An environmental charity that has cared for Pensford Field for more than three decades has received a notice from the council terminating its lease. 

Richmond Council has informed Pensford Field Environmental Trust (PFET) that its lease at Pensford Field will end in September 2025, a move which the group are objecting against. 

The new lease is to be granted to mental health charity, Dose of Nature (DoN), which currently uses the field and studio for three days a week. 

In protest of the notice, PFET submitted a formal complaint to the council over its decision on 16 October 2024. 

The group in the complaint letter state: "The substance of this complaint is that this decision to terminate the lease of Pensford Field three years early was made by the Council without access to the salient facts.  

"It was made without prior consultation with PFET, local schools, children's nurseries and local residents.  

"The local community has looked after the field for the past 32 years at no cost to the Council and has been praised by many council officials and external organisations for its activities." 

Originally PFET's current lease on Pensford Field was meant to finish on March 2028 but Richmond Council Leader, Gareth Roberts, told the group that the lease is being terminated early as the council intends to transfer it to DoN.

In a letter to PFET on 23 September 2024, Cllr Roberts explained that the process for the transfer is due to the growing need for mental health provision across the country and in Richmond Borough. 

The leader of the council also apologised for "shortcomings" on how it handled informing PFET on its decision to end the lease.  

Cllr Roberts wrote: "However, while I recognise there were shortcomings, particularly in the way the news was relayed, I believe that the course of action we are taking is correct...  

"Had we been unable to find a permanent home for Dose of Nature, we would have risked losing them from the borough and our residents would have lost out on direct access to a much valued, and much respected, mental health therapeutic service." 

Since then, PFET has been assured by the council that the new lease will guarantee its continued activity on Pensford Field, but it is yet to be formally drafted. 

Most recently, during a council meeting on 1 October Cllr Roberts said: "The council can assure all local residents that when the Lease is transferred to Dose of Nature for Pensford Field that the fields will be accessible to those residents, local community schools, nurseries and organisations who use or benefit from the field now.  

"The lease to Dose of Nature will include the requirement for the continued benefit of current users of the fields as well as the wider benefit and scaling support for people with mental health and other needs in the Borough.  

"The Management Plan will ensure protection, security and maintenance of the land and natural environment and will be monitored by the Council to ensure this remains at the core." 

PFET in its compliant letter continue: "Provisions in the new lease we are assured are to be included to require DoN (Dose of Nature) to maintain the natural environment, but no one has explained how the hundreds of hours currently spent by volunteers maintaining the field are to be resourced by a mental health charity with no proven capability in this sphere." 

On its website, DoN recently said: "We are pleased to announce that Richmond Council have agreed to grant Dose of Nature (DoN) a new lease for Pensford Field from September 2025.  

"The Council's decision reflects a shared commitment to addressing an urgent mental health crisis within the Borough and beyond... 

"Our Nature Prescriptions are currently constrained to support around 300 people annually with the arrangement at present, and with this new lease we are set to expand to 500 people per year.  

"This means more vulnerable groups and children who have been hardest hit by the ongoing mental health crisis benefitting from our innovative programme... 

"Dose of Nature's work is deeply rooted in environmental conservation, and we will protect and further improve this unique urban ecological space.  

"Our nature-based therapeutic approach complements the preservation of Pensford Field's unique ecosystem.  

"Small group sizes and minimal environmental footprint ensure that conservation remains a priority while offering life-changing health benefits to the community.  

"The evolving use of Pensford Field is an evolution that reflects the growing need for green spaces to serve both ecological and human health functions." 

To read the full complaint from PFET to Richmond Council, click here.