Final Eviction Day @ Kensley Sheds & Full Court Battle Story
Last Thursday 17th August 2023 we pulled our vans away from Kensley Sheds for the last ever time,
8 years of our lives, and the lives of so many participants, staff and volunteers
to be swiped away without even a
FAIR & UNBIASED investigation…
Many years of Forestry ‘Evil’ England promising us that
a 10 year lease would be delivered
Promises that were recorded in:
emails,
meeting minutes
public lottery grant forms published on their website!!
But
…all of this was laughed away in court as just mere conversations,
which should never be relied upon!!
Do our Public Bodies care about connecting people to the land?
Or does this behaviour suggest quite the opposite?
Background
Kensley Sheds was eco-refurbished 8 years ago when Scott suggested using the
Foresters' Forest Landscape Partnership money to create
a lasting legacy of heritage craft skills here in the forest,
rather than demolish the old foresters shed as it had been listed for.
Scott voluntarily project managed the eco-refurb with Arbor Training & New Leaf Social Forestry Project,
along with many local volunteers and support from local businesses.
The centre has been a successful buzzing hive of activity ever since,
and when Arbor Training folded in 2018,
the Kensley Sheds licence,
along with the New Leaf Project
was passed on to Scott & The Rewild Project.
Thousands of volunteer hours have gone into Kensley Sheds, since then…
Many craftspeople have been well paid over the years to share their amazing skills with
local disadvantaged groups.
Dying crafts such as:
Ceramics & pottery;
Willow Weaving;
Coppicing;
Green Woodwork;
Pole Lathe;
Bowl Lathing;
Bow Making;
Tanning and making use of roadkill;
Home Education Sessions;
Mushroom Foraging;
Fermentation;
Blacksmithing;
Copper Work;
Rush Basket Weaving...
to name but a few....
these skills can lead people back into connection with nature,
with themselves and others,
and into gainful employment / self employment.
Boosting the failing rural economies.
- but more importantly the work done here demonstrates
how people can be rewilded to be a part of the natural world,
and how we can build resilience right here in the Forest of Dean.
The Forest is absolutely abundant with food, shelter and resources, so how is there so much poverty??
Why are areas of The Forest of Dean in the top 5% of MOST DEPRIVED in the UK?
Why are people needing to use food banks regularly - which only keep them in hardship?
Why is much of the local food sources being sent away to make MONEY for FE?
Public Land??
If this land is truly PUBLIC LAND
land belonging to
THE PEOPLE.
Then why are the people being kept OFF the land and
so disconnected
from the
that they are starving
and the housing crisis means many do not even have a roof over their heads.
Heritage Crafts for Disadvantaged Groups
Barnwood Trust have funded us over the past 3 years:
and were due to give us sustainable 3 years continuous funding to continue…
to collect local people 3- 4 days per week
10am-3pm
in our project minibus,
people living in the forest who were struggling
with problems in their lives
with mental health problems, anxiety, isolation,
drug and alcohol issues, housing issues
(all of which go hand in hand)
We brought them to this special healing woodland centre,
where we cooked together & shared locally produced, nourishing food
(All grant money staying OUT of supermarkets
& being shared with local producers & crafters)
we engaged with nature through heritage crafts
and built an amazing, self supportive community.
****
We had our ups & downs - our first time as employers was a baptism of fire
but we had found true GEMS in Fran, our session co-ordinator,
all our awesome craftspeople, and the Wildlings Holiday Club Crew…
and they do all continued to be absolutely amazing.
We individually wrote:
80+ policies - risk assessments - emergency evacuation protocols
You name it
WE HAD IT
(All published and left accessible on our policies page)
****
Could the powers that be could allow this movement to grow?
this act of rebellion,
teaching people to survive and thrive
WITHOUT the supermarkets,
WITHOUT their state benefits
WITHOUT the food banks that keep them in poverty.
A Fair & Unbiased Investigation???
