A conservation group could be evicted from its home over a row about taking children walking over a frozen lake.
Forestry England said it would not renew the Rewild Project’s licence to work on its land after the community interest company organised the walk in December. The licence expired at the end of 2022.
The Rewild Project said the activity was a safe way to teach children about conditions in very cold weather, but Forestry England said it had not given permission for the walk and that the event “undermined” its trust in the organisation.
Forestry England said the activity was “particularly concerning” given that four boys died after falling into a frozen lake in Birmingham days before the outing by the Rewild Project.
The CIC said in a Facebook post that two people had complained after seeing the group on the river but insisted that, because the ice was so thick, no one had been in any danger.
Defending the activity last month, the Rewild Project said the walk was “an important sensory lesson in what thick safe ice feels like” – designed to make sure that if children “went exploring on their own they would have more idea of the difference” between safe and unsafe conditions.
The CIC insisted that “no one was in any danger at any time”, adding “this experience [from the adult guide] is key and the kids learned loads”.
The Rewild Project said that Forestry England had “never been the easiest of partners to work with” but stressed that the CIC had “always done our utmost” to meet requests made by the landowner.
A Forestry England spokesperson told Third Sector: “Due to the concerning events of Friday 16 December 2022, we wrote to the directors of the Rewild Project before Christmas, suspending the licence agreement they had to carry out traditional land-based skills at Kensley Sheds with immediate effect.
“Forestry England has investigated the incident and concluded a director of the Rewild Community Interest Company did take a group of young people out onto Woorgreens Lake in the Forest of Dean.
“The group did not seek prior permission to undertake this activity and no approval or permission was given by Forestry England as the land owner.
“Forestry England had allowed the Rewild project to use Kensley Sheds for traditional land-based skills training.
“This agreement was by way of an annual licence to use the buildings on a shared occupancy basis. That annual licence was due to expire on 31 December 2022.”
It added: “Regrettably, the incident and Rewild’s response to it has undermined the trust that Forestry England had in Rewild, and as such the licence to use Kensley Sheds has not been renewed.”
The Rewild Project did not respond to requests for comment but its social media shows that it remains at its existing home and is campaigning against Forestry England’s decision.