With the adoption of the Local Plan designating Gorne Wood as Metropolitan Open Land earlier this Summer, our expectation was that decisive action would finally be taken by Lewisham Council to acquire the site.

There has been some movement. New enforcement actions have started, Cllr.James Walsh - Cabinet Member for Inclusive Regeneration has been appointed to try and engage the land owner (yet again) and the Council intends to get a new valuation of the land. However we have been very worried that things are moving far too slowly, placing more risks on the site with every passing day.

With a recently failed planning application by AA Homes to build 28 houses on the woodland, we are now aware that the scout hut and Gorne Wood were put for sale on the open market this weekend. Two listings have been published with mis-information about site. The first listing even attempts to sell the site as a residential bungalow and neither listing mentions the designations such as Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) or Asset of Community Value (ACV) which we have worked so hard to secure.

We are extremely alarmed that such a valuable ACV has been listed for sale without the community being informed as per the legal process. The Fourth Reserve is in touch with Lewisham Council, local MP. Ellie Reeves, Network Rail and Cllr.James Walsh.

We continue our fight to keep Gorne Wood safe and to secure the land as a nature reserve for wildlife and the community.
The funds raised through crowd funding are safe and ready to be used for the land purchase.

We have been waiting for 3 years with the promise of land acquisition for this incredibly significant site and we need action to be taken now. In those 3 years 2280 children from the primary schools that supported the campaign have moved on to secondary school having not had a chance to visit the land they campaigned for. And it's not on.

Please will you help us by voicing your concerns to Cllr.James Walsh and MP Ellie Reeves?
ellie.reeves.mp@parliament.uk
James-J.Walsh@lewisham.gov.uk