Lafarge Housing Proposal
Making a Stand for Wildlife and Community:
The Commons Public Meeting on the Lafarge development Proposal
Tuesday 17th February
120 local people, councillors and politicians including MP Grant Shapps packed Howlands Baptist Church to standing room only to support the Commonswood Nature Watch group in its campaign to defend the Commons Local Nature Reserve against the threat of a massive housing development.
The plan, submitted by LaFarge Aggregates, proposes over 4000 dwellings in six ‘villages’ covering the area bounded by Cole Green Lane, Birchall Lane, the A414 and The Commons Local Nature Reserve. Some of these houses come right up to the reserve boundary.
Speakers, such as Michael Clark, Fellow of The Zoological Society Of London,Author and Past Chair of Hertfordshire Mammal Group who lives in locally outlined the value of The Commons, explaining its unusual diversity of species and habitats for a reserve of 15 hectares. Speakers cited the years of field work to record plants and animals, including bird ringing and mammal surveys which prove local links between The Commons and other wildlife sites such as Tewinbury Nature Reserve and Stanborough Reedbeds. The Commons is also nationally and internationally important for visiting and breeding populations of birds.
Peter Oakenfull, honorary warden of The Commons and main speaker for the evening, showed photographs of the reserve’s notable habitats such as its rare wetland fen and close-ups of some of the 26 species of Principle Importance, recorded on and around the reserve which include yellowhammer, harvest mouse and noctule bat.
Eminent ecologists across the country agree that wildlife sites are degraded if they are left as islands in a sea of development. The ‘Green Belt’ designation around Welwyn Garden City has done so much to prevent this happening, providing continuous stretches of wild areas that offer safe passage between our main local wildlife sites.
Visiting The Commons in January, Rupert Read prospective European MP, Jill Weston, Olly and Berry Dowlen
So the serious thread running through the evening was that any development in the Cole Green area – and not just close to the reserve – has the potential to cut off the age-old routes used by mammals and birds between The Commons and other local sites, depriving them of their means of breeding and thriving. New drainage systems would dry out its wetlands and water courses on which amphibians, dragonflies and kingfishers depend; bats, unable to tolerate urban lighting, would disappear; shy polecat and woodcock would be disturbed by human activities, never to be seen again.
The evening concluded on a note of great optimism, however: there was not one voice of dissent for the campaign’s opposition to the development proposal. Rejection of the proposal was unanimously endorsed by all present, including councillors and politicians from the major parties.
There is a wealth of experience within the campaign group – not only in all things ecological, but also in the planning process and in fighting campaigns such as this!
And then there is YOU! This is your chance to lend your support for wildlife and your local community! Welwyn Hatfield’s consultation period for its Borough Plan is an opportunity for us all to influence their final decision on the development proposal and hence the fate of The Commons. The Council is of course duty-bound to behave impartially during the coming weeks, but ultimately it must take into account its own considerable investment in The Commons, having purchased the land for the reserve and supported the development of this remarkable place that has enriched the lives of so many local people as well as some very special wildlife. It must also take into account the views of the local community it serves.
Grant Shapps MP and Shadow Housing Minister at the end of the evening with Geoff Ralph and other members of the Commonswood Nature Watch Committee
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