Campaigner hopes to outfox HS2 and save woodland bats

IN Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox the main character saves himself and his animal neighbours by cunning alone.

Now the wood that inspired the children’s book is under threat from HS2, and its real-life residents may find their salvation in a High Court case.

Lawyers for campaigner Mark Keir are asking for felling in Jones Hill Wood, Bucks, to be halted because rare bats live in it, arguing that Natural England should never have given permission for the work to go ahead.

In March contractors were granted special permission to disturb the protected barbastelle bats, and felling began.

But a claim lodged with London’s Planning Court argues that this licence should not have been given, because proper surveys had not been carried out and mitigation measures, such as installing bat boxes elsewhere, were not enough to make up for the destruction of any breeding roosts in the area.

A decision on the request is expected later this week, and the claimants hope to have the licence overturned.

A spokesman for HS2 said: “We do not remove trees without having the appropriate licences in place and extensive environmental surveys are carried out ahead of any removal works to ensure appropriate mitigations are in place to protect local wildlife.”

In a blog post last month Dave Slater, Natural England’s director for wildlife licensing and enforcement, wrote that the agency had made a “careful assessment of the impacts” and “concluded that the felling of 0.7 hectares of woodland at Jones Hill Wood will not be detrimental to the favourable conservation of the overall bat population”.