Lafarge proposals threaten nature reserve

8.22.00pm GMT Tue 10th Mar 2009

A group of councillors and politicians, including MP Grant Shapps and Lib Dem councillor Louise Lotz show their support for opposition to the Lafarge development.

A report follows by Lib Dem councillor Louise Lotz, who attended a public meeting that was held on 17th February to discuss proposals by Lafarge to build 4000 houses.

Geoff Ralph chaired a packed meeting at Howlands Baptist Church which was held to show how the Lafarge development would impact on the nature reserve if it is allowed to proceed. There was a history of the nature reserve and talks about harvest mice, bats and polecats by several local experts. The nature reserve consists of 15 hectares of land sold to the council some 12 years ago and since then it has been run by local nature lovers. Many listed species will be threatened if a development proposed by Lafarge goes ahead. In particular, the harvest mice will lose their traditional migration routes and many remarkable bird species that shelter in the milder winters there during their global migrations will be threatened. These convincing and knowlegeable presentations movingly showed how some birds have been recorded visiting year after year. Polecats are also threatened due to migration routes being disturbed, and bats and rodents could be threatened by the domestic cats. There were further presentations by local experts. The speakers were the Commons Warden, Peter Oakenfell, on birds, Michael Clark, chair of mammal group, on polecats, Roger Harvard, Natural England Bats, Barry Trevis, also of Lemsford Springs nature reserve and also former Environment Strategy Officer of WHBC. Glyn Dimond of Commonswood Nature Watch Committee led the floor discussion.

Jill Weston gave a talk on housing in relation to the greenbelt, and many contributions from the floor gave rousing testimonies on the site and its importance to the community. Jill said basically that there should be no more development in the SE of England, and that empty houses and Brownfield sites elsewhere in the country should be made available, because we already have a greater housing density in the Southeast than elsewhere in the country. MP Grant Shapps also attended the meeting, along with representatives from the Greens, Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, all supportive. I believe a cross party group should take this forward with a joint petition.