Knaresborough Forest Park has received an anonymous donation of £60,000 to pay off its debt and fund development of the site.
Long Lands Common board members said they were "thrilled" to receive a phone call from a donor, who wishes to remain nameless, offering to pay off the bridging loan for the purchase of Knaresborough Forest Park.
The donor had participated in one of the recent guided walks of Knaresborough Forest Park, during which members of the team explained their aims for the community site.
The Long Lands Community is made up of three sites: Long Lands Common itself, Knaresborough Forest Park, and their next project, the Long Lands Community Food Forest.
The team have been relentlessly fundraising to pay off the loan, since completion of the purchase last August.
The original bridging loan, from Julia Davies of We Have The Power, was interest-free until December 31st, at which point a number of local benefactors stepped forward to offer loans without charging interest.
Since then, supporters of the project have raised funds to repay the loans through share sales, events, Christmas card sales and private donations.
These efforts succeeded in reducing the debt to less than £20,000, and the team were about to embark on a fresh campaign to raise the remaining funds.
Geoff Freeston, site lead for Knaresborough Forest Park, said:
“This is a complete game-changer for us. It means that not only can we pay off our remaining benefactors, but at the same time we can start actually putting money into the land to make the site safe and start working on it.
"We are hugely grateful to all the donors, lenders and investors who have made this project a reality.”
The Knaresborough Forest Park site comprises 60 acres of green belt land between Starbeck and Knaresborough, adjoining the A59 and the Beryl Burton cycleway.
The total cost of buying the land came to over £900,000, nearly half of which was financed through a grant from the George A Moore Foundation.The team
The vision for the land includes:
- Wildlife preservation
- Volunteering opportunities
- Pond creation, working with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
- Woodland creation, working with White Rose Forest
- Willow and hazel coppicing
- Community food growing
- Celebration trees for loved ones
- Improving public access and creating picnic and viewing areas
- Facilities and activities for lifelong learning.
Secretary for Long Lands Common, Chris Kitson, said:
“One of our missions when we founded the Community Benefit Society was to acquire more land within the green belt.
"This is why we seized the opportunity to take on the Knaresborough Forest Park project two years ago, although we were aware that it was a huge financial challenge.
"We are thrilled to have paid off the full purchase price within less than a year of completion because of this donation, and the two sites can now move forward to operate in semi-autonomous partnership.”
Long Lands Common, a 30-acre site between the Nidderdale Greenway and Bilton Lane, has gone from strength to strength since the land was bought in 2020.
The founders’ vision of “an accessible-to-all community owned woodland that will help protect and preserve the greenbelt between Harrogate & Knaresborough for future generations, enhance the biodiversity of the area and respond positively to the threat of climate change” is becoming a reality through funding from White Rose Forest and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
The fields, which were former arable land, have already been planted with thousands of trees, hedges have been laid, and three ponds have been created, which are already attracting new wildlife.
Apart from the volunteers who attend weekly and monthly working parties, Long Lands Common also has a team of rangers who monitor the site for security and also record all the flora and fauna they see.
This has resulted in evidence of increased biodiversity since the community group took over the land.
The Long Lands Community welcomes supporters who wish to become involved with either of their projects, either financially or practically.
The current appeal, to raise funds for the purchase of Knaresborough Forest Park, will be replaced by an ongoing share offer.
The Community Benefit Society is keen to attract new shareholders, to strengthen the number of community owners of the land.
For further details of volunteering opportunities, future guided walks and ways to support their work, visit https://www.longlandscommon.org/ and https://www.knaresboroughforestpark.org/
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