Letters: Don't despair at losing fields - new homes can actually boost nature
SIR – Last week you announced the decision of the planning inspector for the development of 42 dwellings at School Lane, Milford, to go ahead.
Whilst our sympathies lay with the people living closest to the site, should we now take a step back and look at some of the positive enhancements the development proposals will bring to benefit wildlife and local families?
It is appreciated that this may not be a populist view, but wildlife will undoubtedly gain by the change from the present intensively farmed arable land to a development that will incorporate many benefits that will bring birds, invertebrates and animals to this site.
Mention has previously been made of the wildlife that exists on this corner site, e.g. fox, hedgehog and a handful of birds.
In reality, the only birds to use this intensively farmed land are a few pheasants, rooks and woodpigeon who wonder up and down the tracks and between the rows of planted crops.
In other words, and in comparison with other green sites, there is very little animal activity here at all. Birds do not feed on the crops, nor do they nest within them.
As with most human food crop sites, the land itself is sterile of wildlife. Annual herbicidal treatments used to intensify crops are devastating to wildlife, including the birds, bees and nectar feeding butterflies, all of which are in freefall decline.
Few wildflowers are able to gain a foothold as crops are planted right up to the boundary edges. The few invertebrates that are able to survive do so on the crop fringes and in the adjoining hedgerows, the majority of which are being retained and extended under the development scheme.
When we consider the new development that will take place, most of us will be thinking of the bricks and mortar, the tiled roofs, concrete or gravelled front gardens and tarmac road surfaces and, quite understandably, you will probably ask: how on earth will this help our local wildlife?
Well, new houses have gardens in which owners will plant flowers that produce nectar for bees and butterflies. They will plant shrubs and small trees where currently there are none. New home owners will plant hedges that birds will nest in. They will put up swift boxes, bird nest boxes, bat boxes and mini-beast homes in which invertebrates might thrive.
Homemakers will inevitably put out bird feeders, bird tables and water or construct garden ponds that will attract amphibians, dragonflies and damselflies.
The development site will have several hundred metres of new hedgerow planted along the eastern boundary. The developer will have to install dormice nesting boxes because the ecologist appointed by Pennyfarthing found evidence that dormice are already present.
NFDC will ensure that there are suitable conditions placed on the development to protect the dormice and try to encourage wildlife corridors along which they can migrate to expand their range.
Landscaping and a new wildflower planting scheme will be included as a planning condition whereas at present, there are few wildflowers within the present farmed area.
There will be new public open space created, land that is currently inaccessible to the public and will also include five full-size allotments which will be planted with flowering fruit and vegetable crops that will also benefit invertebrates, birds and animals.
It therefore seems inevitable that all these new things will benefit wildlife tenfold, maybe even 100-fold to improve on the single-crop planting that currently exists.
New housing will continue to be built on land that is considered green belt. In fact, just about every house in Milford has been built on what was once Milford Common, the last remaining piece of which is the ‘village green’ itself.
It has taken nearly 1,000 years of house building since the 1086 Domesday Book recorded Milford’s 50 inhabitants living in a handful of houses. Milford has gradually expanded its housing needs to support its growing population, now over 4,800.
Will the expansion ever stop? I doubt it and where will they build such houses in the future? On the most vulnerable land we possess – the green belt!
The space between us and our neighbouring villages still shows large areas of farmland surrounding us. It may yet take another 1,000 years before we eventually join up with them.
In the meantime, let us be thankful that 19 new, lower-cost houses will be constructed, surely a welcome opportunity for youngsters and families with local connections to remain in the village where they were born.
Plus a much needed school drop-off/pick-up point and a brand new cycleway to help other youngsters get to school safely.
Keith Metcalf,
Milford