Over this last 7-8 months we have been fighting for the right to a
FAIR HEARING
- when Forestry England accused us of
NEGLECTING
our responsibilities towards young people in our care.
This serious accusation
was NOT investigated properly AT ALL in our opinion.
In OUR OPINION
The result was a foregone conclusion
And we will show you the evidence of this soon…
But that aside - they gave us less than 2 weeks notice to vacate Kensley Sheds,
to tat down 8 years of love, energy and investment, on the back of a single complaint.
2 weeks over the Mid-Winter Holidays!!!
They sought to destroy what we had created.
Despite many false promises that they would be giving us a TEN YEAR LEASE.
Despite a meeting at start of December agreeing to renew our licences whilst they worked on the lease!!!
They completely stone walled us,
despite many many attempts
to negotiate a reasonable and proper exit strategy
and demonstrating our willingness to work together to resolve any issues.
All while FE claiming to the press that they were negotiating with us!
all correspondence will be published at the bottom of this page
We even had an independent HSE Officer
come in audit all of
our processes,
our procedures,
our risks assessments.
They even met with the Canadian Red Cross
to compare our ice safety standards to theirs!!
(Guess what? We did even more than the Canadians to ensure safety at all times!)
But did Forestry England wait to give us chance to complete our investigation?
Did they even do an investigation of their own
before making a decision?
NO
They had already decided the outcome,
and no amount of evidence or could make them re-assess their error,
Was it a knee jerk reaction by a risk averse government agency?
OR
Was it a pre planned agenda, to remove us as soon as an issue came up?
We will now NEVER KNOW the answer.
We only know that:
Forestry England / DEFRA
****OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS****
spent 3 X £££££
the usual amount on legal fees to win the eviction case against us.
£32,000 or thereabouts of public cash
To make sure that NO fair & unbiased investigation could happen.
Continue reading for the full lowdown of events……
Pro Bono Barrister - Hope!
It was around March 2023 that we managed to enlist the help of a Pro-bono Barrister
from the Environmental Law Foundation
JUDICIAL REVIEW??
It was also around this time we learned about Judicial Reviews
this Barrister was not keen - he said the process had to be started within
3 months of the ‘decision’ in question.
But ideally much sooner
Although we did ask him to start this process
- he was more keen on a round table
and the time simply lapsed - there was nothing else we could do
But it did seem like we were making progress
a round table meeting was on the cards,
FE didn't take us up on the first round dates we suggested,
we had suggested 4 different times / dates within a short timescale
and we waited patiently…..
just as we'd been waiting patiently for them to create our agreements for the last 2 years,
when they told us / (lied to us??) that they were short staffed
and would get around to the lease as soon as they could...
anyway
Again we thought we were getting somewhere....
(finally, an actual conversation was going to happen......????)
Then FE decided to pull the rug completely…..
out of the blue
just when we were waiting to for them to confirm which dates they could make
They began formal, legal eviction proceedings
- with very rude correspondence saying they had waited long enough
- that we had had long enough to GET OUT and they would wait NO LONGER!!
They’d waited long enough????
We’d been waiting years for them to produce the promised 10 year lease
But there was a glimmer of hope
By this time we had received some amazing advice from
a Para-Legal at the ASS (Advisory Service for Squatters)
about a public law caveat….
(Forestry England / DEFRA
Being a Public Body
means that this falls under Public Law)
We were advised that:
if we could prove that we had a
LEGITIMATE EXPECTATION
that our licence for Kensley Sheds would be renewed
OR
that we
LEGITIMATELY EXPECTED
a lease to be provided....
Then Forestry England
***BY LAW***
Would HAVE to complete a
FULL FAIR & UNBIASED investigation....
BOOM!!!
That is ALL we wanted
***a fair investigation and trial***
and surely with all the evidence we had it would be super easy to prove????
Our Day in Court
So we went ahead and drafted our own defence bundle documents
Representing ourselves at the first hearing…
The hearing was scheduled for 15 minutes as a preliminary hearing, to find out if there was any defence to be heard.
