Bleeding the land…
Can you dig it ?
Moss or Loss:
“We are not aware of any peat extraction since October 2005” Salford City Council 21st Feb 2007
Literally across the road from Astley Moss East, which is in Salford, are the conserved Bedford and Astley Mosses, which are in Wigan. Check out the sign and it tells you everything you need to know…`Peat takes thousands of years to form but only seconds to destroy’…read it, then hop across the road and see the destruction before your very eyes… “I remember vividly the then head of GONW, Marianne Neville-Rolfe, speaking at the launch of the North West Biodiversity Audit in 1999 saying that `Greater Manchester was primarily an economic development area and therefore it might not be possible to provide the degree of protection to valuable wildlife habitats that might be offered elsewhere’” she says “I was appalled and challenged her twice in writing to confirm that but she never replied. I have given up trying to get any protection for sites from Natural England – brick walls come to mind…” And this could have been the end of the story – the Salford Butterfly exiled in lowland Lancs, the Nightjars nesting sites knackered and the rare bogs rattling to the sound of Caterpillars rather than caterpillars. But no. Unfortunately it gets worse. Salford’s mosslands are about to be commercialised, awesome style...with Peel Holdings’ plans for a racecourse, Forest Park, the Port Salford rail and freight terminal, Salford City Reds stadium, more roads and more railways. Even Salford Council is getting the jitters…. “Peel Holdings clearly have their own vision for parts of Chat Moss” stated a Report to the Lead Member for Planning in June 2005 “There is concern that unless the public agencies, led by the local authority, have their own vision for Chat Moss, the opportunities to revitalise this unique former mossland landscape could be lost in a series of uncoordinated proposals that do not confer any real long term benefits for the City”
‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello…what’s goin’ on here then ? This photo of a digger quietly shovelling peat at Astley Moss East was taken in the morning of 15th Feb 2007.
Whether this means that the Council are going to start standing up to Peel Holdings or that they just want to get in on the economic act is anyone’s guess. A clue on what the Council would like to do can be found in a presentation by planning officer, Nick Lowther, back in 2002, when he stated that the mosslands “could provide a significant wildlife resource” but that “land ownership is a key issue”. He listed `mineral extraction, commercial racecourse, rail/freight warehousing and potential road/rail connections’ as major pressures on the mosslands. Salford Council’s vision for those mosslands is due out any week, while Peel Holdings’ Forest Park, racecourse and Port Salford schemes are due back at the council’s planning panel in May. “Salford councillors need to realise what a lot of valuable wildlife sites they have” says Judith Smith “The mosslands and Botany Bay Wood are a vital green lung for the county of Greater Manchester”. Those green belt sites are in the hands of Peel Holdings. On Astley Moss East the digger continues to load peat onto the lorry. Carbon continues to escape into the atmosphere. The land continues to bleed… The battle for Astley Moss and the Salford Butterfly has been lost. But the war might just be beginning…
www.salfordstar.com
47