Will Forest City destroy the countryside?

No. Forest City sets aside 12,000 acres—more than a quarter of the site—as a permanent nature reserve, alongside a 1,600-acre reservoir with natural wetland edges. The land today is almost entirely intensive arable farmland, which supports far less wildlife than the woodland, meadow and marsh that will replace it on that quarter.

Every ancient and veteran tree on the site is retained. The reserve is designed for species we hope to bring back, subject to licences and ecological advice. Rewilding projects like Knepp show what former farmland can become in a couple of decades; this plan does it on more than three times that ground, protected under Nature Covenants, and paid for by the city rather than the taxpayer.