All we needed to do was show the judge that there was indeed a defence, to move on to a full hearing.
We had been receiving parcel after parcel, papers after papers from their solicitors.
We received around 8 carbon copy court bundles,
1 for everyone delivered on site at Kensley, and more sent to our company address.
Then with 24 hours to go / the day before..
they were all served onto us again
with a new schedule of costs
hidden among the gigantic copied bundles in their shiny white lever arch files!!
Maybe this is indeed protocol,
but the whole thing is pretty intimidating
Yet we were also excited for our
DAY IN COURT
to put our justice system to the test!
We arrived in court…
Suited, booted, all made up & ready - 45 minutes early!
Introduced ourselves to the other side’s Solicitor and watched as their
legal team convened in a private side room - 3 of them - partners of the firm!
Despite us asking to ‘seek terms’ on arrival
(as we are told is the usual custom between barristers)
they stayed in their private side room chatting
….until 5 minutes before the hearing
Only then did their Barrister come to speak to us,
and wanting to discuss these private & sensitive matters
in the public hallway!
We requested a private room from the Court Usher, which was no problem at all
Once in the room,
Emma sat opposite a mean, dinosaur looking man,
balding, scowling, in his 50’s and looking at her like scum!
He slapped another huge bundle onto the table of around 50 A4 sheets saying:
‘this is case law that states if there is no chance of winning, the judge should award possession in the first instance.
This is what we will be strongly pushing for today’
Emma asked:
‘Is your client willing to negotiate terms?’
He said:
‘The offer is that: IF you get out by the end of this week,
we will not seek costs to the sum of £12,000 which have been entered against you’
Emma said:
’We simply can’t do that, we need until the end of the summer,
is your client willing to negotiate’
He said:
’NO we will not negotiate,
you have had long enough and must vacate immediately.’
and that was it
They would rather spend public money attempting to squash us,
rather than negotiate a fair, reasonable, and humane exit strategy.
Well - stuck between a rock and a hard place…
Our partners of 8 years, who promised us we would be there for a further 10 years
- now completely unwilling to negotiate or give a little time…
A few months deemed too much, when we had been waiting patiently for years!!!
Throwing EVERYTHING at us, to stop a fair and unbiased investigation taking place.
***The message was simple***
Get out on our terms now OR risk FINANCIAL RUIN
We had done EVERYTHING we could think of to negotiate outside of court
To explain our position
Buy some more time for the project…
They knew we needed time to find alternative premises and move the community elsewhere, without disruption.
But they didn’t want that.
They wanted Ultimate Disruption.
GET OUT
OR
WE WILL RUIN YOU , personally
as well as your project
The message was very, very clear.
This was a
Gross abuse of their power
The money they have control of
Public money being used
to STOP any reasonable conversation
STOP
any fair and unbiased investigation happening.
Bullies
Bullies of the worst kind.
St Anthony!!!
NB: A story popped into my head at this point.
I had spent a month studying St Anthony for a Waldorf Home Education Project with my son.
I didn’t like the Christian God based story so did some more digging to learn about the man and his actual life,
as best we know…
Turns out he was a mega DUDE - in my opinion!
St Anthony travelled without any possessions and would not take cash from people
- only food when needed.
Living a simple, humble and basic lifestyle
and spreading his simple message of unity love and peace.
He said:
‘Why would I want possessions?
To have nothing is to truly be free’
After hearing recent stories about other people
who had wanted to ‘take on’ the ‘powers that be’
whether government or others with infinite supplies of money…
feeling that justice should prevail and that the legal system
could be used by anyone to have a fair trial
Only then to be threatened
with being charged huge costs from the ‘other side’
People who had worked hard to buy a house,
or had a small amount of savings kept as a nest egg for their family & children
risking loosing this security…
What a difficult position to be in…
Wanting to fight for justice
Believing in your cause
But not able to stick YOUR OWN head above the parapit
for fear of the financial implications
The loss of security
NOT just YOU
But your children, and family.
