Rental of woodland for one weekend.

[Dexter's Shed]

Spodger
Don't be so aggressive - OCP is entitled to his views.

I must agree that the thought of 350 guests in my woodland filled me with horror.

well said

[oldclaypaws]

As William has explained everyone is arriving by Taxi, theres no HGV's going to turn up, all our observations are apparently ridiculous tosh and you are so keen to find him a venue, surely Splodger you are the ideal host for this event? If not, what are your objections to having it in YOUR wood, surely its a great idea that you'll be happy to help with? How could you possibly justify turning him away?

While you're confirming to William how eager you are to accommodate him and his 349 friends, perhaps you'd also like to tell him about your unfortunate personal experience at having caught the very serious condition of Lyme's disease while in your wood, although apparently 'The idea that walking in the woods is an inherently dangerous activity is beyond laughable', so I'm not sure he'd pay too much attention.

[William323]

It seems that OCP regards him/herself as the self appointed Judge Dredd terms of the law on 'inappropriate activity'. The strange thing is I see hedge cutting going all all summer with the resulting impact on birds or HS2? From what I understand some of the best wildlife areas are on MOD weapons ranges? Run a search on it if you don't believe me.
The planned weekend is the bank holiday weekend in August, quite late in the season I should imagine, and certainly well past the glorious 12th. We're not exactly going out tooled to the hilt to wipe out wildlife. We're just going to the woods for a weekend wedding party.
In the whole scheme of things how much damage will this do to the countryside? From what I read the greatest damage to woodland is being done by deer.
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcpn6.pd ... /fcpn6.pdf
http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 23088.html
On the other hand The Spectator recons sheep are the greatest cause of damage to the countryside.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/892 ... ide-sheep/
On the other hand we have to top ten threats according to the Mail reporting the Environment Agency. Much to my surprise wedding parties were not included.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... named.html
If people allowed the countryside to be used for leisure purposes then more people would use it and there would be more money going in to preserve it. Just after the end of apartheid the South African government looked at the land and thought what can we do with it to generate income? Whatever they thought of, the best of the rest of the atlernatives generated 1/6th of the revenue of tourism. The more money/tourists that go to the countryside the greater the value it will have and the more it will be preserved. This holier than thou attitude is party why I spend my holidays out of the UK.
To be honest, the odd person will be pissing/fertilising by trees rather than waiting for the portaloo. I suspect the noise generated will be greater than that of a tractor or combine harvester. How come they don't disturb birds? We will be adding value to the local economy over the weekend in terms of paying for the site and no doubt buying from the local shops. The countryside is there to be enjoyed as well as farmed and different people have different ways of doing that.
We really will go to extreme lengths not to piss people off. However, there will always be self appointed 'guardians' for whom anything they don't do will be inappropriate.
18 months ago we had a similar problem in Scotland. It was a Robin Hood themed party. When people heard there would be broadswords, claymores, bows and arrows and a bouncy castle they thought we were going to reenact the battle of Colloden so it had to be held in the bride's parents' back garden and the cops shut it down at 10pm. Sad but true. BTW no-one was even scratched at that wedding.

[Dexter's Shed]

We're just going to the woods for a weekend wedding party. = or not judging by the response so far



We will be adding value to the local economy over the weekend in terms of paying for the site and no doubt buying from the local shops.=but you want a wood away from civilisation, yet you expect there to be local shops??




18 months ago we had a similar problem in Scotland. It was a Robin Hood themed party. When people heard there would be broadswords, claymores, bows and arrows and a bouncy castle they thought we were going to reenact the battle of Colloden so it had to be held in the bride's parents' back garden and the cops shut it down at 10pm.= did you not apply for a TEN then?

.

[William323]

We're just going to the woods for a weekend wedding party. = or not judging by the response so far



We will be adding value to the local economy over the weekend in terms of paying for the site and no doubt buying from the local shops.=but you want a wood away from civilisation, yet you expect there to be local shops??




