eAlert: 3 October 2022
Published 6 October 2022
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2022
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ealert-3-october-2022/ealert-3-october-2022
1. Service security warning – will be resolved imminently
We are aware that since Monday of this week (3 October), security warning messages are appearing on our systems. This is due to an unforeseen delay in finalising paperwork with external suppliers for security certificate renewal. Please be assured that it is safe to override warning messages and proceed to use the services, there is no security risk attached.
We are pursuing an imminent solution with our suppliers which we expect to implement today (Wednesday 5 October). Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused.
2. Have you applied for a felling licence using our Felling Licence Service?
If so, we would love to hear your views.
We are conducting some research with users of the Felling Licence Service to learn how we could make improvements to the Felling Licence Service in the future.
If you would like to provide your feedback you can access the survey online, its quick and easy to complete!
We will be talking to a variety of service users including customers and stakeholders following this survey to as part of our process in making improvements to the Felling Licence Service in the near future.
Complete the Felling Licence Service Survey
3. Forestry Conference: building resilience together
Book your tickets to join the fifth annual conference.
Wednesday, 12 October, 9am–5pm
Grandstand, Newbury Racecourse
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), Grown in Britain, and the Forestry Commission invite you to join them at this year’s Forestry Conference! The theme is ‘building resilience together’ and will feature sessions on topics such as plant health, carbon, and woodland management, among others.
Join foresters, land managers and landowners from across the area and hear from a range of experts and case studies, share experiences, and network with peers. Forestry Commission Chief Executive Richard Stanford will be speaking at the conference.
The conference is kindly supported by Pryor & Rickett Silviculture and Wessex Woodland Management Ltd.
Book your tickets now on the CLA website
4. Hot and dry weather – support for our customers
Find out if you may be eligible and how to contact us.
In last week’s eAlert we shared our support package for grant agreement holders who have lost a high proportion of trees planted during the winter of 21/22 due to the hot and dry weather in our GOV.UK guide: Hot and dry weather: temporary support for trees and woodland in 2022
Extraordinary Payments for Replanting in Exceptional Circumstances (EPREC) will pay a standard cost to supply and plant trees to replace those lost due to this summer’s exceptionally hot and dry weather.
Forestry Commission and RPA have been contacting agreement holders for the following grants that we believe may be eligible for support:
- England Woodland Creation Offer
- Urban Tree Challenge Fund
- Local Authority Treescapes Fund
- Tree Health Pilot
- HS2 Woodland Fund
- Woodland Carbon Fund
- Countryside Stewardship: Woodland Creation Grant and Tree Heath Restoration - Countryside Stewardship agreement holders will be contacted directly by RPA in due course.
We have been writing to agreement holders since last week, if you have not been contacted (Agents, please note that we may have contacted the agreement holders) by Monday 10 October 2022, and think that you are eligible for support please get in touch using the contact details in our GOV.UK guide.
5. Historic Environment support for EWCO application processing
New three-month pilot launching 17 October 2022.
A new 3 month pilot will launch on 17 October 2022. The trial will see Forestry Commission Historic Environment Advisers provide advice and information when a local historic environment service does not respond to an applicant or Forestry Commission notifications for a EWCO proposal within 28 days. Response times for applicants wishing to pursue a EWCO application should improve through the pilot. Two key points of the trial include:
- if an applicant does not receive a response from a local historic environment service within 28 days, they can submit their EWCO application. Evidence to show the local historic environment has been contacted will be required
- a new template letter for use by applicants has been drafted
For further information please contact EWCO@forestrycommission.gov.uk.
6. Seed Sourcing Grant - sign up to the webinar
The Forestry Commission will host a webinar on Tuesday 11 October 2022 to help with the application process. More information about the grant is available on the GOV.UK page Seed Sourcing Grant.