AN ambitious new scheme for a Crown East wood could secure its future as a wildlife centre.

Phil Westwood and his wife, Kim, sold their house to buy the 10-acre wood in 1995 and Phil's careful management has transformed it into a haven for wildlife.

At present it is carpeted with bluebells, wood anemones, primroses and violets and later there will be red campion, wild honeysuckle and foxgloves.

The patient visitor can also spot badgers, foxes, squirrels, butterflies, a tawny owl, pheasants, partridges, woodcock, buzzards, goldcrests, ravens and green woodpeckers, as well as slow-worms and grass snakes.

Now the Westwoods want to add a purpose-built visitor centre incorporating a two-bedroom apartment on a half-acre site beside the Crown East Heritage Woodland.

They currently live in a nearby rented cottage, which also serves as visitor centre, restaurant and store.

Besides arranging guided walks with lunch, dinner or cream teas, illustrated lectures and educational programmes, they produce barbecue charcoal, composted wood chip garden mulch, kipsie baskets - made from coppiced hazel - and preserves using organic fruit from the orchard.

Kim caters for up to 24 people on a small gas stove in a domestic kitchen, serving them in three separate rooms.

The proposed centre includes a big catering kitchen, a large dining room and a classroom/lecture theatre for up to 36 people, with facilities for the disabled, storage bays for logs, compost and charcoal and parking for up to 20 cars behind the building.

Council support

"It's going to be a green project with built-in sustainability and we're going to heat part of the building with thinnings from the woodland," said Phil.

Built and clad with green oak, and topped with recycled roofing tiles, the building will incorporate a rainwater collection system for flushing the toilets and there will be a reed bed filtration system for sewage.

Rushwick Parish Council has lent its support to the planning application, which still has to be considered by Malvern Hills District Council.

Members felt it would be an environmentally friendly use of the greenfield site, but asked for a condition tying the accommodation to the business.

The Westwoods said they would be happy to comply with the condition and secure the future of the wood.

Some council members and one neighbour have raised concerns about traffic using a private lane with access on to the A44.

But other neighbours support the scheme, which is also supported by the Forestry Commission and the William A Cadbury Trust.