HS2

High Speed Rail – Staffordshire Wildlife Trust’s position

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust believes the High Speed Rail (HS2) route will be devastating for wildlife and wildlife habitats.

HS2 is one of the biggest infrastructure programmes in our lifetime and the impact on wildlife will be felt for years. Wherever you live, if you care about wildlife, please add your voice to ours.
A total of 160 wildlife sites are threatened by HS2 along the proposed route. In Staffordshire, the sites affected include:

Woodland
The proposed route for HS2 navigates a path through one of the greatest concentrations of Ancient Woodland sites in Lichfield District. The most notable affected sites being Vicar’s Coppice, Ravenshaw Wood, Black Slough and Slaish, Tomhay Wood and Big Lyntus, covering a combined area of approximately 52 hectares (129 acres).

The woodlands, running parallel to the Trent and Mersey Canal, which is an important ecological corridor for a range of species including bats, contain a myriad of plants from swathes of bluebells, yellow archangel and ramsons to drifts of lesser pond-sedge and yellow flag, associated with wet woodlands.

Wetland
The proposed route will bisect the Bourne Brook near the village of Hints.  This stretch of watercourse and adjacent land incorporates approximately 38 hectares (94 acres) of designated wetland habitats.

Snake’s Hill and River Oxbow consists of an area of botanically-rich wet grassland, of a type which is increasingly scarce both locally and nationally, while to the south and north are expanses of periodically wet grassland which attract wading birds such as lapwing and snipe.

Heathland
Whittington Heath – a 60 hectare (149 acre) lowland heath site situated in an ecologically significant area between Cannock Chase and Sutton Park.

The Wildlife Trust's position on HS2
The Wildlife Trust believes the original Appraisal of Sustainability for HS2 was flawed. It did not consider the environmental impacts of the routes through the north of England, and seriously under-estimated the impacts on biodiversity.

A proper Strategic Environmental Assessment needs to be completed before any decisions are made on the proposed route. This would identify the impacts on wildlife and the wider environment.  It would also assess alternative, and potentially less environmentally damaging, options to High Speed Rail.

Along with many conservation and environmental groups we signed The Right Lines Charter. We support truly sustainable transport initiatives that really do cut carbon emissions and protect wildlife habitats, and call for a comprehensive review of the carbon costs and benefits of alternative options to HS2.

Consultation Process

The Government’s formal consultation process on HS2 ended on July 29th. You can view the response we put forward as one of the downloadable PDF documents to the right of this page.

If you wish to write to your MP and tell them about the damaging impacts of HS2 on wildlife you can find your local MP here.