George Drive woodland. Photo taken by Pat Regan. |
It has recently been brought to my attention that Sefton Council and One Vision Housing are planning on destroying a beautiful Ainsdale woodland at George Drive. If this plan to bulldoze this area and build homes on this site goes ahead, it will be a travesty and crime against nature!
This well established woodland is home to a variety of wildlife including many species of birds, insects, bats and water voles (both protected species), frogs, toads and the occasional red and grey squirrel use the woodland too. There are also many wild flowers in the woodland like blue bells and mature elm trees. How anyone can consider ripping this down is beyond me! We must stand up and fight to stop this senseless destruction nature.
Bats and the Law
In Britain all bat species and their roosts are legally protected, by both domestic and international legislation.
This means you will be committing a criminal offence if you:
- Deliberately capture, injure or kill a bat
- Intentionally or recklessly disturb a bat in its roost or deliberately disturb a group of bats
- Damage or destroy a bat roosting place (even if bats are not occupying the roost at the time)
- Possess or advertise/sell/exchange a bat (dead or alive) or any part of a bat
- Intentionally or recklessly obstruct access to a bat roost
http://www.bats.org.uk/pages/bats_and_the_law.html
Water Voles and the Law
ENGLAND AND WALES
The water vole received limited legal protection in April 1998 through its inclusion in Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). This protection was extended in April 2008, so that Water Voles were fully protected under Section 9 (offences under Section 9 carry a maximum penalty of a fine not exceeding Level 5 on the standard scale (currently £5,000), imprisonment for up to six months, or both. In addition, the courts may order the forfeiture of any vehicle or other thing that was used to commit the offence).
Legal protection makes it an offence to:
- intentionally kill, injure or take (capture) a water vole
- possess or control a live or dead water vole, or any part of a water vole
- intentionally or recklessly damage, destroy or obstruct access to any structure or place which water voles use for shelter or protection or disturb water voles while they are using such a place
- sell, offer for sale or advertise for sale live or dead water voles.
Click on the link below for Water Voles and the Law
My friend, local Southport author and campaigner Pat Regan reported on this earlier this week on the OTS News website. Please click on the link below to see Pat's story on the George Drive woodland.
http://www.otsnews.co.uk/sefton-council-planning-a-crime-against-nature-in-george-drive-ainsdale/
The local residents are understandably very upset by the planned land development! This woodland has been providing a place for their children to play and families to enjoy for generations. We need more green spaces like this not less! It's outrageous that anyone could contemplate taking this site away from the local residents.
If people don't stand up to these greedy land developers there will be no green spaces left eventually! Who wants to live in a land covered in concrete, tarmac, bricks and mortar? Not me!
Below is a link for a petition to save Ainsdale George Drive woodland. PLEASE take a few seconds to sign the petition!
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-ainsdale-s-george-drive-woodland?source=facebook-share-button&time=1469186315
This is an unpardonable on-going ‘crime against nature’ and the authorities have apparently given the green light to this eco-destruction everywhere without a genuine thought for the environment. But people can make a difference! Stand up and be counted and say no to greedy land developers destroying our green spaces! People power does work!
Countryside Awareness |
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