The team behind Long Lands Common is set to unveil plans to create a food forest on Harrogate’s green belt.

Long Lands Common is Harrogate and Knaresborough’s first community owned woodland and nature reserve.

It was established after around 3,000 people bought shares in Long Lands Common Ltd and raised almost £400,000 to purchase 30 acres of land near Nidderdale Greenway at the end of 2020.

Now organisers want to spend the small amount of surplus money they raised to buy an extra four acres of Harrogate green belt and plant a forest that would be a source of local food.

The company, which is a community benefits society, is to hold its AGM on Saturday, June 25, when the proposal will be put to shareholders for approval.

Secretary of Long Lands Common Ltd, Chris Kitson, told the Stray Ferret :

“The aim is to expand Long Lands Common, bring more green belt into local ownership and produce food for the local community.

We need a more sustainable world and a more localised, resilient economy.

Never in my life have I seen so much insecurity. We need to return to a more sustainable way of producing local food for local people.”

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What is a food forest? 

Kate Wilkinson is a horticulturalist who specialises in permaculture design and is advising the Long Lands Common team.

She says at one point the ancient forest of Knaresborough would have been a food forest — local people would have had the right to forage for naturally grown food such as mushrooms and blackberries.

She said the concept is the same when you create a modern food forest:

” A food forest is based on observing natural ecosystems. Trees are planted with scrubs underneath that copy natural systems . The plants are perennials and stay there for years enabling invertebrates, animals and birds to thrive.

“It’s aim is to be a social project too – the forest is accessible to everyone. People can forage with permission and feel that they belong there. The forest is owned by the people”.

The Annual General Meeting will start at 11am at Long Lands Common where the committee is also organising a picnic day.

The countdown is on to buy the remaining shares in Harrogate’s first community woodland.

Long Lands Common Ltd reached its initial £300,000 target to buy the 30 acres of land in November but appealed for a further £75,000.

These are the final shares the committee expects to offer for a few years and it is eager to meet the final target of £375,000.

The additional £75,000 is earmarked for improved access.

The current total is just over £340,000 and the cut off point is this Sunday. It says some of its donations are yet to be added to the totaliser.

It is hoped the committee will have taken ownership of the land in late January and can then organise an open day for March to let people see the land.

Read more:

• WATCH as the Long Lands committee give the Stray Ferret a tour of the land. 
• The community woodland is secured. 

Secretary of Long Lands Common Ltd, Chris Kitson, said:

“It’ll be the last chance for a while, maybe a few years, until we set up an open membership. All in all it’s been quite a challenge with covid but it may have helped because people wanted optimism and something to look forward to.

“Hopefully we can inspire others to do the same it could be quite a movement standing up and taking action.”

Some of the ideas for the land include a duck pond and a sensory garden with shareholders invited to offer their own ideas too.

To learn more and buy shares, head to the website here.

The organisation behind plans to build the Harrogate district’s first community-owned woodland has just 10 days left to raise the final £50,000.

The Long Lands Common Community Benefit Society, which aims to buy open farmland between Harrogate and Knaresborough, has so far secured £252,400 of its £300,000 target.

It has set a deadline of November 20 to reach the target.

The society recently delivered 48,000 leaflets to local homes encouraging people to buy shares in the scheme.

It now plans to take news of the appeal national and offer people “their own piece of Yorkshire land”.

The greenbelt section of land sits between the Bilton Triangle and The Avenue in Starbeck.

A duck pond and a sensory garden are just some of the ideas for the land. Photograph: Gary Lawson.

It consists of 30 acres of farmland that was previously looked at by North Yorkshire County Council as a location for a bypass.

The society hopes buying the land will prevent another bid for a bypass, create a green space local people can enjoy and increase the biodiversity in the area.

Chris Kitson, one of the organisers, said:

“We want to be part of the solution. Habitats are being lost by local developments and we want to address that imbalance.

“We are very hopeful about reaching our target. We just need more people to buy shares and help make a positive change.”

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One of the first items on the society’s agenda is to improve access to the woodland by creating an accessible entrance suitable for wheelchairs and prams.

Once the money is raised the Long Lands Common team will consider other plans, including creating a duck pond, wildflower meadow and a sensory garden.

The volunteers hope that through further social media campaigning and word of mouth the target will be reached and plans can get underway.

To learn more and buy shares, head to the website here.

Just seven weeks remain to raise a further £115,000 to build a community woodland between Harrogate and Knaresborough.

So far, the volunteers behind the Long Lands Common project have raised £186,000 towards their £300,000 goal.

If they manage to pass that figure by November 20 they will consider trying to raise another £75,000 to improve access to the woodland.

Long Lands Common is 30 acres of open farmland surrounded by fields and hedgerows between Bilton Triangle and The Avenue in Starbeck.

A duck pond, wildflower meadow, sensory garden and woodlands craft area are all included in the plans.

Read more:

• Public support vital for Harrogate’s first community woodland
• Take a look at what might be Harrogate’s first community woodland

It is an ambitious target but the organisers behind the project remain confident they will reach it.

Chris Kitson, one of the organisers and a teacher, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are confident but we are not complacent. It is going very well but we need people to buy more shares. There are 700 people who have put down a pledge but not yet bought any shares.”

To increase support, the organisers plan to deliver 48,000 leaflets and have asked volunteers to come forward.

Anyone interested in volunteering can email Long Lands Common by clicking or tapping here.

Shares in Long Lands Common need to be bought by people aged over 16 in £50 lots, with the minimum amount set at £50 up to a maximum of £37,500.

To learn more and buy shares, go to the Long Lands Common website.

The project received help recently in the form of £35,000 match funding from the Community Shares Booster Programme.

Take a look at the 30-acre site that could soon see the creation of the first community-owned woodland in the area.

The project would turn an area of green land, known as Long Lands Common into a public woodland with 40,000 trees.

£300,000 is required to buy the land- before the November deadline. A public appeal has been launched and people will be able to buy shares for a minimum of £50 from July through to November

The woodland plan is being led by Nidd Gorge Community Action (NGCA) and it follows its  3-year campaign against the ‘Harrogate Relief Road’ proposed by North Yorkshire County Council.

Chris Kitson who is the secretary of the Long Lands common group told the Stray Ferret:

Where better to have a new community woodland than on the very same greenbelt land, between Harrogate and Knaresborough, that was threatened by the Nidd Gorge road? 12,000 people said they didn’t want a road and now the same people are keen to buy shares. We hope to have this community woodland owned by as many people in Harrogate and Knaresborough as possible.

It would be our contribution to the northern forest project- a scheme which aims to plant 50 million trees across the North of England.

Chris went on to say that he thinks the support comes at a time where people are feeling like there are just too many new buildings:

I think there’s a lot of concern about the amount of development on greenbelt land, it’s just getting too much now. This gives the community the chance to take back real control, take power into their own hands and collectively own a piece of the greenbelt –  to plant with trees, preserve for ourselves and wildlife, and leave as a legacy for future generations, instead of a road.

The community woodland would border the Nidderdale Greenway, close to its starting point at The Avenue, Starbeck and the Bilton Triangle.

Gary Lawson Photography