A COMMUNITY is rallying to raise funds to buy an area of land which is to go up for auction later this month.

A 1.8-acre plot of land on Ferndown Common is to go up for auction at the end of April, and amid fears it could be sold and developed, residents are hoping to raise funds to table a bid.

Much of the common is currently owned by the Lesley Haskins Trust, and the charity is hoping to buy the 1.8-acre plot and leave it as it is, protecting newts and snakes in the process.

Spearheading the campaign, Jonathan Heath, said: “A lot of residents in Ferndown are very keen to make sure the land remains untouched and unspoilt.

“We have so much development going on in the Ferndown and Parley area at the moment and it just seems to me there are no guarantees with this land.

“The Lesley Haskins Trust generally passes the management to conservation groups. There are two ponds adjacent to this area which are SSSIs, should a private buyer be successful in winning the land, it may become managed in a way that is not conducive to the habitat.”

Mr Heath said the started bid for the auction was £10,000 and the Lesley Haskins Trust had said it could offer that amount.

However, believing this would not be enough, Mr Heath hoped to raise thousands of pounds in order to secure the land for public use.

He added: “Ideally, we would love it to remain as a rewilded common which is where it is at the moment.

“By far the best option for this piece of land is if the Lesley Haskins Trust were to buy it.

“This has been left to nature for 40 years, it’s definitely a site where species are living, if it were bought by a private person its future is uncertain.

“That beautiful area could easily become fenced off and inaccessible to the public.”

Lesley Haskins, of the Lesley Haskins Trust, said this would be the only chance to acquire the land and be part of the common.

She said: “At the moment it is very scrubbed over and our aim would be to manage it as part of the common.

“The more parts of it that become isolated, the more vulnerable they become to all sorts of species. It squeezes the neck of an already vulnerable piece of land.

“It is more a question of keeping the common and integrating it with the common rather than turning it into something that might not be compatible.

“This is the only one chance to get it, if we don’t get it now it has gone and could be turned into something else, we will never again have the chance to make it part of the common.”

The land is being auctioned by Symonds & Sampson on April 29.