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BBOWT calls on Government to halt HS2 construction
08/02/2023
A new report claims HS2 has undervalued natural habitats but overvalued its nature compensation measures
Work on HS2 should be halted whilst fundamental flaws in the way it calculated the value of nature along its construction path is assessed and corrected: that’s the call in a new report by The Wildlife Trusts.
Their evidence review concludes that HS2 hugely undervalued natural habitats and the wildlife being destroyed by construction of the new high-speed rail line, but overvalued the impact of its nature compensation measures.
Work on the construction of HS2 is currently underway in our area. A large part of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s (BBOWT) Calvert Jubilee Nature Reserve between Bicester and Buckingham is affected, as is the western side of the Trust’s Finemere Wood reserve.
BBOWT says that the construction has had a devastating impact on wildlife in and around both reserves, with a huge swathe of countryside being turned into a vast construction site that is largely devoid of life.
Today’s new report was commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts, of which BBOWT is a member. It found biodiversity loss was nearly 8 times greater than HS2 had calculated for phase 1 of the project and slightly under 4 times more than calculated for phase 2.
The research found watercourses, ponds and trees had been missed out of the data, and discovered problems with the way nature was being valued.
Estelle Bailey, Chief Executive of BBOWT, said: “We know that HS2 Ltd has been destroying nature on our patch and our new report shows the damage will be so much worse than we feared. The calculations on nature loss and restoration are all wrong – they’ve ignored important habitats and turned a blind eye to others. It’s astonishing and terrifying.
“This vast infrastructure project is taking a wrecking ball to wildlife and communities are in despair at losing the wild places – the woods, meadows and wetlands that they love: they will never get these back.”
BBOWT and The Wildlife Trusts are recommending that all construction works should be paused whilst their findings are assessed by the government. They are also calling for HS2 Ltd to correct their calculations ensuring no habitats are excluded and a minimum 10% net gain in biodiversity is achieved.
Estelle Bailey concluded: “HS2 Ltd must repair nature in a way that matches the magnitude of the damage being caused. It must correct its mapping and errors in its figures and make all its new data publicly available -before it’s too late for nature.
“Our report exposes the absurdity of allowing HS2 Ltd to self-regulate without proper transparency and independent oversight. The company needs to be held to account by the Government for its failings.”
In response to BBOWT’s claims an HS2 Ltd spokesperson said: “We don’t recognise the figures from the report nor do we believe them to be reliable. The Wildlife Trusts have undertaken limited desk research and have not accessed huge areas of land for undertaking ecological survey, in contrast to the ecologists who have compiled HS2’s data.
“Independent experts from Natural England have consulted on our methodology and it has been rigorously assessed by a team of professional ecologists, with the data shared with the independent Ecological Review Group. We’re committed to reviewing our assessment methodology on an ongoing basis and intend to align more closely with the Government’s biodiversity metric once it is published in the coming months.
“As well as delivering the country’s largest environmental programme, planting 7 million trees and creating over 33 sq kms of new habitats on Phase One alone, we continue to minimise loss through design refinements, such as our recent 30% reduction of the impact on ancient woodlands on Phase One.”
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam