Dartford warblers are tough little birds - and they know what they like. For a Dartie a des res is a healthy heathland with an insect buffet set out under sheltered domes of gorse. In these havens they have the best chance of surviving the cold of winter (and Darties suffer in severe frosts) so that, in spring, they can scratch out their songs from the tops of yellow gorse clumps before hurtling into cover where a nest is safely tucked away.
Recent cold snaps have hit them hard recalling the winter wipe-out of 1962/63 when they were nearly lost to Britain as a breeding species. A few managed to hang on at Arne – now an RSPB reserve – making Dorset their true ancestral home!
Arne was the ark that sustained the tiny population and enabled them to reoccupy more of their heathland homes. Then they came up against their second great problem – their shrinking habitat real estate. Lowland heathland is a beleaguered habitat; its economic value for human use relegated to history, the result has been rapid loss of this landscape that is so distinctive of Southern England. The RSPB has been working for decades to protect the best bits and to restore a significant area of lost heaths.
Anyway, that’s a rather round the houses introduction to why the fragments of heathland we have left are so special. And that’s a problem for Darties – they find it really hard to get round the houses! Housing developments have put huge pressure on the remaining heaths – even if the development isn’t actually gobbling up the best heathland its proximity in terms of human pressure can drive away the sensitive wildlife that is found there. The impact of pets (especially dogs) of fires, both accidental and deliberate and the damage to fragile soils from excessive trampling are all known to damage Heathland – it’s a habitat that is too easily loved to death.
Part of the Dorset Heathland Special Protection Area (SPA), which also encompasses various other international and national wildlife designations, lies within the town of Poole. This fragment of Heathland still supports Dartford warblers and is adjacent to an area of open countryside which helps to give the heart of the heathland breathing space, a buffer to human pressure. And this is Talbot Heath (the name indicates its origins), its fate was conversion to farmland and now it's subject to a proposal to construct houses which would turn the pressure up on the remaining heath.
A planning decision has already been taken which gives permission for the development which we believe was based on flawed information contained within the Appropriate Assessment (a legally required piece of work carried out by the local authority). Our view is that this case is so significant both directly in terms of the impact it could have and in terms of the precedent it could set that we have requested that the application is ‘called in’ by the Secretary of Sate so that the issues can be properly considered at a public inquiry.
If you are a regular reader you may well be familiar with the call-in saga – as we have recently, and successfully, requested call-in over the proposed expansion of Lydd airport.
Follow me on twitter. We'll be following this case over the coming weeks.
Good luck in the endeavours to protect our heathland which is so important, one has to wonder why Councils keep failing to understand this. The decision should certainely be "called in" for a public inquiry.
redkite