Building on Bosworth Field ‘will put other battlefields at risk’

ANCIENT battlefields will be at risk if building is allowed to go ahead at Bosworth Field, ministers will be warned today, as campaigners launched a bid to buy the site for the nation.

Chris Skidmore, a Conservative Party vice-chairman, will call for better protections for the 46 battlefields in England after Horiba Mira, the automotive specialist, applied to build a test track for driverless vehicles on the site in Leicestershire.

The Battle of Bosworth in August 1485 was a crucial moment in history that saw the death of Richard III, ending the Plantagenet reign and bringing the Tudor dynasty to the throne.

More than 12,000 people have signed a petition urging Hinkley and Bosworth Borough Council to refuse permission for the 83-acre test track, with a decision due on Sept 25, while The Battlefields Trust has launched a bid to buy the land from Horiba Mira.

“Bosworth is the battlefield under threat today; but while the current legal framework continues, no doubt there will be others,” Mr Skidmore, who is also a leading expert on Richard III, will tell MPS at a debate in Westminster Hall today.

“To build over one part of a battlefield site threatens to set a precedent of permissiveness that could erode our ability to protect our battlefields across the country. We should plant our standard squarely on preserving Bosworth and its heritage, both past and yet to be discovered.”

Mr Skidmore will also call for the Government to tighten planning rules that stop building on battlefields only if there is “substantial harm”.

He will add: “We must recognise here the precedent nationally that this application risks setting. And we must also ask, how have we managed to get to this situation in the first place that a battlefield of national historic importance should be placed under threat?”

Kelvin van Hasselt, vice-president of trust, said: “The land needs to be bought for the nation, just as the Americans do with their battlefields.

“The wider battlefield faces a severe threat of building, which will prevent its proper presentation in the future.

“In particular, it will not be possible to stand where Henry Tudor stood when he first saw Richard III’S army.”