Hamsterley future plans

Forestry England manages the nation’s forests to be sustainable and resilient providing benefits for people, nature and the economy: nationally, regionally and locally. We constantly review the forests to see how those benefits could improve. 

Hamsterley Forest has become more popular and while this connects more people with the nation’s forests, benefits the rural economy and the wildlife is safeguarded, our ageing facilities are under strain. We have plans to make improvements to benefit all our visitors and forest users, such as increased café space and catering facilities, improved toilets, meeting and classroom space for schools and groups, provision of exhilarating ‘Go Ape’ outdoor activities, exciting opportunities for visiting cyclists and fit-for-purpose office accommodation for our staff based in the Forest. 

In further developing our people, nature and economy offer, the potential for an overnight accommodation offer within the Forest, located close to the existing visitor infrastructure has been assessed and approved internally in accordance with Forestry England policy guidance. 

We are working with Forest Holidays, a B Corp certified business, who are one of our long-term partners, to explore options for up to 70 nature sensitive cabins. In the last 50 years, we have created 8 sensitively-placed cabin locations in forests we care for. 

What happens next?

We are continuing to engage with Durham Council and we are waiting for their informal advice before we can refine our proposals as necessary and then make these publicly available. We will do this in a variety of ways so everyone wishing to see the proposals can do so. This will be in advance of any full planning application so there will be plenty of time to look at the proposals, ahead of the formal planning submission.

We’ll continue to provide updates at the relevant stages of the process.  

Please note: any public meetings currently advertised locally are not connected with Forestry England and they do not have any extra information from us. When we are ready, we will advertise public exhibitions where you can come and learn about, and discuss, the details of our proposals and we hope to answer any questions you may have.