Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

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iain
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Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by iain »

The former pitch and putt at Ardeer Quarry has been sitting doing nothing for years. Irvine Bay URC tentatively suggested the site could be built on, but thankfully it wasn’t one of the projects they pursued. development. Following the philosophy ‘If you don’t use it you lose it’, a local community group are proposing to turn part of the site into a community woodland – some mixed, native woodland with a path through it taking visitors on a woodland walk. The path is designed to link-up with the pre-existing path network at the site.

For the next 2 months, there’s a public consultation on the proposal. The consultation page is here:
http://stevenstonconservation.org/LNR/woodland.html

Iain
0802
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Re: Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by 0802 »

Interesting there's Jay nesting in Ardeer. The woodland and Path would be great for the area. As was mentioned the old path around the pond is constantly flooded as is a lot of area surrounding it.
0802
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Re: Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by 0802 »

iain wrote: Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:55 am The former pitch and putt at Ardeer Quarry has been sitting doing nothing for years. Irvine Bay URC tentatively suggested the site could be built on, but thankfully it wasn’t one of the projects they pursued. development. Following the philosophy ‘If you don’t use it you lose it’, a local community group are proposing to turn part of the site into a community woodland – some mixed, native woodland with a path through it taking visitors on a woodland walk. The path is designed to link-up with the pre-existing path network at the site.

For the next 2 months, there’s a public consultation on the proposal. The consultation page is here:
http://stevenstonconservation.org/LNR/woodland.html

Iain
Has there been any progress on the proposal?
iain
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Re: Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by iain »

Hi, Yes...ish! We had provisional approval for the project from the Council subject to running a public consultation. We ran a 2 month public consultation, which generated only one objection. So the Council were happy for us to proceed. However, someone new from the Council came into the equation and said they thought that a community group should only plant trees on Council land if they take legal ownership of the land. So we're currently trying to negotiate with the Council so as to avoid having to take on legal ownership of the site just so we can plant some trees!

I still hope that we will be able to start woodland creation this winter.

Iain
0802
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Re: Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by 0802 »

iain wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 4:00 pm Hi, Yes...ish! We had provisional approval for the project from the Council subject to running a public consultation. We ran a 2 month public consultation, which generated only one objection. So the Council were happy for us to proceed. However, someone new from the Council came into the equation and said they thought that a community group should only plant trees on Council land if they take legal ownership of the land. So we're currently trying to negotiate with the Council so as to avoid having to take on legal ownership of the site just so we can plant some trees!

I still hope that we will be able to start woodland creation this winter.

Iain
It’s progress at least. Can I ask what the objection was ? Or was it the ownership issue?
iain
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Re: Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by iain »

The objection was a ‘multifaceted’ one! We were explicit that we hoped the proposed woodland would make the site more enjoyable for walkers/dog walkers; the objector was concerned that it might encourage more dog walkers to visit the site, which they thought might be a bad thing. We were explicit that the new wood would benefit birds; the objector claimed that there was next to no birdlife in the adjacent woods (in reality, over 20 species breed annually in the adjacent woods), so none should be expected in the new wood. The objector feared that new woodland would simply attract more teenage drinkers. Finally, the objector said that creating a woodland would prevent the Council restoring the site to the all-singing-all-dancing recreational area it was in the 1980s.
0802
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Re: Community woodland creation at Ardeer Quarry

Post by 0802 »

Multifaceted indeed :lol: how did they come to the conclusion there was no birdlife in the woods? Do they visit these places or is it someone in an office making random unjustified conclusions...
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