18 months ago we had a similar problem in Scotland. It was a Robin Hood themed party. When people heard there would be broadswords, claymores, bows and arrows and a bouncy castle they thought we were going to reenact the battle of Colloden so it had to be held in the bride's parents' back garden and the cops shut it down at 10pm.= did you not apply for a TEN then?

.

Without stating the obvious you won't get a TEN for someone's back garden unless it is a stately home miles from anyone else. You hold weddings and don't understand the licensing laws in the UK?? Last stop off for people coming to the party will be the last town before the party and people will buy stuff there. To most people this would be obvious. The party will go ahead perhaps not the way the bride wants as with the Robin hood party. Such is life.

[splodger]

hope you find something suitable

[oldclaypaws]

I also hope you find a good way of celebrating what should be a joyous occasion, wherever its held, hopefully in a way which makes you all happy without affecting nature too adversely. It can be done, we had a fantastic alternative wedding and reception, in a town.

You've clearly done some research and made some very valid points, all of which I'd agree with. There is though a common factor which you seem to have missed. Yes, MOD shooting grounds are full of wildlife, but there are actually very few people there due to the unexploded ordnance, so no cats, cars, mowing, pesticides or other human threats. Yes Deer are a big issue- because humans wiped out all the predators and altered the balance. Where wolves have been reintroduced such as Yosemite, the trees have sprung back rapidly. Yes, sheep eat all the young shrubs and trees and cause erosion. North Africa used to be lush and forested before herds of goats were let loose to graze it, now its desert- the same has happened in much of Asia. Yes, exotic species such as Mink and Knotweed are causing huge damage- but they were released as a consequence of human activity.

The link is human activity affecting a natural delicate balance. As a species, we put ourselves first and don't consider the impact on other living creatures, and are destroying the very ecosystem we depend on.

There is an old but very profound Japanese Haiku poem by Basho;

An old pond

A frog leeps in

Splash !

What it actually is saying is that here is a picture of tranquility, a creature disturbs it and there is a ripple effect, so in effect every action has a consequence on other things. Simple but profound philosophy- consider the consequences of your actions on other creatures, preferably before doing it.

Its for that reason I never fly abroad for my holidays- the carbon footprint of a flight to an (unspoilt?) holiday location is as much energy as you'd otherwise use in a year at home. -Does that matter? - Seen the news about the effects of man-made climate change in the Thames Valley today?

"Splash".

[jennysmate]

This holier than thou attitude is party why I spend my holidays out of the UK.

This begs the question, why not look for venues abroad then ? I hear the south africa gov. encourages this
On a practical note how much space would 350 partygoers need ? The biggest clearing in my 7 acre wood would hold half a dozen at most.

[Dexter's Shed]

Without stating the obvious you won't get a TEN for someone's back garden unless it is a stately home miles from anyone else. You hold weddings and don't understand the licensing laws in the UK?? Last stop off for people coming to the party will be the last town before the party and people will buy stuff there. To most people this would be obvious. The party will go ahead perhaps not the way the bride wants as with the Robin hood party. Such is life.

firstly, without stating the obvious, no where in this post do I state that I hold weddings in my woods, read my post's slower if that helps
secondly, without stating the obvious, in your above post concerning Scotland, you wrote it as though, once the locals heard about it, it then had to be held in a garden,

[William323]

Without stating the obvious you won't get a TEN for someone's back garden unless it is a stately home miles from anyone else. You hold weddings and don't understand the licensing laws in the UK?? Last stop off for people coming to the party will be the last town before the party and people will buy stuff there. To most people this would be obvious. The party will go ahead perhaps not the way the bride wants as with the Robin hood party. Such is life.

firstly, without stating the obvious, no where in this post do I state that I hold weddings in my woods, read my post's slower if that helps
secondly, without stating the obvious, in your above post concerning Scotland, you wrote it as though, once the locals heard about it, it then had to be held in a garden,

Apologies confused you with someone else who holds weddings I was in a rush to get to work. We looked all over Scotland for a venue all were rejected due to swords and bows and arrows.