Playing Our Part in Delamere Forest's Sustainable Future

A new way to enjoy Delamere Forest

The multimillion pound Delamere Forest plan will create a new visitor hub and gateway to the forest.

Key features of the wider plan include:

A new visitor welcome area with a larger cafe
Improved toilet facilities
Significant landscaping improvements
New and improved trails and bridleways
A multi-use health and well-being trail from Forest Holidays
A new visitor hub car park and improved overflow parking
67 Forest Holidays cabins in the north western part of the forest

Investing in Delamere Forest

_{Artist impression of new Forestry England Visitor Centre}

There have been calls for investment in Delamere Forest for over a decade and now through our partnership with Forestry England, the sustainable vision will help ease pressures and benefit all visitors, creating new experiences for people wishing to enjoy a peaceful getaway.

Further details on the project, updates, and FAQs can be found here on Forestry England’s website. Forest Holidays is one of many commercial partners working with Forestry England to provide a reliable and long-term income stream and supporting them in delivering environmental, social and economic benefits.

Introducing our build team's approach

Our cabins at Delamere Forest will be situated in the north western part of the forest and this location area is just 3% of the forest. Our Projects Director, Dan Parish explains how we are sensitively integrating our location into the forest environment at Delamere.

Director at Forest Holidays enjoying the outdoors

Dan Parish

Programme Director, Forest Holidays

How do you feel about Forest Holidays having a location in Delamere Forest?

It’s a privilege for us to bring Forest Holidays to Delamere Forest. This is a flagship visitor location for Forestry England that is enjoyed by many and we’ve worked hard over the years to support their vision of improving the visitor facilities for all.

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I’m committed to delivering this project in close collaboration with our partners and we’re all proud that Forest Holidays’ investment means that the facilities across the whole forest can be managed sustainably for the long term.

We’re meeting with local businesses and our new neighbours and very much want to play our part in creating new opportunities through the creation of jobs and long lasting partnerships.

The plans for our location will see an enhancement of the woodland environment and habitats and I’m sure a stay with us in Delamere Forest will inspire even more people to value Britain’s amazing forests!

Is there anything special about the way the cabins have been designed to fit the forest environment?

I’m proud to say that we have developed a unique and forest-centred approach both to the design and integration of our cabins and our teams are continually innovating and refining our methods as new techniques and technologies become available.

There are so many features to mention but to give a snapshot, we’ve designed the cabins to standards set out by the foremost sustainability rating scheme for the built environment (BREEAM). We’ve also taken most of the cabin manufacturing process off-site, reducing build time on location, waste and any disturbance. Furthermore we don’t use concrete strip foundations but have developed low impact piles so that tree roots and the forest floor are protected.

Effectively our cabins are designed to fit in harmony with the forest, offering those staying in them a rich connection with the natural world.

How important is it to your team to ensure that wildlife and flora are protected throughout the build?

It’s fundamental. Our in-house management team understand the broader purpose of the business and our commitment to enhancing the environments that we work in and they appreciate that the success of our business depends on the forest. At the end of the day, it’s the amazing wildlife and beautiful woodlands that our guests come to experience so this is absolutely at the top of our priority list.

We don’t contract out our building work and we ensure that all of the tradesmen we use are properly inducted and well managed. The majority of the team have worked with us before and understand our unique product and approach. We also have internal and external ecological monitoring throughout the planning, build and operational stages, guiding our processes and also holding us all to account.

Is there anything you’d like people to know about the Forest Holidays build team?

Working on a Forest Holidays build is more than just a job that you forget about at the end of the day. We all genuinely care about the environment that we’re working in and have a highly disciplined approach to managing our projects. The team come from all walks of life and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to be based at Delamere and are keen to meet and learn more from the local community about the forest and the area.

Supporting Wildlife

From the start one of the core ambitions of the Delamere Forest project has been to enhance and broaden habitats. At all of our locations we aim to encourage and support wildlife and with species such as The White-faced darter dragonfly and common lizards, notable in Delamere Forest we are committed to ensuring a rich environment.

By diversifying the structure of the forest in and around our cabin location, the aim is to create an understory of native woodland trees and flora and provide a more varied and rich environment for forest species such as, brown long eared bats, common pipistrelle bats, jays, blackcaps, treecreepers, swallows, tawny owls and pollinators such as butterflies and bees, to name a few.

We have also installed bat and bird boxes to help increase roosting and nesting potential and will add more later on in the process. Leading up to proposals for any of our new locations extensive ecological surveys are carried out and at Delamere this involved many years of studies prior to the planning process. We will follow ecological management plans throughout the works and every care is taken to protect forest wildlife.

Working with Forestry England

Forest Holidays is one of many commercial partners who work with Forestry England, providing a reliable and long-term income stream and supporting the delivery of environmental, social and economic benefits. Created by the Forestry Commission over forty years ago, Forest Holidays now successfully operates in ten locations across the UK including five in National Parks, bringing widespread benefits to local economies. Delamere will be our 11th location and we have a long term commitment to support the management of trails and the woodland environment around our location, as well as generating an annual revenue for Forestry England, helping to support the sustainability of the vision for Delamere Forest into the future.

Whilst our Forestry England partners are working with Wilmott Dixon on the central Visitor Hub components of the plan, our experienced team will be concentrating on the cabin location. Detailed project plans guide the build of a new Forest Holidays location. The programme at Delamere combines woodland and wildlife management as well as landscaping, with the integration of our cabins into the environment. For a summary of the stages involved in the project, please follow the link below.

For a summary of the stages involved in the project, please follow the link below. Build timeline and process (opens in new tab)

Our cabins are designed to sit harmoniously within the forest, preserving the surroundings. We follow strict management practices that promote sustainability and respect the environment.

Discover our approach to building

Together with our Forestry England partners we’ve answered some of the common questions we have been asked about the project so far and will continue to update and add to the questions as the project progresses.

Frequently asked questions on Forestry England

Playing our part in Delamere Forest's Sustainable Future

Dan Parish

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