Having not put an entry in the January Foss Focus, I really owe everybody an update. We had asked for pledge forms to be in by 18th December and at the time of writing this article I am delighted to say that we have secured a total of nearly £13,000. Now on the face of it this is short of the target but we did aim a bit higher than the minimum we need. Having talked to the Woodland Trust, they believe that they will still be able to find some extra funding, so I am delighted to say we're going ahead. Please don't let this stop you however, if you would still like to put in a pledge; it will all go to help the establishment of the Woodland and the facilities and features the village would like to see incorporated.
Over the past weeks, the purchase of the land has been progressed formally through solicitors. Although we had hoped to have moved more quickly, as any of you who may have bought any land or property will know, delays do occur. We think that we are now well on the way, however, and that the land purchase will be concluded in a couple of months. As we won't want to plant until the Autumn, delays at this stage are not critical. One of the issues which has slowed us down is the need to ensure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the access site is confirmed. This has been more involved than we expected and it is a critical issue. As the future site owner, the Woodland Trust have to take all the necessary steps to ensure public access is unrestricted. Not to put too fine a point on it, a Woodland for Saxilby wouldn't be much of an amenity if there was a problem for us getting into it!
As I've said before, a lot of people had offered trees for the Woodland and it would be great to include these in the plans. I must, however, thank Mr Gibson of Sturton who has already given me a Canadian Redwood. As it's outgrowing it's pot and we can't yet plant it on the woodland site, the tree will be planted in the Burial Ground along with other trees being planted there to mark the Millennium.
As usual, please do not hesitate to ring me on 702550 if I can tell you any more.
DICK AMOS, For the Millennium Project Committee