Last push for grassroots campaign to safeguard local woodland

Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy has lent support to a grassroots campaign to save a local woodland.

Community members have come together to raise funds to buy the five-acre site which sits between Avonview Cemetery and Crews Hole Road.

Blackswarth Road Wood is up for auction at 5.30pm on Wednesday, September 13 but a crowdfunder, launched by local group Friends of Troopers Hill with the support of environmental charity Protect Earth, has surpassed its stretch goal of £80,000.

The Blackswarth Road Wood site is a mature woodland – photo: Friends of Troopers Hill

Local MPs and councillors have offered solidarity to the campaigners, recognising the value of the Site of Nature Conservation Interest which is one of Bristol’s largest remaining woodlands and a crucial wildlife habitat.

Kerry McCarthy said, “When I visited Blackswarth Road Wood this month, it was clear that this site is a real asset to East Bristol and must be protected, now and in the future.

“As the local MP, I proudly back the community efforts to buy the wood so that it can be properly managed for generations to come.”

The crowdfunding campaign set up to raise money for a community auction bid has received a groundswell of public support, reaching its £40,000 target in less than a week and going on to surpass the stretch goal of double that amount, with the help of over 1000 supporters, just one day before the auction takes place. There are over 400 supportive comments from well-wishers.

Concern arose when the site was listed for auction with Hollis Morgan as “mature woodland with scope for residential development subject to constraints.” Friends of Troopers Hill suggest this is misleading given there is no reasonable legal pathway for developing this land, previous planning has been rejected and it’s unlikely future permission will be given.

On the subject, St George Troopers Hill councillor Fabian Breckels said:

“What potential bidders need to understand is that they will never get permission to build anything on this site. Not even an eco-pod. Current and new Bristol planning policies will make sure of that.”

The site has previously been used for terraced gardens, glass bottle manufactory, making fireclay and allotments – photo: Friends of Troopers Hill

“There are no utilities on the site and no reasonable ability to create any vehicular or pedestrian access. I was amazed at just how steep it is. How anybody could consider it as a building site is beyond me,” he added.

“It is not a development site, it is a strategically important woodland and what it needs now is urgent management to protect it.

“We need our green spaces and we need to be able to maintain and look after sites like this amazing woodland.”

Friends of Troopers Hill highlight the value of the woodland as providing a vital wildlife corridor, sequestering carbon and naturally combatting air pollution, “reducing particulate matter in the air along the busy Crews Hole Road where people live and work.”

Rob Acton-Campbell of Friends of Troopers Hill said:

“Two months ago, Blackswarth Road Wood was a hidden gem, the ecological value of which was known to relatively few.

“Now it is the big story in the area with close to 2,000 pledges backing it and councillors and the local MP supporting its protection.

“Anyone who thinks that they can purchase the land and then manipulate the planning system to be able to build in the wood is a fool. I hope anyone else thinking of bidding will reflect on the response to the crowdfunder and allow the bid for community purchase to succeed.”

Find the crowdfunder at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-blackswarth-road-wood-crews-hole

Main photo: Friends of Troopers Hill

This piece of independent journalism is supported by The Extra Mile and the Bristol24/7 public and business membership.

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• Work begins on West of England’s ‘biggest and most ambitious’ woodland to date
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