the combination of the restoration of the landfill site, the existing ancient woodlands and other young woods nearby, all linked and accessed via the new community woodland. This new extensive area of well-wooded green space, delivered in partnership with public, private and voluntary sector partners, will help to reduce pressure on the ancient woodlands, provide informal recreational space for the local community, repair a damaged landscape and deliver national and local biodiversity action plan targets.

Case Study 2 - Sustainable transport infrastructure linking new and existing environmental assets

The Forest of Marston Vale has delivered the 25 mile Bedfordshire section of National Cycle Network Route 51 – The University Way. The cycle track links Milton Keynes to Sandy via Bedford, linking a number of key assets in the Marston Vale including Rectory Wood (Case study 1), Marston Thrift, Millennium Country Park (Case study 3), Priory Country Park, Danish Camp Visitor Centre and the crossing of the Ivel valley on the old railway bridges at Blunham.

Both the route and surface of the track were the product of extensive consultation with user groups, using Coxwell gravel to upgrade bridleways and tarmac on sections that follow the old railway line. In the year before completion of the entire route, use peaked at over 5,000 cyclists per month on a completed section with use patterns showing both commuters and leisure users.

Leisure businesses at Danish Camp and Priory Country Park saw significant increases in trade once this section was completed. The construction of the cycle track was made possible by the Forest of Marston Vale brokering a funding package worth £2.5m from Bedfordshire County Council, shanks first fund and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). Well over half the route is traffic-free, with the remainder on quiet roads. By working with developers and planners additional off-road sections will be added in future years to make the route even more user-friendly.

Case Study 3: Millennium Country Park and Forest Centre

The Forest Centre is a major visitor centre serving the entire Forest of Marston Vale catchment, set in a new 250ha country park (Millennium Country Park) with wetlands nature reserve, cycle and horse trails, and a variety of newly created wildlife habitats. The Forest Centre is a revenue generator for the Forest, housing a café and bar, interactive exhibition, learning centre, conference facilities, art gallery and gift shop. It also serves as the operational base for the Forest Team. The Millennium Country Park comprises a Wetland Reserve (nature reserve with controlled access), surfaced cycle, pedestrian and horse trails, Stewartby Lake (used extensively for a range of watersports and fishing) and provides the perfect setting for the Forest Centre. The Park has become one of ten locations used regularly for Health Walks, as part of one of our social inclusion projects. The 8km of cycle trail located centrally to the University Way (Case study 2) and 4km of dedicated horse trail make the Park and Centre a key ‘hub’ for the Green Infrastructure in the Vale.

Case Study 4 - Conquest Community Woodland

Houghton Conquest is one of three existing villages that border the planned new settlement (“The Wixams” – 4500 houses & employment) on the redeveloped Elstow Storage Depot. There is a clear need to create strategic parcels of greenspace within the vicinity of this major development to both protect the identity of existing communities and help assimilate the new town into the wider landscape as it develops over the next decade.

The Marston Vale Trust has purchased 8ha of land for the delivery of community woodland on the edge of Houghton Conquest to provide valuable greenspace for the existing community, and offer important future links with larger blocks of greenspace being sought on the southern boundary of the new town development. Once created, it will combine with existing young woodlands to provide initial visual and acoustic buffering from the new town development, as well as an important new amenity for existing and future residents and the local Lower School. The funding partners for the purchase include ODPM, Lafarge Aggregates and Houghton Conquest Parish Council, the latter demonstrating the strength of local commitment to the approach that the Forest is taking to the creation of Green Infrastructure.

Case Study 5 - Marston Vale Surface Waters Plan

The extensive development proposals for the Marston Vale, including residential, commercial and major transport infrastructure improvements, combine to create substantial surface water management problems and the potential for increased flood risks.

The response to this has led to an acknowledgement of the need for an integrated and sustainable approach to flood risk to solve this problem, resulting in the creation of the Marston Vale Surface Waters Group. The Group comprises The Forest of Marston Vale, the Environment Agency, Bedford Group of Drainage Boards and the three local authorities. The Surface Waters Plan4 lays out an integrated approach that is designed to ensure efficient surface water management schemes that can deliver positive biodiversity, recreation and sustainability benefits to the environmental regeneration agenda that is being led by the Forest of Marston Vale.

