Wildlife Trust in A46 complaints
Tuesday 13th October
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust recently spoke of its concern that recent reports about the loss of Ancient Woodland habitat as a result of the dualling of the A46 could have implied that the charity had no objection to the scheme.
In a response to concern over the decision to move woodland soil, flowers such as bluebells and some trees to make way for the road the Highways Agency stated that the plans had been subject to a public inquiry and consultation with a range of bodies including The Wildlife Trust.
Whilst it is true to say that it was consulted, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust would like to point out that it objected strongly to the proposals. Speaking on behalf of the charity, which has over 10,000 members across the county, Communications Manager Erin McDaid said.
“Since 2006 we have consistently raised our concerns over the loss of habitat due to the widening of the A46 and we particularly opposed the proposal to destroy part of Roehoe Wood. The Environmental Statement for the scheme prepared back in 2006 failed to recognize the irreplaceability of many habitats and we felt that the entire mitigation strategy was based on a flawed contention that habitats that had developed over hundreds of years could be replaced by planted facsimiles.”
The Wildlife Trust, which spent months working on detailed responses to the dualling proposals and gave evidence at the public inquiry, maintained its objection to the proposal throughout, highlighting, amongst other concerns, its view that the loss of mature woodland was wholly unacceptable.
Mr McDaid continued,
“We do not consider that the potential impacts of the scheme were fully considered by the Highways Agency and we believe that the overall level of mitigation and ecological compensation proposed for the dualling programme was inadequate. We would therefore like to make it clear that whilst the Agency is correct to state that we were consulted – we wouldn’t wish people to assume that we were in any way supportive of the plans to move part of Roehoe Wood.”
