OPINION
Example of an ancient Kent woodland threatened by quarry expansion (Image: Getty)
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Bird song. Leaves rustling in the breeze. These sounds survive in our towns and cities because, as a fiercely nature-loving nation, we have ensured we have laws to protect them. Right now, they are under serious threat.
As it stands, the government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill is set to bulldoze most of the existing environmental protections the public have fought for over the past fifty years and put our nation’s irreplaceable ancient woods and trees in line for the chopping block.
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Instead of requiring developers to avoid destroying important habitats, like ancient trees and woodlands, incorporating them into their designs or working around them wherever possible.
The new Bill would move us to a system where any developer with deep enough pockets could be given a free pass to destroy a 500-year-old tree, as long as they pay into a fund that helps nature elsewhere. Most school children could tell you that nature doesn’t work that way. An ancient tree provides habitats for many hundreds of species and once it’s gone, they, too, are gone forever.
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New housing is not the problem here. Our children and their children need places to live and we must help provide that. The problem is if we allow housing to be built in a way that strips our country of all its rich, green spaces we will force our communities to be stuck living in grey, nature-poor places, which science has shown is terrible for our health and wellbeing.
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The national outcry over the felling of the Whitewebbs Oak and Sycamore Gap trees show how much our old trees and historic woodlands are part of our national identity. The government must listen to the British public and change its Bill to protect our priceless trees and woodlands, before irreversible damage is done to our towns, cities and landscapes.
To sign the Woodland Trust’s petition calling on Government to amend the Bill, visit this page.