For over a year, a Cheshire-based charity has taken on the unprecedented task of fact-checking the nature-loss claims of HS2 Ltd. By cross-examining data, maps and aerial photography, experts at Cheshire Wildlife Trust have identified a staggering number of errors highlighting that vast swathes of wildlife will be lost without proper compensation.
Trees are missing, many streams and hedgerows are not mapped correctly or very often completely forgotten, many ponds are sliced in half and then only half-counted. The list of errors across the 176 mile track from London to Crewe quickly adds up to a staggering toll of losses for the countryside.
Dr Rachel Giles, lead on the new report said:
“HS2 have claimed there will be no overall loss in nature between London and Crewe but the uncomfortable truth is they can’t replace something that they didn’t know was there in the first place. We’ve seen time and time again, important sites for wildlife just missed out or wrongly identified. Valuable wild spaces such as parks, old cemeteries and re-wilded sites are often not properly recognised. It means wildlife will suffer as a consequence of their amateurish mistakes.”
One such site that has been missed out is a section of Swill Brook south of Crewe, near the village of Hough. Cheshire Wildlife Trust have been paying particular attention to this stream due to the presence of water voles. Famously known through the classic children's tale, The Wind in the Willows as the character 'Ratty', water voles are endangered in the UK. Their survival in Cheshire is increasingly in doubt due to a rapid decline in their numbers and the fact that HS2 Ltd is tearing through a number of their remaining strongholds in the county.
Rachel Giles adds:
“The water vole site at Swill Brook has been identified as a hedge in the calculations, it’s not even correctly identified as water. This is the habitat of a nationally endangered species. The issue is that this type of carelessness is replicated thousands of times between London and Crewe, it’s just one tiny example of how dire their mapping is. It’s exasperating that a project of this scale is using such poor-quality data that’s riddled with inaccuracies.”
“Moreover, where is the scrutiny? It is alarming that our small regional charity is the only organisation that’s properly checked these calculations. On a large section of the line, we’ve found the amount of nature loss is likely to be at least 8 times greater than what’s been claimed and that is a best-case scenario. In reality, it’s probably far worse than even we have imagined.”
“We must hold this multibillion-pound project to account otherwise nature will be paying the price. The Wildlife Trusts are writing an open letter to the Government asking for the construction of HS2 to be paused until HS2 Ltd’s work reaches an acceptable standard. At the end of the day, if we don’t challenge them on these failures, who else will?”
Sign the letter