21/12/10….High Speed Rail ‘will wreck wildlife areas’

THE Government?s High Speed Rail route announced yesterday (Monday) will rip through ancient woodland and devastate sensitive wildlife areas, says Philippa Lyons, Chief Executive of the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust.

?The new route for HS2 will be devastating for wildlife especially protected species such as bats, nationally-rare butterflies, water voles and otters in our most sensitive habitats such as ancient woodland and meadows,? she said.

?The route announced yesterday will irreparably damage several important wildlife sites including Calvert Jubilee Nature Reserve in north Buckinghamshire and the Colne Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest in south Buckinghamshire.?

Stephanie Hilborne OBE, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, adds: ?Whilst some consideration may have been given to noise and visual impacts for those people who live along the proposed route, Rt. Hon Philip Hammond MP made no reference at all to the impact on the natural environment.

?The proposed route will destroy or irrevocably damage a large number of important sites, dissect the landscape and fragment isolated patches of habitat. In the context of the recent Making Space for Nature report, the very last thing we should be doing is damaging existing wildlife sites and creating new linear barriers to the movement of wildlife.”

Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust is one of seven Wildlife Trusts affected by the High Speed Rail route between London and Birmingham. All of them will be campaigning through their memberships to stop the High Speed Rail project as it is currently proposed.

?We?re here to stand up for wildlife,? says Philippa Lyons. ?I know that thousands of Wildlife Trusts members and members of the public will be writing to their MPs, lobbying Government, and collaborating with the many community Stop HS2 action groups to prevent such devastating effects on the UK?s wildlife.?

The government has said that it believes that the construction of a high-speed network will support economic growth, as well as rebalance the economy. However, they realize, that say, that the proposed link will have big local impacts in the areas it passes through, and that it is their duty to do what they can to lessen those impacts.

Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, has said that changes to the proposed HS2 rail link route will significantly lessen the impact of its trains on the communities they will pass through between London and Birmingham. He has insisted that the scheme will help tackle the north-south divide by cutting travel times to and from the capital. However, he acknowledges that some along the line will see the value of their property fall and has announced that officials have worked on a compensation package.

SOURCE: Press release