Case Study 6 - Bedford’s Green Gateway

The Forest Team identified the land south-west of Bedford and the southern bypass, adjacent to the A421(T), as a ‘gateway’ location on the transition from built environment to urban fringe countryside and a key area for the creation of well-wooded green space as a strategic resource for the growing local communities. This area is prime ‘urban fringe’, lying at the intersection of two major transport corridor improvement schemes and under pressure from expansion south of the Bedford/Kempston conurbation (planned development of 1200 houses) and the expansion north of the village of Wootton, planned to double in size through the building of a further 1000 houses over the next few years

Working with the planning authority, the Forest Team successfully secured an 8ha site and £65,000 towards community woodland creation costs as part of the planning obligation for a major distribution development site nearby. An innovative and integrated approach to developing the site (known as Van Dieman’s Land) has resulted in the incorporation of a sustainable drainage scheme within the woodland setting, providing a solution to localised flooding concerns that simultaneously allows the creation of wet woodland, a national priority habitat within the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The first phase of woodland planting has already been delivered, including extensive involvement of the local community in order to foster a strong sense of ‘ownership’ for the future.

Community Forest involvement in Van Dieman’s Land was identified as a ‘foothold’ from which to deliver a much larger area of greenspace in an area of major residential and commercial development, so creating a ‘Green Gateway’ between Bedford and the Forest of Marston Vale. The Forest Team has developed a package to expand on Van Dieman’s Land, extending the area from 8ha to 53ha of greenspace in total. An adjacent parcel of 11ha, of farmland, worth £200,000, was targeted, aquired and transferred to the Forest of Marston Vale under a planning obligation the Forest Team brokered between the planning authority (Bedford Borough Council) and nearby developers (Gazeley Properties Ltd). Further land totalling 21.5ha has been purchased from a local landowner using a grant from the ODPM Greenspaces Fund. Further parcels are to be secured under future planning obligations associated with major developments planned nearby.

The ‘Green Gateway’ being created incorporates a length of the National Cycle Network Route 51 (see Case Study 2), providing sustainable transport and recreational infrastructure, and a major environmental arts sculpture, a ‘landmark’, as a statement of confidence in the regeneration of Bedford and the Marston Vale.

Case Study 7 - Working with Developers

The Forest Team has worked proactively with developers and planners to secure meaningful contributions to the Community Forest from development in the Marston Vale. An allocated site at Marsh Leys, tight on the urban fringe, was developed by Gazeley Properties Ltd into a new distribution park.

From the planning application for the third and final unit on the site, the Developer offered the Forest an isolated parcel of 5ha plus a contribution to delivery costs – a package which accorded in value with the results of applying the community woodland creation model. However, the land offered was too isolated from local communities and had no public access links.

The Forest Team’s local knowledge and good relations with land owners allowed them to negotiate a preferable alternative in the acquisition of 11ha adjacent to previously secured land in Bedford’s Green Gateway (see Case Study 6), so providing far greater public and environmental benefits to the area. A larger area of land was accepted in lieu of land and delivery costs due to the strategic importance of securing land for greenspace in this location. Overall, the commercial development of the 54ha site at Marsh Leys contributed 19ha of land, plus cash resources, towards the ongoing creation of the Forest of Marston Vale.

Case Study 8 - Application of the model to a development by British Car Auctions

The redevelopment of part of the disused Coronation Brickworks site, a brownfield development, proposed a major car auction site with 11ha of hard surface with no possibility for on-site planting. Through discussion and negotiation with the developer, the Forest Team secured a cash contribution towards the delivery of 4ha of community woodland, using the broad principles of the model. The sum of £70,000 will be used to deliver community woodland on land secured through other negotiations.

Case Study 9 - Application of the model to a small housing development

It should be understood that there is an economy of scale that comes into play with the community woodland creation model and it becomes uneconomic to use the model for smaller areas. For this reason other models are used for small developments. For example, a contribution of £1,000 per house was negotiated for a development of 10 houses in Houghton Conquest, broadly based on planting sufficient trees to offset the average carbon emissions from a family house for an initial 10 year period. This contribution will be used to help deliver the nearby Conquest Community Woodland (Case Study 4).