Anonymous bid saves woodland for community
A COMMUNITY has come together to secure £20,000 funding to prevent a “beautiful” woodland area from being developed.
Residents in Graigwen, Pontypridd, discovered the woods were being put up for auction about a month ago. The land was privately owned up until last week.
When the news broke the Friends of Graigwen Woods was quickly set up and a public meeting was held to discuss what could be done to ensure the land wasn’t sold to a developer.
Ben Heneghan, 61, has lived in the area for about 25 years and was elected as the committee’s publicity officer.
He said it would be a “real shame” if the woods were to fall into the wrong hands.
Ben said: “The same thing happened around 12 years ago with another buyer, but there are so many complications with getting planning permission it becomes not worth the work. We just want to buy the woods to ensure it can’t be destroyed or developed - builders are building houses in the oddest of places now.
“We knew it was up for sale about a month ago so we had to act quickly. It is a really beautiful place – there are lots of good things about living in Pontypridd and this is definitely one of them. It would be a real shame if the woods was not here.
“People who are not from this part of Wales are always blown away when they see how beautiful it is.”
The land, which is to the rear of Lanwood Road, was sold for £20,000 at an auction held at the Village Hotel in Cardiff on September 12.
It stretches from behind White Rock Avenue to just behind Lanwood Road and measures about 5.60 acres – a little bigger than four football pitches.
The committee found an investor, who has asked to remain anonymous, to purchase the land. Now the group will dedicate their spare time to raising funds to buy it back.
“Our plan is to become a charity so we can work to look after the woods,” added Ben.
“It was bought for £20,000. Apparently there was only one other bidder, but we are happy and couldn’t have asked for much better. The plans are now to see what we can do to maintain it.
“We want the community to have a good relationship with it – the woods is more valuable to us than someone else buying it. It’s great for the community – it’s really brought us all together.”
Councillor Heledd Fychan supported the project. She helped the committee set up a public meeting when the news about the sale was announced. Although she’s not on the committee, she said it’s “fantastic” news that the hard work of people in the community has paid off.
Cllr Fychan said: “It started out with just a few residents – they got everyone together and I then I got involved. We were lucky to get someone to give us the support. It will now be down to the committee to see what we can do to give it back to the community. They will now get some sort of action plan together. They will be looking at things like looking after the wildlife and seeing what works well to make it a community area.
“This is great opportunity to bring people together and get more people using the area.”
Cllr Fychan said the next stages are discussing what can be done to improve the area. Ideas suggested so far include making the area more accessible for elderly people and seeing what they can do for children in local schools.