ENSTONE CONSERVATION TRUST
Enstone Conservation Trust (‘ENCON’) promotes and enhances the ecology, environment and heritage of the Enstone Uplands area
Set up in 2006, ENCON is a charity funded by our members and charitable donations that aims to ensure this unique part of West Oxfordshire is protected both for now and future generations.
Our area is flanked by Lidstone to the west and Middle Barton to the east taking in the villages of Church Enstone, Neat Enstone, Cleveley, Gagingwell, Great and Little Tew, Heythrop, Ledwell, Westcott Barton, Radford, Sandford St Martin and Over Worton.
Encon is an active part of the local environmental community supporting organisations like Enstone Eco and as a member of the Wychwood Forest Trust, Oxfordshire Rural Community Council and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
If you would like to join us and help protect and enhance our local landscape and heritage, then please consider becoming a member.
SUPPORTING THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT
We support a number of neighbourhood ecological projects to help understand, protect and preserve local flora and fauna. Our most recent focus has been on supporting local primary schools to develop their eco-projects. These are both important ecological sites and teaching resources to help stimulate the next generation’s interest in the environment and ecology.
We seek to increase the biodiversity of the local area either through our own initiatives or by working with local groups such as Enstone Eco. Where opportunities arise to deliver environmentally-positive changes in land use, then ENCON aims to use its funding, charitable status and deep local connections to deliver significant improvements to the landscape.
IMPROVING LOCAL PLANNING DECISIONS
Planning decisions affect us all. However, local communities often feel they have very little input and find the planning process complex and hard to navigate. ENCON provides a forum for our members to engage with major local planning applications with a focus on protecting the countryside and our environment. We certainly do not oppose all development, but we encourage that which is in harmony with the environment.
ENCON supports the principle that all development should provide a net gain in biodiversity and an enhancement in landscape quality and its future management. Sustainable land-use planning is a vital ingredient of environmental and ecological protection. Considered planning can help protect the beauty and tranquillity of the countryside and safeguard wildlife habitats.