Who then?
Who can take a case to court
WITHOUT FEAR
Fear of being charged astronomical costs?
Only the people who already have nothing!
(Or someone with a spare £30k-£60k lying around in the bank!)
People with nothing that can be stolen from them.
No Homes, No Land,
No savings, nothing.
True Freedom!
And so it felt all the more important to play our part
Beating the bullies & oppressors
At least BE HEARD
And not submit before we’d started.
If we had to pay £5 a week forever to pay off debts / go bankrupt, liquidate the Community Interest Company
In that moment right there,
we knew that the bullying and intimidation going on as part of our legal justice system
is a part of what makes the world so unfair and unjust for us little people.
We wanted to stand up for ALL community projects.
Hold our Public Servants ACCOUNTABLE
Accountable to the promises they make to us little people, peasants, plebs!
So in we went.
We spoke our piece eloquently and concisely, referring to the materials in the bundle.
They argued & fought hard
Pressurising the judge
We explained that we could gather more evidence than what was in the bundle but we had done our best thus far,
and guess what??
…..
WE WON!!!
……..
Won the right to continue to a further 90 minute hearing....
With strong advice from the judge to instruct a solicitor for the next stage!
Again we would have to convince the judge that we had a reasonable chance
so that we could take it to a full hearing
A day or more
With witness statements,
and full evidence pack being picked through / Cross examined etc...
Brilliant
In essence this would be our Judicial Review
Our Fair & Unbiased Investigation
But we had to get through the next stage….
We knew that the legal system is not always fair and is somewhat stacked against the little guys, but wanted to put it to the test....
……for the community we had built,
…..knowing how much they relied on us,
…..and:
in the interest of FAIRNESS
- holding our PUBLIC SERVANTS accountable to the promises they make to us peasants....
Evidence we had:
Emailed written promises from FE's Estates Department saying they were offering us a 10 year lease and would draft heads of terms .
Meeting minutes from start of December 2022 saying they were renewing our 12 month licence to give time to properly draft the longer term agreements.
Lottery Heritage Fund legacy documents published on FE website, saying 'The Rewild Project are continuing at Kensley Sheds with other funding
Original grant application documents showing that FE promised the Lottery that the money for Kensley was to create a LASTING LEGACY for the community.
Previous licence agreements going back a number of years showing how it was renewed sometimes 3 months into the agreement - because there always was a legitimate expectation of a rolling ongoing agreement....
Surely all of this adds up to us LEGITIMATELY EXPECTING our agreements to continue???
Surely it was LEGITIMATE for us to expect a public body to uphold their promises.....
********
A Solicitor & A Barrister!!!
There was quite a bit of phoning around - I learned that the area of law we were now delving into, was LITIGATION.
And it is not that easy to find representation at such short notice…
Was it because they didn’t want to take on Forestry England / DEFRA / The Government?
We were getting some great advice and legal support from afar, but no-one close enough to represent us on the day…
But eventually we did find a fab Solicitor from Feakes
And the defence was drafted
Our own costs entered - loss of earnings, our time so far, lost funding - did you know it costs £30,000.
YES - £30k - Thirty Thousand Pounds
To enter a claim for the £300,000 we had lost in funding as a result of FE’s Unfair & Biased Investigation?
So all we could afford to do was enter a claim for £5,000 which cost us £250.
What message is this from our legal system?
ONLY THE RICH GET TO CLAIM THEIR FULL COSTS BACK!!
COURT HEARING #2 - CRUNCH TIME
We had a barrister and all the evidence was listed in the Court Bundle.
We’d had their applications to the court
They’d had our defence
And then they had a chance to enter their answer to our defence
(That’s how it works!)
So we already knew:
That they were trying to argue that it wasn't even public law,
they were simply a private landlord!!!
our public body - trying to wriggle out of their public duties!
claiming the public land they were managing
in the interest of the public
should be litigated as
private law!!!
and that our agreement simply came to an end (with the efluction of time)
That there was never any inferred expectation
that we would continue our community work from Kensley Sheds into 2023
And so none of the public law
arguments should be valid!!!!!
