Eyebrook Reservoir Access
The following is a brief outline of the current position as detailed in recent contact from the Management Company.
The society will be holding further discussions going forward and we are hoping to include a formal visit to the Reservoir in our 2019 programme
As you will all be aware from previous notifications in Fieldfare, on the website and emails RNHS along with other groups such as LROS and the Eyebrook Wildlife Group had its open access permit withdrawn following changes to the lease issued to the new management of the reservoir. The access points to the reservoir were re-enforced and patrols actively asked people to leave the reservoir grounds.
Over the last few months there has been ongoing contact to see if any changes to this position were possible but without any apparent success. Not having heard anything for a little while I wrote directly to the management company to enquire about the possibilities.
To some extent the position has not changed but they have negotiated a position where they can, on a restricted basis, accept applications from organised groups, individual visits are still precluded.
Below is a copy of part of the response I received,
“As you are probably aware the owners of the Eyebrook estate, Tata Steel UK have leased the management of the site to Fishery Management (UK) Ltd. In the lease Tata stipulated that the estate is private with no public access. Therefore, to comply to our lease we are unable to grant access to members of the public. Furthermore, with much of the site been designated a SSSI (Special Site Of Scientific Interest) we have legal obligations to ensure we manage those areas in line with the requirements set out within the SSSI management plan, unfortunately that again does not allow public access.
However, after discussions with Tata Steel we are now in a position where we are able to accept applications from organised groups & associations to visit the Eyebrook.
We cannot guarantee every application will be granted or full access to the estate will always be available as its dependent on the time of year, work being carried out on the estate & availability of our staff.
Uncontrolled public access will not be able to happen at Eyebrook.
I would like to thank your society members for being respectful towards the situation and we look forward to working with yourself and society members in the future.”
I am proposing to meet with the management company as I still feel it is worthwhile maintaining a relationship with them going forward.
RNHS would however like to ask members to continue to respect the access restrictions as this will no doubt benefit us in the future.
Peter Scott