LEP to contribute £500,000 to Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre

A new £5m Visitor Centre for Sherwood Forest will be part-funded with £500,000 contribution via the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership.

An RSPB-led consortium, working in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council, is responsible for the project to replace the current 1970s-built centre. The existing site will remain open until the new building is complete this summer. Work will then begin on taking down the old centre, which lies within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the land will then be allowed to return to nature.

The D2N2 LEP has now agreed to invest £500,000 in the project, following approval by the D2N2 Infrastructure and Investment Board.

Other funders include Nottinghamshire County Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Thoresby Estate and RSPB.

The consortium aims to increase visitor figures steadily, from its current level of 350,000 per annum. Over the next decade, it says this rise could help to boost the local economy by up to £1m a year in visitor spend and to create around 28 full-time equivalent jobs for the area.

The new Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre will include information about Robin Hood and his legend, and on the wealth of wildlife and woodland in the area. Its facilities will include a shop and a café, with an outside terrace and amphitheatre, and new play area.

Michael Copleston, RSPB’s programme development manager, said: “This is an incredibly exciting project, and one we believe will contribute greatly to the region’s visitor economy, as well as re-invigorating the care and protection this special landscape needs for many years to come.

“We want to welcome people here from around the globe, and help them appreciate what an extraordinary place this is – and by that I mean not just Sherwood, but the region as a whole.

“I’d like to thank the D2N2 LEP for their generosity, and for recognising our commitment to this area, which the RSPB is very proud to be a part of.”