“New Housing Targets Make Development on Middlewick LESS likely”

Friends of Middlewick: Our Position on the New Government’s Housing Targets

This is certainly a hot topic and we can see how some people are concerned about how this relates to the catastrophic proposals for Middlewick Ranges Local Wildlife Site.

[Yet another reason that in only five days over 6,000 people have signed the petition to urge Colchester City Council to remove the housing allocation for Middlewick Ranges during this Local Plan Review.]

SO, does the newly elected government’s push for housing make the controversial proposals for 1,000 houses on Middlewick more likely? Our reply – By the government’s own environmental laws and recent statements we say a firm and confident NO!

In fact, we feel their housing proposals should make development on Middlewick LESS likely. 

The reason? None of Labour’s housing plans change the national level value of Middlewick Ranges. Or the UK environmental legislation designed to protect such sites of high biodiversity value. In fact, the emphasis on building on low quality ‘green’ or ‘grey’ belt land, often of significantly lower wildlife value than Middlewick, should in principle take the pressure OFF such premier wildlife sites.

Middlewick is not ‘grey, green or brown’ belt land. It is ancient unploughed grassland, which makes it so invaluable.

Also, as discussed below there is the pragmatic angle. As a Local Planning Authority, why would you put 1,000 eggs in a basket (or a site) – when the evidence for inclusion in the Local Plan has been found by a multitude of experts to be fatally flawed? Mixing metaphors, we are back to Middlewick as a fast disintegrating basket – and a rotten apple which threatens to contaminate the entire Local Plan.

Traffic Chaos and Sewage – A Basic Lack of Infrastructure!

Naturally there is a lot of talk about wildlife – but Labour has also flagged up the need for infrastructure in new builds. Anyone who has been stuck in traffic in south Colchester – from Mersea Road to the Hythe – will be a little worried about the prospect of an additional 1000-2000 cars in an area where the roads are already at breaking point.

Speaking nothing about flooding, sewage, lack of GP places, school places, dentists and other  issues with lack of infrastructure in this part of town, the roads simply can’t be widened.

In fact, Labour have been very clear, new housing must have proper infrastructure. With the narrow and congested existing roads and horrendous access to the A12, this alone would rule out building additional homes on Middlewick Ranges even before you start listing the protected wildlife!

And that’s why our rules will make sure that we get that infrastructure as well, because I’ve heard what people have said on that: ‘We need these homes, but Ange we need the infrastructure in place.’ – Angela Rayner

Where have all the Flowers gone?

The UK has lost 97% of it’s wildflower meadows since the Second World War. And Middlewick Ranges is not just any wildflower meadow. It is rare acid grassland which covers less than 1% of land in Essex.

So why target this 1% packed with wildlife when there are so many less impactful areas to build?

A challenge for you: Go to Google maps aerial photographs and randomly zoom into any area within Essex – or most counties in Britain. You will find the vast majority of times you will zoom to a wildlife-depleted ecological desert: likely intensively farmed arable land, over-grazed pasture or tarmac of towns and villages. A fraction of the land is rich in nature, so much has been lost.

You would struggle to find a more damaging place to put houses in all of Essex than Middlewick Ranges. The impacts on wildlife would be vast and disproportionately damaging.

Do Labour’s Housing Targets Spell an end to Biodiversity?

SO, all things considered have Labour said anything about building on nature havens?

Are they specifically targeting these vanishingly rare surviving wildlife sites for housing?

Have they watered down or torn up the Environment Act, Local Nature Recovery Strategy, NPPF guidelines or climate and biodiversity targets?

No they haven’t. In fact, quite the opposite. They have reiterated the importance of the environment, open green spaces for the community and building in the right places.

Our Position

This is our position too. We acknowledge the need for housing, especially affordable and social housing. But these need to be built in the right places and not on such irreplaceable habitats or the UKs second most important Nightingale populations. This is why we have the NPPF guidelines and all the biodiversity rules and regulations, they are not a menu to be cherry picked.

We hope Colchester City Council take note – they have the ultimate say and responsibility during the current Local Plan Review. The new housing plans must not be used as an excuse to attempt to pave over the Wick or any other cracking sites for nature. 

The council have reassured us they are listening to the new evidence and will respect the decision of their appointed ecologist. We trust this is still the case. It seems increasingly unlikely their ecologist will contradict the expert opinion of 17 respected naturalists and now over a dozen nature organisations – who say that Middlewick Ranges is of national level value and that the impacts cannot be mitigated or compensated away. As such, Middlewick now risks to undermine the integrity of the entire Local Plan; and every passing week the council is missing the opportunity to search for alternative more viable and less impactful sites.

We do appreciate the extra pressure on the council for housing – but this also means finding  sites which consistent with their own and the government’s statutory duties and targets for biodiversity. And sites which are viable and less likely to fail and compromise the entire Local Plan.

Martin Pugh, Senior Ecological Consultant and Friends of Middlewick Deputy Chair

Dougal Urquhart, Chair of Colchester Natural History Society