October 2018

Buckden Roundabout

October 2018

Wildlife

Housing plans threaten our wildlife

The first piece I wrote in the Roundabout was on my latest book, published last year that celebrates the wonderful

wildlife and green spaces of Buckden and the surrounding area.

Wildlife on Your Doorstep

was inspired by the wild-

life that thrives in the field, hedgerows, scrub, old pits and wonderful areas of grassland and wildflowers next to my

house in Greenway and north of Mill Road.

Now just a year or so later, comes the devastating news that a speculative housing development plan is in for this

very site – the jewel in Buckden’s wildlife crown. It’s been a very busy summer for me following the application by

Gladman to build 230 houses on this site. The only positive has been meeting many Buckden residents and members

of the Parish Council and highlighting the wildlife of this site, and the village, to so many. It’s been great to see the

surprise at how rich our wildlife is, especially now I’ve calculated how many species live on the Mill Road site – more

than 750.

You may have seen this number appearing in several places on posters and other material from the Keep Buckden a

Village Group and I continue to add more species to the list. Get in touch if you’d like to know more. I have highlight-

ed the dozens and dozens of threatened species on the Mill Road site that are of the highest conservation im-

portance with 31 Red-Listed birds, 44 Amber-Listed birds and 35+ species of Principal Importance in England to

name a few. Such importance means wildlife experts from across the UK have voiced their concerns and submitted

comments that this important site should be protected, let alone built on.

For our wildlife, the summer has been little different to any other, but as we face up to the reality of planning appli-

cations and what it means for us, what about the other residents of the village – our wonderful wildlife? The stark,

and sad, reality is that they are faced with losing their homes. For species that have lived here for decades, such as

our popular Badgers, the huge flocks of Skylark and Linnets with their beautiful songs, 30 species of bee and a third

of the UK’s butterflies, they will be gone if the land off Mill Road is built on.

So as our wildlife faces a bleaker future in Buckden as greenfield sites are targeted, what do the coming months

hold?

Summer visitors will trickle away to nothing by the end of October. In their place, come visitors from the far north.

These include a variety of ducks at Buckden Pits and the marina. The colourful whistling Wigeon is a real character.

Look for the flock that frequents the eastern edge of the main pit along the Ouse Valley Way pit and grazes on the

grass. At the sewage works (hold your nose!), enjoy the large flock of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits that dodge

the moving arms of the settling beds there searching for insects. Some Chiffchaffs choose not to fly to Africa, but to

remain here and I hope to repeat my finding of a Siberian Chiffchaff again this winter. Last year’s attracted several

keen birdwatchers and it performed well.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about local wildlife, or concerns about the current and proposed developments from an

environmental and wildlife perspective, please email me at

goldenbins@hotmail.co.uk

Sadly, this has been a difficult column to write and I will be doing all I can to ensure our wonderful wildlife has a

voice in these worrying and difficult times for us all. A big thank you to everyone who has commented on the Mill

Road application and stood up for wildlife. Hopefully you are aware of the “Keep Buckden a Village Campaign”

through various posters and flyers this summer. Email

allanbretta@me.com

for more information and to stay up to

date.

Mark Ward is a nature author and the RSPB’s Editor-in-Chief, producing its magazines and other communications for its 1.1 mil-

lion members. His latest book, “Wildlife on Your Doorstep” is based on his experiences with the wildlife of the Buckden area.

It is available from Amazon and all good booksellers.

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Diddington and Stirtloe. Many of our advertisers tell us that advertising locally is very effective and the Roundabout is the first

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