Chester nature lover saddened as wildlife habitat makes way for new housing

An environmentalist laments the loss of hedgerows at a former green belt site in Chester as preparations are made to build up to 1,300 homes.

Andy Scargill, chairman of Friends of the Countess of Chester Country Park, was among campaigners downbeat after losing the fight to stop the land, located off Wrexham Road , being declassified as green belt.

Then earlier this year Cheshire West and Chester Council planning committee overwhelmingly approved a housing scheme by Redrow and Taylor Wimpey which also includes a primary school, shopping centre, pub and open spaces – as well as an ecological area where great crested newts, a protected species, will be relocated.

Mr Scargill said: “Many people know I’m now chair of the country park in Chester and we are busy planting hedgerows because hedgerows, since the 1950s, across the country have disappeared massively – a complete change by government in the way that agriculture works.

“We are busy replanting hedgerows, as many other people are across the country, because we realise they are so valuable. Whereas here on this site they are actually tearing hedgerows down and these hedgerows will take 100 years to recover.”

Mr Scargill, a retired secondary school teacher, saw red when hedgerows earmarked for removal were wrapped in nets to prevent nesting birds.

He added: “People are just beginning to realise that hedgerows are very important. They create green corridors through which animals can travel. They create habitats where birds can nest and small animals can nest and the flowers are supporting invertebrates and pollinators and we know pollinators are in decline.

“And then later on in the year when the berries come, they support the birds as a food source to get them ready for winter.”

Mr Scargill believes there was no need to build on the green belt saying there are sufficient previously developed brownfield sites in Cheshire where the homes could have gone.

He continued: “Developers like Redrow, they build these huge estates and they might claim some are affordable, but affordable by who? And then the other thing that often isn’t built is social housing. That’s where we really do need in this country to have new houses. We need more social houses to get away from the private landlords.”

Many residents are fearful about the impact of all the extra traffic that will be generated on Wrexham Road.

”We’ve just got basically a two lane road going by, which is busy anyway, and so many people don’t feel this is capable of dealing with the amount of traffic that 1,300 houses will create,” added Mr Scargill.