Treetop Design for Visitor Centre

By Sixsmith, Rachel

Sherwood Forest could soon be as famous for its visitor centre as for legendary Robin Hood after plans to build a 30m-high “tree house” were approved by Nottinghamshire County Council. The centre, designed by architecture practice Make, will give visitors views of the Sherwood landscape from a treetop gallery.

The centre forms part of the Sherwood: The Living Legend project and has been put together by the Sherwood: The Living Legend team with the help of 15 organisations in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire.

Building work has yet to start as the funding has not been secured.

The project is competing with five other projects to win Pounds 50m of Big Lottery Funding. The winner will be decided in a television vote on ITV later on this year.

Sherwood: The Living Legend project manager Faye Booker said: “We’ve got a strong bid. Sherwood is an important place for so many reasons. We hope the public will support this great forest and vote to secure a brighter future for this national treasure in the TV vote in December.”

The aim of the project is to regenerate the run-down forest and surrounding area and create an environmentally friendly visitor complex to celebrate Sherwood Forest’s ecology and folklore.

As well as the visitor centre, it will see the creation of a 250km path network and convert 300ha of farmland back into woodland.

These plans have also been approved by the council, which hired LDA Design to co-ordinate the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the site.

LDA Design partner Colin Goodrum said: “We were delighted to help Nottinghamshire County Council, under our framework agreement, to gain planning permission for this important project. Our EIA team specialises in challenging projects of this nature.”

The EIA was needed because the proposed visitor centre is adjacent to a European Special Area of Conservation, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Ancient Woodland.

The current centre is also close to these sensitive areas and must be shut down in three years’ time because of its location.

Treetop attraction: funding still to be secured

Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Oct 18, 2007

(c) 2007 Horticulture Week. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.