NR tree review

JOHN VARLEY OBE, independent report chairman of Network Rail’s vegetation management review Valuing Nature - a railway for people and wildlife, writes exclusively for RAIL

John Varley, author of the review into Network Rail’s lineside vegetation management policy, writes exclusively for RAIL.

DOES safety and reliability of the railway have to be compromised in seeking to enhance its contribution to the nation’s biodiversity? In my view, the answer is a definitive “no”.

Today, to be successful, businesses in both the public and private sectors need to do two things well: produce safe and reliable products that meet customer needs, while at the same time actively manage the impacts their operations may have on the wider environment and on society more generally. Minimise the negatives and maximise the positives.

In June 2018, then-Rail Minister Jo Johnson asked me to chair a review of Network Rail’s approach to vegetation management across England and Wales. This followed concerns about the impact that tree felling, considered necessary for the safe operation and performance of the railway, was having on nesting bird populations.

“Millions of trees at risk in secretive Network Rail felling programme,” was the headline in the Guardian. This followed similar articles earlier in the year regarding local government felling roadside trees in Sheffield. While concerns over the management of lineside vegetation and trees has been in the news for many years, the genie was now out of the bottle - and it wasn’t going back in.

I had been a member of Bishop James Jones’s Independent Panel on Forestry, following the Government’s controversial proposals in 2011 to change the way the public forest estate might be managed, leading to a public outcry. For me, this experience underlined the importance of woods and trees in the day-to-day lives of very many people.

My background is not in the railway industry. As chief executive at Clinton Devon Estates, I have responsibility for 25,000 acres in Devon. I had previously worked at BT, which included managing a large engineering workforce.

While working for Clinton Devon, I have built strong networks with many conservation bodies such as the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts, and I appreciate the need for those owning and managing land to be in tune with society’s wishes - especially when it comes to managing for environmental outcomes, as well as food and fibre production. I felt I could bring a new perspective to a very polarised debate, and I was keen to apply my background and experience to a new challenge.

I agreed the Terms of Reference with the Minister which, at their heart, raised the question: “…can Network Rail, through the way it manages lineside vegetation, ensure the safety and performance of the railway while improving the natural capital that it owns on behalf of the nation…?”

My recommendations were to be presented in October. This was going to be a fast-paced review - one where we needed to analyse a vast quantity of evidence and, ideally, find a consensus across a diverse group of stakeholders.

Over the four months of the review I have been on a journey of discovery, during which time I have sought to understand the apparent competing dilemmas faced by those who manage our railway network, those who champion the natural environment it supports, and those for whom railway trees and natural habitats hold a special place in their hearts and minds. I wanted to explore whether these goals had to conflict, or whether there was a way of resolving all three, while recognising that safety will always be the primary consideration when developing policies for the management of trees and vegetation.

The Review Secretariat was the RSSB (Rail Safety and Standards Board). They fielded an impressive team. We had access to around 20 experts who led specific lines of enquiry - from risk and safety intelligence to communications, and human factors to ecology. We engaged with nearly 50 stakeholder organisations including Network Rail Routes, Infrastructure Projects and Safety, Technical and Engineering teams, Rail User Groups, Residents’ Associations, the Tree Council, RSPB, Woodland Trust, Institute of Chartered Foresters and Defra.

I wanted to engage with train drivers directly, as well as the public, so we set up a web-based survey which received over 8,000 responses and generated some powerful statistics and