Dirty rotten *****!!
Thankfully that one DIDN’T stand up....
But STOP just wait a minute….
before we race on to the actual court room shenanigans…..
They had another curve ball to throw at us right outside the hearing!!
Seems to be a regular tactic of theirs!!
Well what else do you pay big money to
your law firm for DEFRA?
Attempt to DERAIL your opponents at every opportunity
Go on son
That’s the spirit!!!
So what do you think they had up their sleeve this time?
They called into question the validity of our HSE Officer!!!
They claimed….
that WE HAD CLAIMED…..
that she worked for
The Health & Safety Executive
As in - The Government Department - HSE!!
And they had an email FROM the Government HSE Department
saying that any email not from a .gov.uk email
wouldn’t be from them….
This was confusing
It always is confusing to be accused of something randomly untrue…
We certainly didn’t think she worked for the government
And didn’t tell anyone else that she did!
I thought we had made clear that she was
AN INDEPENDANT HSE OFFICER
Who did a FULL AUDIT
Of our:
Risk Assessments
Control Measures
Emergency Protocols
What would be the point of us lying?
How or Why would we pretend
we’d had a government agency come in???
In fact during the Safeguarding AMM (Allegation Management Meeting) process
Our HSE Officer had contacted
the government HSE for further clarification on some points!!
So there we were…
I am racking my brain & sending messages to try and work out if there was some mistake somewhere
Something said that could be misconstrued.
We had entered the whole investigation as part of our defence, so we definitely wasn’t hiding anything!
Confirmation came through that everything was indeed as I thought.
AND
Another question came back….
‘How did they get the email address of our HSE Officer?’
Turns out….
When she made a complaint to Forestry England
The person dealing with the complaints
decided to share her personal data with their legal team
WITHOUT PERMISSION
Something that is now being followed up with the Data Commissioner
as a BREACH of DATA PROTECTION.
Not that they care - they are the government
- why should they care about following the same data protection laws as us peasants?
- the laws are only there to keep us in check - obviously.
When we get too big for our boots and expect fairness
- then all angles are exhausted to stamp us back down!
Plus
If we got through this hearing, and proceeded to a full trial
They would be able to call her onto the stand
to be cross examined
Her qualifications could be called into question then surely?
But nooooo
That would be following a fair and due process wouldn’t it?
And they wanted to squash us ASAP
Call our integrity into question
create doubt in the judges mind as soon as possible….
Into the court room
We had an amazing number of supporters turn out for this hearing.
The ever amazing Fran drive the project minibus
And around 10 long term participants came along
to watch from the public gallery.
We didn’t get chance to speak directly to the judge this time
It was all Barristers
Partly this was a relief - but I think it is also very disempowering to not have a voice.
They went over all the bundle & evidence
The HSE Report and calling into question the validity
(How can the evidence only brought up that day even be used?)
The judge apparently did not know that someone can be a qualified HSE person,
without working for the actual Health & Safety Executive,
Government Department.
(Why were we even discussing this now?
- To try and discredit our defence I suppose grrrrrrr)
Turns out Forestry England even
EMPLOY
THEIR OWN HSE OFFICER
But in court did not know that HSE officers EXIST outside of the actual HSE…
Maybe if they’d have know that they employ a HSE Officer
- they mighty have asked for them to investigate their ‘concerns’ about our ice activity.
And might have even found out something factual!!
the Public VS Private argument
Came next, long winded and I wont go into detail
But
Thankfully everyone agreed in the end
-that it IS a public law matter - FFS!
Promises should never be relied upon
So next they argued that these written and verbal promises
should NEVER have been relied upon....
They actually LAUGHED at us in the court room,
saying how silly it was for us to RELY upon these mere promises...
They said...
Who would actually RELY upon these vague promises?
-IF they had been serious they would have been acted upon
& drafted the heads of terms!!!
