National Trust buys 193 acres in Sefton
A new forest is coming to Lunt, now that the conservation charity has acquired a series of unused agricultural fields from the local authority.
The National Trust is planning to create new woodland, wetland, and grassland areas on the 193 acres, with an eye towards boosting the biodiversity in the area. It is hoped that a variety of animals will opt to live in the new habitats, including red squirrels.
“Whilst the landscape around Lunt looks quite green, much of it is private farmland and not currently accessible,” said Kate Martin, a lead ranger for the National Trust.
“Securing this land gives us a brilliant opportunity to create more diverse habitat, enabling nature to flourish in the area,” she continued. “We know that people feel much more connected to nature when they can get out into it close to home, and that connectedness makes a huge difference to health and wellbeing.”
The fields, outlined in red, sit on either side of the village of Lunt. Credit: Google Earth and council documents
Planting of the new forest would commence later this year, thanks to funds from Mersey Forest’s award from the government’s Trees for Climate programme.
“The Mersey Forest team are excited that a project like this could be funded through a Trees for Climate grant,” said Paul Nolan, director of Mersey Forest.
“Lunt has long been a key strategic site identified in the Mersey Forest plan. This is a chance to bring the many benefits of woodland creation to Sefton, for communities, climate, and nature.”
The benefits of the woodland were a deciding factor in Sefton Council’s decision to sell the land, according to Leader Cllr Marion Atkinson.
She referenced a council report about the proposed sale, stating “The report presented to cabinet showed the sale would have a positive impact on biodiversity of the area, contribute to increasing the ability of the area to capture carbon from new woodland planting and wetland creation, as well as offering new access opportunities to local people in Sefton.”
The price of the land was not disclosed. The Lunt site would be the second National Trust location in Sefton – the charity also owns a nature reserve in Formby.
Great News! 🙂
By David Halewood, Broad Farm
Great news
By Ray Devlin
Why don’t you acquire rimrosevalley because peel ports want it for access to the docks,it’s already wetlands
By Anonymous
Great idea
By Anonymous
So glad that the land is going to be so well utilised ….good news for once! The Natural world is in dire straits ….well done National Trust.
By Philippa Canavane
If only they would buy Rimrose Valley another green gem in Sefton.
By Craig
I think this is great for National Trust members in the North West. We have very few NT properties in our area.
By Beryl
Council should say how much land sold for.
After all they represent the rate payers. They will soon inform us of the annual rate increases.!@
By Anonymous
Brilliant
By Terence ryan
This is Brilliant news, I always said if i win the lottery id buy loads of land by lunt meadows and hopefully transform it for nature…lakes, woodland, wild flower meadows, more hides like in Leighton moss…ect..well done the national trust..
By Ccal
Used to farm part of sefton meadows till January 1990. Bill ROughly farmed part of it as well. JUST BRILLIANT COMBINED WITH THE NATURE RESERVE.💯💯💯💯
By Robert Barnes
Great stuff. Stop profiteers from building more houses that the area doesn’t want.
By Gman
Great this is happening,lots of new houses going up everywhere on Merseyside and every bit of green space is disappearing.
By Bernie
Clad they not building more house on the land .
By Anonymous
It’s fantastic that the trust is going to take over the land being a member I will look forward to it
By Ian smith
Be careful what you wish for ,do the people of Lunt realise they will be inundated with parked cars and dog walkers ,happened to us in Formby
By Anonymous
This great news, we need more trees and biodiversity.
By GetItBuilt!
Excellent project. Great news
By Anonymous
Great news we need to stop all the building in Sefton and have woodland for the animals and birds, so pleased
By Magdalen Glynn
Great at least some lovely trees instead of another housing estate. There’s very little of Thornton left so anything is better than houses!
By Vena
I look forward to seeing that
By Colin thompson
I am thrilled to hear about this woodland area
By Alison Doyle
Brilliant
By Zoom
So how much will it cost us to walk on our own land
By Anonymous
Awesome, this is needed on a large scale across the UK so is really positive news.
By The Squirrel's Nuts
Great news, fantastic for the area.
By Anonymous
How much will NT charge us for what has been free
By Anonymous
Great news , but as regards the comments on Rimrose. We desperately need the new road from the docks to the motorway, not only to create new jobs for a very deprived community but to stop the health threatening pollution on the A5036. The alternative scheme of tunnels and rail are just pie in the sky . Let’s get a move on
By George
Sounds great in principle, but spending a lot on a very large visitor attraction which has no public transport links and can only practically be driven to if you don’t live in the tiny hamlet of Lunt (residents do include Cllr Atkinson’s uncle, the MP for Bootle) seems an odd way for the NT to start saving the planet when there are other options locally. It is “close to home” for hardly anyone, but will be nice for people who start off a nature walk by getting in the car (like Formby Woods).
Sefton Council generally assumes all its residents outside Bootle have cars, so pays no attention to decent walking or cycling routes, or bothers to maintain the few it has.
Also, the South Lancs Farming Plain is generally v. high/Grade A agricultural land, so perhaps a poor idea in terms of food sustainability. Money must have been burning a hole in someone’s pocket.
By Land Rover
Just to answer Land Rover, the NT’s big strategy for a while has been to prioritise nature restoration, and reforestation is part of that. A few Google queries will show that it’s been adding new land to existing estates for that purpose, or finding sections within existing estates. My guess is in the NorthWest those two strategies aren’t quite as powerful as other places, and so they’ve done this. The 2nd way to look at this is council’s own farm land that is now a non-core asset, but they do have climate change goals, so this helps them too. Another example is Cheshire West who sold a farm to Forestry England to extend Delamere last year.
By Rich X
Given the issues around food security, the sale of high grade agricultural land for woodland/wetland/meadow seems a big mistake. However, better that than it being built on/concreted over.
By Anonymous
This is brilliant. Well done National Trust
By Suzanne Jones
Yes, NT buy Primrose Dale. Use shuttle freight trains to get containers to and from the port and a new rail/road freight hub a few miles eastward. Problem solved. Dead easy!
By Anonymous
I recently heard that B & M stores and Oxford University have purchased land nearby Brickwall Lane. Possibly where Muskers used to farm. Should we be concerned?
By RMorris.
I’m so pleased and happy to hear this great news! To strengthen circular food economies, to make us less dependent on imports, would Mersey Forests please also consider the planting on the south-facing perimeter a selection of fruit trees such as damsons, apples, baking apples, pears, cherry, greengages, Victoria plum as well as some fruit canes of raspberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants? The UK as lost so many orchards in the last 80 years so it would be lovely if we could reintroduce them. Thank you.
By Jan Wilson
I think it’s a good idea about having a new forest in lunt meadows that means we will have more nice nature like wild flowers e.g and it’s also good for the wild life so that the can eat for example rabbits and mice. So in my case it’s a good idea to have another forest in lunt meadows so they should go along with it in my case.
By Josh