Become a charity we must. It will allow us to enter into long term agreements with landowners, apply for grants and funding and get insurance for our volunteers. We also get a 75% discount on trees from the Woodland Trust if we are a charity.

I must admit that I am happier with a billhook than an application form; especially one that spans many sections and requires supplementary evidence. Still it is clear that to make our dream a reality, applying to the charity commission to become a registered charity is our next step. So I create myself a login an start with question 1, knowing that once question 1 is answered I can move on to question 2; and eventually I will run out of questions.

OK, I’m being melodramatic, its quite straight forward, the hardest part needing some evidence or expert advice of the value of the land for conservation and the benefit of doing so. Luckily our growing network of friends were able to help out and pointed me in the direction of TVERC http://www.tverc.org and DEFRA’s magic map https://magic.defra.gov.uk/

It turns out that all of the river Kennet tributaries are already designated as SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). The lakes and reed bed wetlands area of Thames Water’s land is also a local wildlife area. This is a major bonus as it backs our case up beyond doubt and highlights what a real treasure this little pocket of land is.

The report from TVERC and DEFRA maps will be submitted with our application to the Charity Commission.

Another afternoon away from the office for a stroll, in what was this time, a much wetter place. About 1′ deep too wet in places!

The council was a similar experience to our previous meetings, where all our ideas were met very positively. Again it would be necessary to be a registered charity and have insurance in place for our volunteers. They would like us to have formal risk assessments in place but nothing more onerous than we would require ourselves anyway.

The outcome of the meeting is that we can start the river and hedge projects immediately and have the thumbs up for the trees project once we have provided a bit more detail on what species where.

Another welly boot meeting on the ground but this time with Thames Water. I am really enjoying this new found alternative format for business meetings to the office, as it was another chance to get some fresh air in daylight hours and appreciate nature on a nice walk. This was also the first time I was ‘officially’ allowed to walk around the site, or at least as much of it that we could physically get to.

Again the company was great too. The head of their delegation was a very positive and bouncing personality, who was delighted to talk about the environment at length! They were accompanied by a senior ecologist and the site manager.

The meeting was very positive, which was great because I was expecting to have to sell this idea to them. The idea that they were going to just let us turn 35 acres of their land into a public access nature reserve. Turns out they were actually rather happy that I wanted to.

We happen to have approached them at a moment in time where Thames Water are currently reviewing all of their property for potential to benefit nature through management. This has been done before, the most well known is perhaps Kempton Nature Reserve https://corporate.thameswater.co.uk/about-us/community/great-days-out/recreational-sites/Kempton-nature-reserve

The next step now is for us to become a formal charity. Thames Water will need us to a be a legal entity as an organisation so that we can enter into a long term agreement with them on the land, get insurance for our volunteers and receive funding.

We had a welly boot meeting on site with the Environment Agency. We walked around the whole area that our projects cover. It was obvious they share the same passion as we do for the environment and were incredibly supportive of our plans. It was particularly useful to understand their approach to managing the watercourses from an environmental and flood perspective; and how our plans might dovetail with them.

We all really enjoyed the walk too as it was a chance to escape our offices during daylight hours and explore a very beautiful wilderness.

They have offered some practical assistance such as materials we may need, but perhaps more valuable their help and advice navigating how we do all this with the right permissions in place and in accordance with regulations.

I suspect we have found some new friends, that will enjoy being involved in something so close to our hearts.