Newcastle City Council is setting out its latest development plans which they are calling their “One Core Strategy”, this includes a “Strategic Land Review” in which they have identified potential sites for new development.
In October 2011 they put forwards proposals for 8,000 new homes to be built in the Green Belt, including 600 new homes in the fields next to Gosforth Park Nature Reserve, which they are calling Salter’s Lane Neighbourhood Growth Area – it is not a coincidence that the fields are owned by Persimmon Homes who are lobbying the Council to allow them to build on them.
The fields that would be destroyed provide essential foraging habitat for wildlife that lives in the nature reserve. Without this habitat this wildlife will be lost forever. This includes families of badgers and roe deer, brown hare, several species of bats and birds such as barn owl, kestrel, and buzzard. Other wildlife in the reserve that would be badly affected by this development includes bittern, otters, red squirrels, voles, shrews and small birds. The area is also attractive and peaceful countryside that is well used and loved by local walkers, nature enthusiasts, dog walkers and cyclists. This is a piece of countryside not far from people’s homes where they can go to enjoy fresh air and the outdoors.
20 years ago Newcastle Council recognised the importance of this area and designated it as a Strategic Wildlife Corridor linking Jesmond Dene to the wider countryside. Further developments in the surrounding area since then make this wildlife corridor even more important today. The Government’s Natural Environment White Paper, published in June, makes it clear that if we are to halt the dramatic decline in Britain’s wildlife not only do we need to protect our important wildlife sites but we also need to create buffer zones around them and wildlife corridors to link them – the Council’s proposal clearly goes against this Government advice as well as other planning policies that are in place to protect important wildlife sites.
Thousands of people from Newcastle and beyond were appalled at these ill conceived plans and have been protesting to the Council to withdraw them. A “Save Gosforth Wildlife” campaign group formed to fight the plans and raise public awareness of the Council’s plans. They organised a number of public events at which hundreds of people have turned up to protest (details below).
The Council has been consulting people on their views of the plans and the closing date for comments was 4th January 2012. You can read the submission that we made to the Council by clicking here.
Newcastle Council has reviewed the thousands of responses that it received and at the end of February 2012 announced some initial changes to their plans. This included dropping their plans for the Salter’s Lane Growth Area due to the impact on Gosforth Nature Reserve and wildlife. They aim to produce a full second draft of their plan in June 2012 and there will be an opportunity for local people to give their views on this revised plan.
You can view the Council’s full plans at http://onecorestrategyng-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal
If you have not given the council your views but would like to then we would encourage you to send your comments by email to Harvey Emms, Director of Planning harvey.emms@newcastle.gov.uk and also copy your email to your local MP.
The Campaign So Far
On Sunday 30th October over 150 people gathered at the reserve to show their support for local wildlife and countryside, to protest against the Council’s plans and to call on the Council to protect this countryside so that future generations of people can enjoy wildlife in their city. You can find more information about this event by clicking here.
On Wednesday 2nd November over 200 members of Save Gosforth Wildlife lobbied councillors from Newcastle at a council meeting and under public pressure they agreed to extend the period of public consultation from a paltry 6 weeks to 3 months to enable people to have their say. Read more on this story here.
The Save Gosforth Wildlife Campaign organised a public meeting with Newcastle planners at Gosforth Civic Hall on 15th November, which was attended by more than 420 people. At this meeting it was clear that people strongly opposed the council’s plans and believe that the wildlife corridor should be protected for future generations of people and wildlife.
On 6th December we combined forces with other groups around the city that oppose the council’s plans and delivered a coffin covered in turf topped with a red squirrel and badger to the Council. We wanted to symbolise what their plans meant and raise awareness via the press so that the people of the city were aware of what was going on.
On 12th February over 500 people took part in a protest walk along the route of the wildlife corridor threatened by the development plans (from the nature reserve, along the Ouseburn to the River Tyne). Some of the protesters dressed as badgers to highlight that this enigmatic animal would be driven out by the development.
Throughout the campaign volunteers have spent hundreds of hours delivering leaflets, manning stands in Gosforth High Street, Twittering and updating the Save Gosforth Wildlife website and Facebook page.
If you would like to get involved in this campaign and help to save this site from development please get in touch with us via Facebook, Twitter or the Society office.
