Ely Common was declared a Town Green in 2012 as a result of a campaign led by Ely Wildspace. Securing the Common’s future as an open space, free from development, for the people of Ely and the District to enjoy in perpetuity.
This status however did not ensure that Ely Common would be maintained to remain open and accessible, and over the last few years parts of the Common have been increasingly encroached upon by blackthorn scrub, despite being within Ely’s Country Park.
Two years ago, in co-operation with East Cambridgeshire District Council, Ely Wildspace began a process to clear the encroaching scrub from the Common, with the assistance of the Community Payback team and its own volunteers. Disposing of the cut shrub and scrub regrowth has proved problematic, and the cleared areas have remained unusable.
Help has come however from Camps Highways Ltd, specialists in commercial landscaping and highway soft verge maintenance, who this week provided their plant and personnel as a community service to remove and shred all the cut scrub and regrowth. The whole of this part of the Common is now accessible to the public for the first time in several years.
Ely Wildspace chairman Andrew Bullivant said ‘Ely Wildspace is delighted that Camps Highways’ team has come to our assistance in solving this long-standing problem of scrub encroachment on Ely Common. We hope that following their lead, ways may now be found to keep the Common open in the long term’.
Press release from Ely Wildspace
