There's no joined-up thinking

The Natural Environment White Paper (2011) states that we will be 'the first generation to leave the natural environment of England in a better state than it inherited.'

The National Ecosystem Assessment (2011) stated that over 40% of priority habitat and 30% of priority species were declining.

The Biodiversity 2020 Strategy (2011) stated as its objective: 'to halt overall biodiversity loss, support healthy well-functioning ecosystems and establish coherent ecological networks, with more and better places for nature for the benefit of wildlife and people' 

There have been several other reports since 2011 but I'm not aware of any that has openly reversed or gone back on these commitments and facts. Actually I'm fairly certain that I have heard the Secretary of State and the Minister for Environment both re-affiriming the first statement very recently.

Yet a few weeks ago I drove home and on the 7 mile route between the motorway and my house I passed three lots of contractors cutting down trees, shrubs and hedging.

A few weeks ago would be the end of April. A time when birds are either busy building nests or actually sitting on eggs. And yet here in a 7 mile stretch were three lots of contractors destroying their habitat.

So I sent an email to my local council, Basingstoke and Deane. Putting aside the automatic response that says they'll respond within 5 days and didn't, I did eventually receive an email from the Principal Engineer at Hampshire County Council who very quickly pointed out that none of the works was carried out by them but at least he did bother to explain.

One scheme, where mature trees and shrubs have been removed from a large roundabout and several roadside verges, has a 'very demanding timetable and it was imperative that site clearance work was carried out so that the main contract works were not held up.'

At another smaller roundabout all the mature shrubs that were in leaf have been cut back and reduced to about 1/4 of the size and all leaf cover removed. Basingstoke & Deane council were due 'complete this work earlier but it was delayed as most of the available staff were dealing with the flooding'

Nobody apparently knows why approximately 100 metres of hedging has been removed from another road, other than we know that a roundabout is due to be created just about where the hedge was.

In conclusion, we have a large scale project being run by someone (or more likely a committee) that can't timetable it properly. A decision maker who has had since last autumn to cut back vegetation on a roundabout and a roadside hedge but decided that neither could wait until after the breeding season this year. 

How exactly is Basinstoke & Deane and Hampshire County Council going to achieve its part in halting biodiversity loss if it makes these sorts of decisions? And these probably aren't the only instances, I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of this unique appraoch to conservation all over the borough.

Local Decision Makers - if national policy is something you would rather ignore or you truly believe that nature is someting to be exploited and built over, then please have the gumption to tell your MPs so that the electorate doesn't have to listen to objectives that you can't be bothered to achieve.

And if that wasn't your intention then do a bit more joined-up thinking because the messages you are sending out are undermining your credibility.