Council must stand up for environment
In the past 24 hours nearly 80 residents have signed an open letter to BANES council leader, Dine Romero, regarding the destruction of an ecologically sensitive site (Tufa Field) at the back of Englishcombe Lane. The site was officially, previously designated by BANES as of Scientific Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), and BANES council has declared an Ecological Emergency for Bath this summer. Yet, somehow just a few weeks after that declaration, BANES planning have allowed a housing development plan to be passed on the same site. We would be grateful if this letter might be published below:
Dear Councillor Romero
As Leader of the Council, we are writing to you regarding the proposed development on an area of Scientific Nature and Conservation Interest (SNCI) that is home to ecologically important features, and which sits to the rear of Englishcombe Lane, Bath.
We also wanted to register our anger and disappointment regarding the recent slaughter of a protected species (slow worms) that occurred when initial clearance of the site began.
The development and subsequent destruction makes no sense when set against the council’s own declarations of both climate, and more recently ecological emergencies for Bath. The council planning department has not acted as if there is an emergency. Both emergencies were voted through unanimously, so the continuation with this development is illogical, and is hugely embarrassing for the council as a whole.
The council has consulted its own experts in ecology in relation to this development but their views have been dismissed. Objections to this development on grounds of ecology have been numerous and the latest report from the council’s employed ecology expert unequivocally objects once again to this development.
The report states: ‘Despite significant efforts to address off-site compensation, the proposals remain likely to result in substantial harm to a Site of Nature Conservation Interest and habitats and species assemblages of County Importance, resulting in net loss of biodiversity contrary to BANES Placemaking Plan Policies (including NE3, NE5 and D5e).’
The report also objects to the development because the harm caused will include permanent loss of habitats that are key contributing features to the site’s SNCI value. The proposal does not sufficiently avoid, minimise, mitigate and compensate for ecological impacts such that it would result in no net loss to ecology.
This site is like very few. It has one feature which is both rare and extremely important for local ecology - tufa. The Environment Agency has highlighted tufa springs in Somerset as ‘vulnerable.’ As regards this tufa, the council’s ecology expert, Sarah Dale, stated in her report that there would be “a high risk of net loss of tufa/flush habitat”.
Her report concludes: “I would not support this site being a trial case for such measures.”
Policy NE3 seeks to conserve and increase the abundance and diversity of BANES wildlife habitats species. BANES Local Development Scheme 2020-2022 also commits to development of a Nature Recovery Network to protect and restore wildlife.
Furthermore, the council planning committee chair, councillor Mccabe has recently stated in respect of this development: “It is perhaps unfortunate that this field was included in the Local Plan, with a designation to develop for housing. The Council has begun the process of reviewing the Local Plan, with a view to creating new planning policies that support the declarations of a climate and ecological emergency.’
In addition, councillor Sarah Warren (responsible for BANES’ recent declaration of an ecological emergency for Bath) has also recently stated that: “No one is more frustrated than I am, in the meantime, that our local plan is currently out of step with our declared policy in relation to both the ecological and climate emergencies.”
Even the current UK government has woken up to the UN’S latest warnings on climate change by committing to protect UK land in order to boost biodiversity.