The walk will start at 11.30am and registration will start from 9.30am. There will be entertainment and also bacon butties & refreshments before the walk and then after the walk there will be food, drinks and entertainment going on into the evening. There will also be refreshments & lots of goodies in Valley Gardens for the walkers before they then head back to the Harrogate Arms. For those of you who are fans of Harry Potter it has been confirmed that Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) will be at the event and taking part in the walk.

There will be lots of entertainment and things for people to do. We will be having a stall and we will be helping people to make bat/bird boxes. We will also generally be promoting the Group.

If anyone would like to take part in the walk please come along on the day.

They also need Stewards to man the route as they are very short of them so we would please like to ask for any help that anyone can give.

Please email me if you are able to help: secretary@harrogatepinewoodsgroup.org.

It is promising to be a very good day so please come along and support the Group and the Charity.

Keep checking it out as it will be updated with news.

AGM      An early notice that our AGM next year will be held on Thursday 15^th March 2012. It will be held at the Harlow Community Centre (Green Hut) at 7.30pm.  Further notices will be sent out nearer the time.

Our speaker for the night will be the Deer Society. They will be doing a talk on the general species of deer in the UK and then focusing on Roe Deer. They will also cover the issues of poaching which is considerable in the North Yorkshire area.  

 We still need more Committee Members so if anyone is interested in joining us please contact me. Nomination forms will be sent out before the AGM.

 All welcome so please come along & support us!

Irongate Field      We have not moved forward on this project at this time. We have been concentrating on all the recent planning issues so have just put this to the side for now. We would hope to pick this up again next year.

Balsam Bashing      We did hold a balsam bash on the 16^th July but apart from 2 of us no one turned up!

 We have been thinking of some ideas of how to tackle this next year which would involve people doing it in their own time rather than on organised days as we do not get people to turn up.

Bat & Bird Boxes     These have been cleaned out again recently and we have a good uptake of the boxes by both the bats and birds. Some of the bat boxes are more popular than others and we may move some as they are not being used. The bird boxes are well populated and most had nests in. Some have got broken and need replacing and some have squirrel damage so a bit of maintenance work is needed. 

 Members Meetings     We have not held a Members Meeting in November as we would usually and we have discussed in Committee Meetings the viability of holding these meetings in future.  As meeting attendance by members has historically been poor we would like to try to understand the reasons for this.  Possible reasons include wrong day (Friday), wrong time (7.30pm) or possibly the speakers we are choosing are not of interest.  It is also possible that members do not feel the need to meet as a group and that other than meetings with a very specific purpose (e.g AGM) we should not feel the need to organise members meetings.  These meetings cost us money for the hire of the Green Hut, printing out minutes, agenda etc not to mention time in planning the meeting so it is a little disheartening when people do not come. Please, please can people let me know what they think so we can plan for next year

 RHS     We put in our objection to the planning permission for the new Harlow Carr car park. As everyone knows RHS obtained permission for the car park and for the footpath through the Pinewoods.

 As some members will be aware we held a meeting with Harlow Carr to discuss the route of the footpath through the woods so that the only trees that will be affected are some of the self-seeded saplings and no mature trees would need to be removed. We are trying to work amicably with the RHS to do what we can to reduce the impact of this on the woods.

 We were also asked to go to attend a meeting with them at the beginning of October where they announced that they wanted to lease the bottom area of the Pinewoods.  The area they wished to lease from the council is up to level with the top of the North car park. This news came as a bit of a bombshell! As you all know we have asked for Members opinions on this and a number of Members felt strongly enough to write direct to the council, RHS and the local press (who have provided excellent coverage on the issue over the last few weeks). The majority of members are very strongly objecting to the lease and many of you have kindly forwarded to me a copy of your letter so the committee is aware of your views. We now need to ensure the matter is not dropped and that we continue to actively oppose this and keep it at the forefront of the public’s attention. We have written back to the RHS and are currently are awaiting their response.  Once we have this we will be continuing to take the matter forward and we will of course keep you all updated on this as things develop.   

 Committee     In order to strengthen the committee during this difficult time it was suggested that we invite Peter Blaney back onto the Committee. This suggestion was put to a vote and the majority voted in favour of the suggestion and we welcome Peter to the committee with immediate effect.  Many of you will remember that Peter served on the Committee previously and he will now remain on the Committee until the AGM or such a time as we feel is right.

