Meeting Minutes
Minutes of Sunday’s meeting are now available to view.
Thank you!
Dear Friends of Fox Hill
This afternoon we held a public meeting and our inaugural AGM. The meeting was very well attended with around 90 present including local councillors.
I hope everyone found the presentation informative. Members of our new committee have worked extremely hard to research and collate a huge amount of information about the woods on Fox Hill and Round Hill, and the ways we can protect and conserve them. In addition there are a number of people who didn’t speak at the meeting who are working hard right now to keep the woods litter free, and are monitoring the the wildlife. Others have been hugely influential on social media, and by delivering flyers, in making sure everyone locally knows about the issues surrounding the woodland. Many thanks to everyone.
Please remember the two most important things you can do to help:
- Firstly please make sure you’re a member of our new community group. If you left your e-mail address at the meeting, we’ll be in touch, otherwise please send an email to membership@friendsoffoxhill.org.
- Secondly please take the time to respond to the local plan consultation. We’ll be posting information on the website to make sure you have the information you need to make sure that our woodland is removed from the development plan!
Going forward, we’re going to be a community conservation group, and we hope lots of people will get involved in protecting, enhancing and enjoying our beautiful, special, ancient woodland.
Best wishes
Jo Rogers
Chair, Friends of Fox Hill.
p.s. Need reminders when filling in the Local Plan survey? Have a look at the presentations from Sunday’s meeting.
Public Meeting resources
Thank you to everyone who came along to support us today; it was heartening to see so many people interested in the woods’ future! Our new Chair, Jo, will be making a longer post shortly, but in the meantime, here are the resources presented at today’s public meeting.
Information about the local plan, how it might affect you, and a link to the online survey can be found on the Wokingham Borough Council website.
Public Meeting
We’re holding a public meeting to discuss how Fox Hill Woods may be affected by the update to the Wokingham Local Plan, and how the Friends of Fox Hill can work to ensure the continued use of the woods for all the community. As part of this meeting, a public vote will take place to elect our first committee members.
When and where does the meeting take place?
3pm on Sunday 27th January, for up to 2 hours.
1st Woosehill Scout Hut
Chestnut Ave
Wokingham
RG41 3RS
This building can accommodate 80 people. To guarantee that you can get in, please arrive any time after 2:45pm.
Why are we doing this?
We feel that the interests of the local community are best served by forming a community group to prevent Fox Hill Woods from being ear-marked for development in the Wokingham Local Plan update, and to ensure its long term viability as an openly accessible, public space.
What will we talk about?
- Overview of Fox Hill
- Current Situation at Fox Hill
- Aims of Fox Hill Community Group
- Setting up the Fox Hill Community Group
- Questions
- Voting for Committee Positions
I would like to be involved
If you have skills you can bring to the group, please send us an email describing how you would like to become involved. A list of available committee positions will be made available on the day, with each candidate needing to be nominated and seconded. Whatever your skills, your time, enthusiasm and expertise will be needed to make this group a success. You’re probably reading this because Fox Hill Woods make your life more enjoyable; help us to keep it that way.
I can’t make it!
If you can’t make it, but would like to ask a question, please send us an email. We’ll aim to address your question at the meeting, and let you know our response.
What are we up to?
Following the aims of the group we are currently focusing on the following priorities:
- To understand the Wokingham Local Plan Update process and the opportunity for the community to input into the consultation, with the proposed aim to remove the proposed mixed use and housing proposals from the Fox Hill and Round Hill areas.
- To propose the area as a designated Green Space.
In parallel we are also:
- investigating how the community can get more engaged in conserving the area, the habitat, and the species that use the woodland;
- investigating the opportunity to identify historical rights of way that have been excluded from the definitive map;
- setting up databases to store information on the historical and current use of the area, and data on species that inhabit the woodlands