Misson success proves that local voices do make a difference
HAVING spent much of the past 30 years working to protect fragile wildlife habitats and precious species from damage and destruction linked to development with a planning system stacked against nature I’m not that used to being on the winning side.
The steady erosion of planning safeguards, not least by the “Presumption in favour of Sustainable Development” enshrined in national planning policy back in 2012, described at the time as a “golden thread”, with developers and their lawyers able to argue that almost any type of development is “sustainable”, the presumption in favour has sadly become something of a “silver bullet” capable of killing off much legitimate and balanced opposition to developments that threaten wildlife habitats or impact key species.
Once you factor in pressures on planning authorities to boost economic growth (never-ending growth being something of a moot point in terms of “sustainability”) – and massive reductions in capacity and resources within local authority planning teams – the prospects of success in any fight to protect nature from poorly located or otherwise damaging development have become vanishingly rare.
As a result, it was with tremendous pleasure that, together with my colleague Janice Bradley MBE, our Head of Nature Recovery (North), I joined local campaigners in Misson Village, in the far north of the county, earlier this week to mark the success of a long and, at times, arduous battle to protect our Misson Carr Nature Reserve from the impacts of fracking.
For the best part of a decade, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has fought cheek-by-jowl with local campaigners in a somewhat David v Goliath fight which saw us taking on the might of companies determined to extract shale gas – a greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuel – from deep beneath the ground. At times it seemed like we were also fighting the whole shale gas industry – looking to gain a foothold via a few experimental drilling sites – backed by a government keen to unlock the revenues from the new industry and willing to change planning rules to make it easier for fracking to succeed.
Campaigners were rightly worried about the possible impacts on Misson Carr’s wildlife – particularly owls that became emblematic of the whole campaign – but also earth tremors, water pollution and other impact on local residents’ quality of life.
The campaign had many facets, not least the determination and dedication of local campaigners, support from other campaigns across the UK and beyond – determined to prevent a whole new fossil fuel industry being created in the face of a combined nature and climate crisis.
When expert technical planning responses crafted by Janice on behalf of the Trust were added into the mix this became a winning combination.
The long road to protecting Mission Carr’s wildlife and finally seeing off the threat looming over villagers has created many special memories. The day Janice and I visited the protect camp just outside the village; the day I had to run from our office in Sneinton Market all the way to County Hall to hand Janice some new advice from Friends of the Earth’s legal team during a key planning meeting and the day when county councillors voted to make the developers restore the site – signalling the beginning of the end for fracking there.
Whilst these memories will live long, they now sit alongside the joyous celebrations of this week, where campaigners spoke of the value of partnership, solidarity and the need to highlight that local voices can make a difference.
All too often, people step back from challenging damaging developments in their area, believing that they have no chance of success, or that their voice won’t be heard.
If I’ve learned anything from working alongside the wonderful folk of Misson and their supporters down the years, it is that local voices can be heard, and can make a massive difference, as long as people speak up and keep speaking up.