Ancient meadows below Old Town
From Jonathan Salt
Wednesday 22 May 2024
You may already be aware that there are over 25 acres of pasture land for sale between Hebden Bridge and Old Town. A group of Old Town residents have got together to try and raise funds to purchase the land.
The aim is to protect these ancient meadows for posterity, whilst using some of the land that is more managed to grow sustainable food using environmentally and ecologically sound methods. There are also opportunities for tree planting on the steeper slopes, hedges and many other ideas have been suggested that would benefit both the community and the environment.
Unfortunately the seller is not willing to wait for us to form a community benefit society to purchase the land, so we are having to raise funds with the help of the Calderdale Ecological Land Trust who have offered to buy the land once funds are available and then transfer it to a CBS once that has been set up.
If you are in a position to help with funding the purchase, or would simply like to know more about what is proposed, please email me for more details. We expect the land to sell quickly, so time is of the essence.
From Jenny Slaughter
Thursday 23 May 2024
I am part of the campaign group trying to raise money to put this land into community ownership. I am also part of Calderdale Ecological Land Trust (CELT). We have been pledged £137k from people in Old Town and Hurst Road area but need to go further afield to raise the balance of another £100k very quickly.
If you think more land should be put into community ownership please contact Jonathan Salt for a pledge form. Your pledges can be converted into Community Shares when we have more time to conduct an official share offer.
From Jonathan Salt
Thursday 6 June 2024
The response from the local community to the proposed land buyout has been unbelievable, and today will will be putting our 'best and final' bid to the agents!
If you want to be part of this project it's not too late to get involved - if we are successful then we will need funds for an ecological site survey, setting up a community benefit society, public liability insurance etc. We will also need to do some urgent restoration work to the dry stone walls to make them safe and prevent further damage to them.
If you can help in any way please email me for more details.
Hopefully we should know if our bid is successful early next week