UNBELEIVABLE
So basically they were saying that:
IT IS NOT LEGITIMATE TO TRUST A PUBLIC BODY AT THEIR WORD!
We didn’t give much weight to this argument
Even though their Barrister was laughing at us
It felt like a really stupid thing to suggest
After all
- why would Legitimate Expectation
even be a ‘thing’
If we’d already had these next steps after the years of promises and patient waiting
If they HAD already taken the action they promised they were about to take
and drafted the Heads of Terms
Then we would have the lease
Not an eviction order…
BUT
Even more unbelievably…
The judge agreed with them
The Judge apparently thought that we had no hope of a trial!!!
AND WE
LOST
Silly silly us.....
All these years, thinking that our public bodies,
and public servants can be trusted at their word........
(i know, it sounds so stupid when written down here....
everyone know our government are corrupt self serving liars!!)
But
We had invested all of our time,
all of our energy and our resources into Kensley Sheds
because we BELIEVED our public body
when they said…
when they told us….
that they would give us a 10 year lease....
We actually BELIEVED
that there was some chain of accountability
built in somewhere.....
But nooooo.....
There isn't,
and it was a sad, sad day....
And once they had won and the eviction date was set - the matter of costs came...
our legal fee's came to around £3k
- which we still need to pay!
But theirs...
well,
- they threw the highest paid barristers,
and partners of the firm at us,
absolutely no expense spared!!
£32,000
in legal fees they wanted the judge to make an order for us to pay!!
Our Barrister argued as best he could
and pointed out how astronomical these fees were
- and managed to have them reduced to
£15,000...
they should have been paid on 1st August,
but we just don’t have that kind of money lying around...
We had crowd funded £2k for our fees
- but due to an error,
everyone was refunded
and we got nothing...
So we are asking and pleading once again for you to
dig deep
and help us pay at least OUR OWN legal fees,
to the sum of £3k
- it feels only fair that the legal team who fought for justice should be paid.
SO - What Now?
Well you might imagine that we are devastated…
That our world has been torn apart…
But maybe we are not so sad after all…
We are actually quite resilient and adaptable, as things go!!
Kensley Sheds was only 1 place
However nice it was..
There surely are some important lessons to be learned?
We were under no illusions that the system is stacked against us
It didn’t stop us fighting for what was right though…
The results matter less than the intentions and actions.
When we prayed,
and drummed for guidance each full moon drumming circle…
We had asked the universe
for the best possible outcome
for the highest good for all....
And we believe
that the universe provides
and the great mother
guides us to where we need to be....
Our job is to simply take the next best step,
and stay open to possibilities
To be totally honest
The last few years running The Rewild Project,
There has been
A LOT of computer work,
Round the clock…
Week after week….
Month after month….
sometimes there seemed an end in sight,
But then there would be something else, and something else…
To make all of our amazing mixed ability
Heritage Crafts & Land-Based Skills Sessions
happen…
it has been quite a slog
Like being on a hamster wheel
Keeping up
But never quite getting to a place where we can truly follow our passion
and enjoy life!
How did it come to that???
All we set out to do was connect people to nature,
But here we were NOT living our truth!!
Worrying about payroll and policies arghhhhh….
NOW are actually feeling so much lighter
and despite being majorly burnt out,
knowing that we need some time to rest and recover
we are soooo sooooo happy to be back on the road
and open to possibilities..
FREE from bureaucracy,
FREE from overlords (somewhat)
and FREE to…
REALLY REWILD OURSELVES
once again....
We know now that:
Rewilding cannot be delivered
within the confines of a broken system of domestication.
True rewilding
is about
FREE Autonomous Spaces
and Grass ROOT,
Social Change.
Watch this space…
we are spending time integrating the lessons learned -
Resting…
Recuperating…
Reconnecting…
Rewilding…
Travelling..
Skill sharing…
and formulating our next exciting steps…..
Big love to everyone for all of your support so far.
Please leave your comments below…