Open Day     Our Open Day was on the 17^th September 2011 and despite the weather, we had a very good turn out. This is despite having lots of rain and  the tree climbing and the bouncy castle being late cancellations. A big thank you to everyone who turned out and braved the weather as it was a good day. The birds of prey proved to be a big attraction again and the flying display was excellent.

Work Days  Over the year we have had Open Country in the woods a few times to carry out work for us. They have done some balsam bashing and have also made a very good job of clearing the rhododendrons at the top of the recreation area, which the Council contractors had previously made a poor job of.  We are trying to get this area cleared so that it is more open and we can hopefully discourage people going in there and drinking and leaving lots of litter in that area and on the recreation area. Unfortunately the tree planting we did in there was not a success and most of the trees have completely vanished. 

 We would like to wish all our Members a very Happy Christmas and would like to thank you for your support throughout the year and look forward to your continued support next year.

If anyone reading this would like the ‘proper’ version of the Newslettercomplete with all the pretty pics we have put in it then please contact me: secretary@harrogatepinewoodsgroup.org and let me know. We cannot get it transferred to the website so I am afraid this is just a text version.    

END

We have done things a little differently this year and we are holding it on the same day as the Heritage Day which means that the Tower Open Day will be the same day.

We will have our usual very popular tree climbing, also our stalls nad the main attraction which will be the birds of prey. There will be a static and a flying display along with a chance to hold a Golden Eagle.

We will update this again nearer the time as more attractions are comfirmed – it is sure to be an excellent day again!  

 As you will remember RHS announced its intention to lease part of the Pinewoods in October following obtaining planning permission for the Car Park to the North of Pinewoods.  Once we were made aware of these intentions PCG consulted its Membership to seek their views on the proposed lease.  The response from our Members was overwhelmingly opposed to RHS leasing any part of the Pinewoods.  Many Members felt so strongly that they put pen to paper and wrote directly to the Council, RHS, Yorkshire Post, Radio York and the Harrogate Advertiser.  In addition it appears from the letters page that many of the general public, visitors and local organisations share the views being expressed by our members. 

 As a result of feedback from our Members we have expressed our concern to both RHS Harlow Carr and HBC.  As a result we are at present preparing for a meeting with them which will take place shortly. Prior to our meeting with RHS we have arranged to meet with local groups who have expressed an interest in this matter to provide them with the opportunity to become involved in the discussion.  We hope that many local groups will join us and support us in opposing this lease as together it’s much more likely that common sense will prevail and a sensible alternative found.

 Our Members have raised a number of concerns and issues with the lease and the main ones are set out below;

 RHS have not made a compelling case for the need to lease any part of the Pinewoods and we question their motives. The area RHS now want to lease is very similar to the area they tried to obtain in 2003 for a car park. At that time they were proposing to fell some 200 mature trees and referred to the Pinewoods as “a rather scrubby woodland area.”  In fact it was this attempt by RHS to build on the Pinewoods which led to the formation of PCG.

 RHS are also talking about putting in drainage, signage and tidying up the woods to make it ‘engaging and enticing’ for their visitors. The woodland is currently managed as a natural habitat and attracts a variety of wild animals including deer, owls and bats.  Our Members do not want RHS to be given control of any part of the Pinewoods as they feel the RHS will ‘manicure’ and ‘commercialise’ the woods and that this will spoil the very nature of the woodland.

 RHS have not explained adequately why the footpath from the North Car Park needed to go through the Pinewoods and we do not feel that the alternative route along Crag Lane was properly considered.  As RHS are now using the fact that the footpath is routed through the Pinewoods as a lever to obtain greater control of the Pinewoods it is viewed with suspicion by our members.

 We do not, therefore, believe that the lease is necessary or that it would provide sufficient safeguards to protect this natural environment for future generations. 

 We thank everyone for their support so far and we will keep Members and non-Members informed of progress.

Our AGM for next year will be held on March 15th 2012. It will be at 7.30pm at the Harlow Community Centre (Green Hut).

Our Speaker for this will be Mary Bond from Harrogate in Bloom and she will be giving us a talk on the recent TV programme featuring Harrogate in Bloom – Bees Butterflies & Blooms.

Please come along and support the event. It would be great to see as many Members there as possible.

We will be sending nomination forms out before the event so if anyone is interested in joining the Committee then we do have spaces and would welcome nominations.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

If you like what you see, please do get in touch or consider joining, it’d be great to hear from you.