FAQs

Lex Greensill, a Saughall resident for the last 17 years, has been negotiating the purchase of this land since 2019. Lex, his wife Vicky - who was born and raised in Saughall, and their two young sons live in the former vicarage adjacent to the Estate. Originally, the family wanted to buy a piece of land next door to protect their view of the Welsh hills. As they looked into buying the land, Lex began to formulate a vision for the wider estate as a conservation and regenerative agriculture project, and that's what we are working towards today.

If you look though the website, you will see detailed plans for how we intend to approach the future land management within the Estate. We will employ traditional conservation methods, regenerative farming techniques together with rewilding principles on the marginal land, to ensure the Estate reaches its full biodiversity potential.

We are still negotiating the purchase of the land with Cheshire West and Chester Council, as we have been since 2019. Our land management team, led by Mike Challinor, has been working with one of the existing tenant farmers on a number of pilot regenerative agriculture projects on over 50 acres of the Estate. Have a look around the website to see what we have been up to. We are excited at the opportunities that Shotwick Park presents and have done a lot of reading, thinking and talking to people. Hopefully, if the project goes ahead, we can hit the ground running.

All of the public rights of way are protected by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) and the informal access enjoyed in the fields close to the village will be retained. Additionally, we've submitted a planning application for an all-ability path to make access more inclusive. We would welcome your views about the proposed path and its design.

Lex's family in Australia have been farmers for generations and he wants his kids to grow up surrounded by accessible countryside just like he did. As a farmer, Lex is also acutely aware that we need to better care for the land we work, which is why our plans for the regenerative farming aspect of the project are so important. We look forward to sharing more of our ideas about conservation, agriculture and the environment at Shotwick Park through this website.

No. this land is right outside Lex's front door. His original interest was to protect his family's view of the Welsh hills. As he looked into buying the land, Lex began to formulate a vision for the wider estate as a conservation and regenerative agriculture site, and that's what we are working towards today. The future land management plans are laid out on this website with the focus on traditional conservation, regenerative agriculture and rewilding.

We have agreed to provide a voluntary development covenant with the vendor, CWAC, which would preclude all residential development on the farmland of Shotwick Park for the next 80 years. This has now been redrafted taking on advice provided to the Parish Council earlier this year. Further detail on the covenant can be found here - Shotwick Park Voluntary Development Covenant

Shotwick Castle is a scheduled monument and as such falls under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The Castle is an asset and contributes to the story of our village. The current access and management of Shotwick Castle will be maintained.

Yes. Shotwick Park Estate once comprised of around twenty farms. The disposal program has been in process for at least fifteen years. There are currently five remaining CWAC owned farms on the estate. In recent years, three farms have been sold off from the estate, one of which is adjacent to the village. These farm sales have not benefited from additional development covenant protections. There was no local objection to these sales.

Mike Challinor has been project lead from its inception. Mike has lived in Saughall for 17 years and grew up on a local tenanted dairy farm. Mike's professional background is based in conservation and agriculture. His previous role was as a Senior Policy Advisor working on the new Environmental Land Management Scheme currently being developed by DEFRA.

The priority will be to make the buildings safe. In the longer term, we would like to see them restored and used for agricultural and educational purposes.

Lex originally suggested that a £500,000 premium over the purchase price be paid to the Parish of Saughall. Unfortunately, CWAC rejected this, and elected to retain the £500,000 premium for themselves. They are the vendor. They get to choose the terms.

We made a planning application last year to build an all-ability path and also a public car park off Lodge Lane. That planning application is still in the process of being considered by CWAC and we don’t know what the result is going to be. That said, in the 5 public meetings that we held earlier in the year, there was constructive feedback provided by the more than 100 people who attended. While there is a formal planning process underway at present and we don't know the outcome of it yet, we will commit to have a further engagement with the community once the planning application decision is given and before any changes are made to the existing access. Our objective is to strike a balance between fair access, parking, traffic and the environment and we would invite you to constructively engage in that discussion with us.

None of the legal or regulatory ramifications of Greensill Capital’s administration would have any bearing on Lex Greensill‘s 100% ownership of Shotwick Park Estate Limited, should the sale go ahead.