Talbot Heath is chunk of high quality habitat right in the heart of Poole – it’s part of the Dorset Heaths Special Protection Area so it’s special and that’s official. There’s been a lot of work by ourselves and many others to help heathland both in terms of recreating lost areas and ensuring that the best bits are protected from development through the planning system. And it’s not just the risk of plonking houses on the site itself – but avoiding pressing too close to the edge. The flammable, sensitive habitat with its special wildlife confined to the ground (or very close to it) means the risk of disturbance and damage from dogs, cats and over-use is great and with it the loss of the species that bring heathland to life – birds like the Dartford warbler (pictured) are a real case in point.
That’s why the decision to give permission to housing close to Talbot Heath is such a big deal – it’s not just the threat to the site itself but also the signal that it sends to other communities and local authorities that it’s possible to get away with hemming in special heathland.
So we put in a request to the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the planning application – and we’ve just heard that the call in has been issued! So if you added your voice to the request, thank you – this is a good outcome.
The call in is, inevitably, just the start. If you’ve been following the Lydd airport saga, then you’ll know we are on the same road though further down what a colleague calls the courtly dance of submissions and statements as we head towards a public inquiry in February. For Talbot Heath we await a date for the public inquiry.
So just a start – but a good day for Heathland wildlife.
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