Mildenhall Forest Plan 2024-2034

The external consultation for Mildenhall was open for 30 days from 7th June 2024 - 6th July 2024. The public were directed to an online consultation via posters erected across the woodland at key entrance points and gateways, letters sent to residents and social media posts. A hard copy of the plan was also made available for viewing at the Santon downham office. We directly emailed 24 stakeholders including parish councils to inform them of the consultation.

The consultation also provided contact details for further queries to be made.  

There were 12 responses to the consultation with 8 of those being through the online questionaire. Overall, the plan was met favorably, with 63% of online respondents classing it as well or very well addressing their needs. The majority Of respondents also agreed the plan acheived an appropriate balance of social, economic and environmental objectives for the woodland. The primary interests of respondants focused on biodiversity & woodland ecology, recreation and access and climate change. 

The key concerns raised include the following:

• MOD felt greater consideration was required for managing safeguarding issues for RAF Mildenhall in regard to tree height controls for the glideslope area. 
• Friends of Thetford Forest requested a correction to the wording regarding the open days held for Rex Graham and Warren Lodge. 
• Archaeological concerns from an external stakeholder regarding below ground disturbance from any operations.
• Request to encourage the use of methods that promote infiltration of precipitation to ground, improving rates of aquifer recharge. Suggestions made for this included: increasing clearings/glade area, fire break width and planting more broadleaf species. 
• Further explanation wanted over what anti social behaviour was present. 
• Lack of recreation facilities. Public would like to see similar facilities to those at High Lodge including litter and dog poo bins. 

The response have been considered and factored into the plan where possible. The key concerns raised above have been addressed in the following way:

• A meeting was held with the MOD, our estates department and forest planner to address the exact issues around tree height management. A survey was carried out of the tree heights within the glideslope area during the development of the plan and a clear fell coupe was added to address some that exceeded this. The plan does also show the glideslope area will remain with surrounding broadleaf woodland to be coppiced to keep tree heights low. The MOD felt the full glideslope area was not clear in the plan so it was agreed an extra map would be included in the appendix of the plan and further text added to page 14 to acknowledge the agreement between the MOD and FE to manage trees within the glideslope area. 
• The plan was corrected with the updated text from the Friends of Thetford Forest.
• An operational site assessment (OSA) is carried out before operations begin and our heritage advisor is consulted during this stage to highlight any particular issues. The designation of the forest as SSSI/SPA means ground nesting habitat is required and created through felling operations so it is not practical to simply say no operations can take place due to a possibility something may be uncovered. The comments made were passed to the heritage advisor to consider whether any changes were required to the plan as a result of these and to consider during the OSA process.  
• The incopration of the open habitat plan across Thetford Forest which includes Mildenhall will increase the width of the forest roads and rides, as well as some larger clearings to encourage SSSI species. It is unlikely we would plant broadleaf species as the woodland already has a large percentage spread across the plan area but existing species will act as a good seed source to naturally regenerate into any gaps to further diversify the forest. 
• A response was sent to the member of public who requested this to explain we encourage visitors to follow the forest code and byelaws when visting and included a link to these. Any activity that does not follow these is considered anti social behaviour and a list of those present in Mildenhall was provided as well as more detail on how we know this to be the case e.g. reports from members of the public or emergency services. No further response was recieved. 
• High Lodge is a forest centre of which the car parking charges play a fundamental role in providing and maintaining the facilities there. It would not be possible to install these at Mildenhall for free. The play facilities that were previously in place were managed by the council but later removed due resource issues with maintenance. The recreation team are reviewing what is provided at external sites but any developments will depend on funds available. Thetford Forest now operates a bin free policy in line with Forestry England's policy to create less waste and provides an opportunity to redeploy resources from managing other peoples litter to investing in expanding peoples experiences of accesing green space. Visitors are expected to manage their own litter and to take it home with them.  

This plan has now been approved by Forest Services, the regulatory arm of the Forestry Commission and can be viewed on our Forestry England Forest Management Plans webpage.