The woodland at Hole Farm near Great Warley, Brentwood in Essex is at the heart of the project’s plans to boost the wildlife and increase habitats in the area. Under Forestry England’s care, the 100-hectare site will become home to around 150,000 new trees and provide homes to thousands of native species, from mammals to invertebrates and birds to fungi.

The green space will be designed for people too, and could include facilities such as a café, education centre and a community orchard. A range of provisions for outdoor activities are also being considered, and new public paths may link to a footbridge across the M25 to create an uninterrupted walking and cycling route between other nearby woodlands, such as Folkes Lane Woodland, Thorndon Country Park and the wider area of the Thames Chase Community Forest.

Forestry England will carry out a consultation later this year to seek the public’s feedback on plans for the site.

The new community woodland is part of Highways England’s commitment to increase biodiversity along England’s Strategic Road Network by 2050 and will go ahead regardless of consent being granted for the Lower Thames Crossing.

Mike Seddon, Chief Executive, Forestry England, said:

We know how important high-quality, local greenspace is to people as well as the country’s ambition to plant new woods and forests. We have been creating and managing community woodlands for decades and are excited to be working with Highways England and looking forward to hearing from the local community. This will become a great addition to the nation’s woodlands.

Matt Palmer, Executive Director for the Lower Thames Crossing, said:

The Lower Thames Crossing is the most ambitious road scheme in a generation, because as well as improving your journey and supporting 22,000 jobs, it will enhance the natural environment and leave a positive green legacy for our neighbours.

The plans for Hole Farm community woodland are part of our commitments to increase biodiversity alongside our major routes and I look forward to working with Forestry England to create a green space for the whole local community to enjoy for generations.

Councillor Chris Hossack, the Leader of Brentwood Borough Council, said:

Brentwood Borough Council is excited to support the Lower Thames Crossing in the establishment and provision of a new country park and the planting of 150,000 trees within the borough. This major acquisition will provide improvements in biodiversity, carbon capture and air quality while extending the outdoor leisure, recreational and educational provisions in Brentwood. This opportunity is great news for Brentwood but also provides a major boost to the greening plans for the South Essex Region.

The new woodland complements the project’s existing environmental initiatives that will enhance and connect habitats across the area. This will be achieved by returning farmland along the proposed route to semi-natural habitats including species-rich grassland and wildflower meadows.

Elsewhere along the route, another 260 hectares of new woodland will be planted bringing the total to 360 hectares, and the project will significantly increase the number of ponds, watercourses, and hedgerows in the area. These areas will be connected by seven new green bridges and 42km of new pathways, allowing people to easily move around and enjoy the open spaces in the area.

The site will be managed by Forestry England, the country’s largest land manager, on behalf of Highways England. Forestry England is supporting the government’s target of planting 30,000 hectares of new woodland every year by 2025 to help deliver ambitious plans to become net-carbon zero by 2050. The new green space will be the largest community woodland in the East of England.

Highways England plans to resubmit its application for a Development Consent Order later this year. An application was originally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in October 2020 but was withdrawn following early feedback from the Inspectorate on the application.

For more information on this project, visit the scheme website. 

To keep up to date with the latest travel information follow @HighwaysEast on Twitter or visit  our website.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.  

We, the G7 Ministers, recognize that corruption is a pressing global challenge. As the UN Convention against Corruption notes, corruption threatens the stability and security of societies, undermining the institutions and values of democracy, ethical values and justice, and jeopardizing sustainable development and the rule of law. Corruption presents serious threats for individuals and societies and often enables other forms of crime, including organized crime and economic crime, including money laundering. These threats have been heightened by COVID-19. As the world continues to recover, it is critical that we do not let corruption threaten our efforts to build back better and address global challenges especially the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

We are looking forward to the G7 ministerial meeting in September this year, where there will be a discussion on our joint efforts to address corruption.

Corruption is a challenge faced by all countries. Its effects are felt at local, national, and global levels and it is our common and shared responsibility to take action. We as the G7 stand up for an open society, with a strong civil society and free media. We are convinced that these actors are crucial in preventing and combatting corruption. Thus, it is our goal to acknowledge the role of civil society and free media and to promote their freedom and protection in the UNGASS declaration. We recognise that progress will catalyse prosperity, security and development.

G7 Foreign Ministers committed to work collectively to strengthen the foundations of open societies and protect against threats, including corruption, and illicit finance, and the closure of civic space. In this regard, we reaffirm the fundamental role of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and its supporting bodies play in the global fight against corruption. It is the only legally binding universal instrument on corruption, negotiated on the basis of consensus. The Convention is the cornerstone of our international anti-corruption framework. It forms an integral part of the international anti-corruption architecture which, when fully and effectively implemented, will robustly combat corruption.

We fully support the aims of this Special Session of the General Assembly against corruption to address challenges and measures to more effectively prevent, detect, prosecute, and punish corruption and strengthen international cooperation.

