Grove Wood Celebration - April 1st

To celebrate Grove Wood becoming a Town Green, Lord Stapleton* and Lady Fishponds* would like to invite you to the grand opening of the Town Green from 2pm on Sunday 1st April. Meet in the Snuff Mills car park and join us to cut the ribbon to open our new Town Green and then indulge in 'lawful sports and past-times' there. The Lord and Lady would especially welcome people dressed for the spirit of the occasion or for their favourite Grove Wood leisure activity. Please do join us for a fun April Fools Day celebration of what we have all achieved.

*The tiles of Lord Stapleton and Lady Fishponds may be pseudonyms and they are unrelated to any other 'Lords' known to the area. The photo is of 'Lords and Ladies', a plant that grows in Grove Wood.

Grove Wood to be registered as a Town Green

Members of the Public Rights of Way Committee have just voted unanimously to register Grove Wood as a Town Village Green. Many locals spoke at the meeting as did the Ms Lady Katrina Jafari, on behalf of the landowner.

In his summing up, Peter Abraham, Chair of the Committee commended the behaviour of locals and Snuff Mills Action Group in the light of some quite extreme allegations made by Ms Jafari, John Mair and Rhino Group, while another Councillor described the behaviour of the landowner and those that support him as 'regrettable'.

The land will be registered in the next few weeks. This will mean no one can stop the people of Stapleton and Fishponds from using the land for recreation and it cannot be developed in any way that would spoil its value as a Town Green.

Council Officer recommends Town Green

The Officer's report for the Public rights of Way Committee recommends that they follow the Inspector's report and register Grove Wood a Town Green.

Read the full report, including Inspector's findings following last year's hearing here

https://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2012/wa/agenda/0315_1400_wa005.html

Go to agenda item about Grove Wood in blue and click on to view

See the post below to find out how you can help make sure the Council register the woods as a Town Green.

Help Make Grove Wood a Town Green

We need you to send in a statement to the Council's Public Rights of Way Committee to help persuade them to follow an Inspector's recommendation to register Grove Wood as a Town Green. These are the woods on the other side of the river from Snuff Mills under Blackberry Hill Hospital. Town Green registration would protect your rights to enjoy these woods for recreation, forever.

Remember 2008?
Back in 2008, the new landowner of Grove Wood, self styled Lord Jafari:
* Cut down trees without permission, breaking the rules in a Conservation Area
* Bulldozed part of Grove Wood making a mess and disturbing wildlife along the riverbank
* Employed a 'park-keeper' known as Rick to frighten people out of the woods
* Erected a container at the entrance to the woods, breaking planning rules
* Put up ugly metal fencing to try to stop people using Grove Wood
* Applied to cut down the trees in Grove Wood next to Blackberry Hill

Since then, Jafari's attempts to ruin Grove Wood have been successfully stopped thanks to the support of hundreds of people. Together we have:
* Persuaded the Council to place a Woodland Tree Preservation Order on Grove Wood, protecting every tree, big or small
* Campaigned so that Jafari's permitted development rights have been removed (preventing new containers or fencing going up in the woods)

Once last job to do
Now we need to do one last thing to protect Grove Wood - protect our rights to enjoy it by encouraging the Council to register it as a Town Green.

Last year a hearing took place to work out whether Grove Wood qualifies as a Town Green. The Inspector at the hearing has recommended that it should be registered as a Town Green and the Council's Public Rights of Way Committee will consider this recommendation at a meeting on Thursday 15th March from 2pm at the Council House. You can help us by sending a statement to the Committee, joining us at a demonstration outside the Council House before the meeting and speaking at the meeting yourself.

Your statement
Send a statement to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk by noon on 14th March. Please title your email: FAO PROW Committee 15th March: Grove Wood Town Green Statement
Please just tell the committee what having Grove Wood as a Town Green would mean to you. You could talk about the uses you make of it, how long you have used it and how you would feel if you lost access to it. We will post examples of other people's statements here to inspire you, so please send a copy of your statement to us at snuffmills@hotmail.co.uk - we will post it anonymously if you wish.

If you want to speak at the meeting, please make this clear in your statement.

One last demonstration?
We had planned to hold one last protest outside the Council House on College Green at 1.30pm on Thursday 15th March, but because they have been recommended to register Grove Wood as a Town Green m we are not doing this now.
Speaking at the meeting

You can speak at the meeting provided you have put in a statement. You can just summarise your statement in front of the Committee. The meeting starts from 2pm in the Council House.