A HERITAGE skills charity is facing eviction from its base in the Forest following complaints that staff members took children out onto a frozen lake.

The Rewild Project, which has provided a range of traditional crafts workshops and courses at Kensley Sheds near Speech House for the last seven years, was told to suspend all activities and leave the site with less than 24 hours notice by Forestry England on Christmas Eve.

It came after a member of the public complained that they had seen people walking on the frozen lake at Woorgreens Nature Reserve, just days after four boys lost their lives from falling through ice on a lake in Solihull.

It later emerged that the walkers were adults from the Rewild team and participants of their youth home education sessions.

The charity described the activity as a “sensory lesson” on what safe thick ice feels like, supervised by competent adults, and said that “no one was in any danger at any time”.

A parent of one of the participants also lodged a complaint about the activity.

Rewild argued it was fully risk assessed and was safe due to the adult supervision, the relatively shallow depth of the lake and the thickness of the ice, which they say was four times the minimum thickness for walking as recommended by the Canadian Red Cross.

They also said had an accident happened, such as a slip on the ice or the unlikely scenario that it did break, the particpants could have waded out and were close enough to the sheds to go and get warm.

But Forestry England, which owns Kensley Sheds, told the group they did not agree with their risk assessment, and immediately suspended all use of the sheds on Saturday, December 24 and told them to vacate the site completely by Sunday (December 31), until an investigation into the incident has been completed.

Rewild has now launched a campaign to stop the eviction, highlighting the positive work they have done in the last seven years, as well as their plans to develop more disused land for the community and how big a loss their skills provision would be to participants.

Many supporters backed them in a post explaining the incident on social media.

But some questioned whether going out onto the ice was the correct judgement, mostly due to the influence it could have had on anyone watching, as well as the children involved when unsupervised.

Rewild also said some of the children had walked out onto the ice at the lake’s edge again later that day, when their supervisor had asked them not to.

In a statement, they argued one of the supervisors has spent many winters living in Canada and Scandinavia, and so had suitable experience to lead the activity, while the ice was safe as it was during “the longest and coldest period in England for many, many years”.

They say they are “absolutely gutted” by the breakdown of their seven-year relationship with Forestry England, and are “totally baffled” by the decision as their risk assessments are endorsed by Health and Safety experts.

“Forestry England have never been the easiest of partners to work with, but we’ve always done our utmost, and have succeeded in meeting every requirement bestowed upon us”, their statement read.

They added that their work has been “mutually beneficial” for everyone including Forestry England, through their investment of £90,000 of lottery funding in Kensley and other initiatives such as their social forestry projects.

They are now encouraging supporters to write to Forestry England about the positive impact their work has had on them in a bid to get the decision overturned.

The full statement from the Rewild Project can be found on their website and Facebook page.

Forestry England said the incident was “particularly concerning” in light of what had happened in Solihull just a few days earlier.

That tragedy was national news for more than a week, and prompted emergency services across the country to warn people against walking out onto frozen lakes.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, which manages Woorgreens Nature Reserve, issued a warning on its Facebook page telling people not to do so “under any circumstances” following reports of the activity.

A spokesperson for Forestry England said: “Forestry England is aware of, and investigating, an incident where a group of children, accompanied by an adult, were seen walking on the ice at Woorgreens lake.

“This incident is particularly concerning so close to the recent tragedy in Birmingham where four children lost their lives.

“Forestry England ask people to keep away from frozen bodies of water this winter, keep dogs on leads and to keep a close eye on children near to frozen water and educate them to the dangers.

“Due to the concerning events of the Friday 16th December 2022, we have written to the directors of The Rewild Project, suspending the licence agreement they have with us to carry out traditional land-based skills at Kensley Sheds with immediate effect. The suspension will remain, and all activities stopped until the incident can be investigated in full and the directors of The Rewild Project met with.”