We welcome the adoption of the action-oriented political declaration and commit to achieving its aims. Given our international responsibilities, we as the G7 recognise the need to enhance our efforts to prevent and combat corruption by leading by example. We must continue to make real progress on this issue. We will ensure strong and effective implementation of UNGASS commitments. To this end, we commit to:

1. Prevention: As the G7, we will work to ensure there are strong measures in place to prevent corruption and other forms of illicit finance to protect our financial centres and deny safe haven to the proceeds of crime. We will support other countries’ efforts to do the same, including anti-corruption safeguards and transparency mechanisms in the delivery of humanitarian aid to ensure that aid, required in times of natural disaster and other emergencies including the COVID-19 pandemic, reaches intended beneficiaries. We also reaffirm our commitment to putting in place measures that promote transparency in the beneficial ownership of legal entities. We further commit to promoting the effective implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards, the global standard setter for combatting money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation finance.

2. Transparency: Comprising many of the world’s most open societies, we note that enhancing transparency benefits citizens and societies and is the foundation on which effective anti-corruption efforts are built. As such, we reaffirm our commitment to implementing measures that afford a high degree of transparency in governance, including measures to enhance transparency in public procurement, and supply chain transparency in the private sector. Consistent with our legal obligations, we will protect and promote access to information for all citizens, including civil society organisations, media and journalists.

3. Law Enforcement Cooperation/Criminalization: a. Foreign bribery: As major centres of private enterprise, we commit to actively enforcing our domestic and foreign bribery laws and ensuring effective implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and we urge all G20 countries to do the same. We recognize the positive impact that incentivizing robust private sector corporate compliance can have on the goal of effectively preventing corruption. We also recognise the corrosive effect of bribe solicitation and call for greater preventive action including awareness raising and training.
   b. Denial of Safe Haven: As some of our financial centres and industries can attract corrupt actors and the proceeds of crime, we commit to strengthening international cooperation to deny safe haven to corrupt individuals and their ill-gotten gains, including through information sharing, and the appropriate use of sanctions and visa restrictions.

4. International Cooperation and Technical Assistance (TA): As many of the world’s largest donors, we recognise the role of Official Development Assistance and commit to using our programmes efficiently to build capacities and provide timely, sustainable, adequate and effective technical assistance that meet needs. We call on our partner countries to take a lead in the coordination of TA at country level, including by, publishing needs identified by the implementation review mechanism, involving all relevant stakeholders and, mainstreaming gender in analysis and the delivery of programmes.

5. Civil Society (including protection of journalists and role of the media): We commit to championing the role of civil society and media freedom as a vital part of upholding democracy and human rights around the world. We condemn all attacks on those who work to expose corruption, including journalists, civil society and individual whistle-blowers, and commit to support and protect those who report and stand up against corruption.

6. Asset Recovery: As home to many of the world’s leading financial centres and as recipients of some of the largest volumes of mutual legal assistance requests in the world, we renew our commitment to counter money laundering linked to foreign corruption and to effectively recover proceeds of crime, particularly money laundering proceeds. We further underline the importance of ensuring confiscated stolen assets, when returned, are returned in a transparent and accountable manner, within the framework of the UNCAC, that ultimately benefits those harmed by corruption. We will promote and support international co-operation among relevant law enforcement agencies including in asset recovery.

7. Rule of Law and Fundamental Freedoms: We recognise that the fight against corruption must be based on respect for the rule of law, support for democratic governance, fundamental freedoms and human rights including due process rights of those accused of and sought for corruption. Rule of law is an essential component to achieve sustainability, to counter abuses of power and to foster an environment needed to effectively achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda.

8. Implementation of anti-corruption conventions and other initiatives: As global leaders in the fight against corruption, we recognise the importance of international and regional conventions and other initiatives to fight corruption and emphasise our individual and collective responsibility to step up our efforts towards their effective implementation. a. Commit to consulting civil society in our country reviews and promoting their inclusion as observers in subsidiary bodies of the UNCAC and Conference of States Parties. b. Call all countries under review by UNCAC to publish their full UNCAC country reports and invite inputs from a wide range of stakeholders. c. Support UNODC to prepare a comprehensive report on member state implementation of UNCAC, after completion of the current review phase, and report its findings to the COSP. d. Support the effective implementation of existing regional anticorruption frameworks and the FATF standards, including their review mechanisms for compliance. e. Urge those who have not ratified the UNCAC to join the 187 other state parties who have done so.

We firmly reiterate the importance of strong and unified leadership in addressing corruption. We look to forthcoming processes in relevant for a with close cooperation with other stakeholders such as, the US Summit for Democracy and the Open Government Partnership 10-year Anniversary Summit in South Korea and the UK presidency of the G7 to build on these commitments. We commit to working within these forums, as well as through the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group, to continue to drive progress on this important agenda.