07/01/2025
A few more details of our plans for Shady Glades…
When we purchased Shady Glades the woods hadn’t been managed for over a decade and it was impossible to walk around them.
We contacted a tree surgeon who advised that for the health of the whole woods we needed to fell a large number of trees in order to give the others space to grow and thrive. The decision on how to improve the woods was carried out with the tree surgeon, an ecology specialist, conversations with the National Trust and approval from the Forestry Commission who issued a felling licence.
This has formed part of the biodiversity net gain plan submitted to the council for which they have issued a certificate of approval. This plan sets out how the improvements we are planning to make to the site will take the woods from poor quality to medium quality and increase the biodiversity by 30%. We actually only have to increase it by 10% for the planning process, so we are going above and beyond to ensure we look after the site to the best of our ability.
We have also entered an agreement with the ecology specialists that if planning is granted we will allow them monthly access to the site for them to use it for training purposes of their staff, so not only will it help us in our ecology journey it could also help others to improve and look after the ecology on their land.
There will also be an additional 200m of hedgerow planted and an additional culvert installed which may help any potential flooding on the road at the front of our property.
None of the work we are doing will be visible from the road, with the exception of widening our entrance by one car width so that no cars visiting our site will need to wait on the road if another car is exiting the site. This was done after discussions with highways who also carried the traffic survey prior to us purchasing the site to ascertain if the road would be suitable for our plans. Eg visibility each way when exiting the site.
The car parks, storage container and dogs will not be visible from outside the site so won’t affect the look of the area, or disturb anyone going past and the dogs can enjoy their visit in peace without being triggered by outside influences. Eg cars, horses, cyclists etc
The only thing visible from the road is our track, part of which is shared with Daisyfield which is why we need the car parking as we have been told that parking cars on the track might ruin the look of the area and obviously it will block access for our neighbours.
The fencing along the road in front of our site (where the dogs will have access if that park is booked) is only 60m wide and is screened by thick vegetation on a deep verge, we haven’t been able to measure the depth as the vegetation is so dense we can’t get through, however it’s 10m at its narrowest point by the gate and probably 3 x that deep in places.
Once we have finished the planting of the hedges (and given them time to grow) then even our immediate neighbours won’t be able to see into the site. We also have double fencing between us and any neighbouring livestock, the inside fencing is 6ft with rabbit fencing along the bottom.
We have chosen a storage container rather than building a barn for storage as we know that both the council and National Trust don’t like permanent structures as in time these often lead to applications to convert them to housing.
It really is a magical place for people and dogs and we are looking forward to (hopefully) being able to share it with others.
