For further information contact Jamie Roberts or Matt Shardlow on 01733 201 210
Notes for Editors
West Thurrock Marshes
West Thurrock Marshes on the banks of the river Thames was once a flower-rich marshland. A power station was built there after the war and large areas were used as a dumping ground for fuel ash. When the power station closed down in the early 1990s wildlife began to return. Incredibly, the site is now one of the richest and most important wildlife sites in the UK, home to over 1300 species of invertebrate, bird and plant. Many of the animals were once inhabitants of the now largely destroyed flower rich grasslands and upper saltmarsh of the Essex coast and are today extremely rare and endangered; there are 36 species listed in the Government’s Red Data Book of rare species and seven animals prioritised for UK conservation action.
The legislation and policy framework
The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006) Biodiversity Duty
Section 40(1) of the NERC Act places a direct statutory duty to conserve biodiversity on all public authorities:
Every public authority must, in exercising its functions, have regard, so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of those functions, to the purpose of conserving biodiversity.
By section 41(3), the Secretary of State must take such steps as appear to him to be reasonably practicable to further the conservation of the living organisms and types of habitats included in the list of species of principal importance (the UKBAP list). He is further required to promote the taking by others (such as public bodies) of such steps to further the conservation of the statutory priority species.
Planning Policy Statement 9: Biodiversity and Geological Conservation (PPS9)
PPS9 (August 2005) contained two important new protections for biodiversity in general and for UKBAP species in particular:
The new alternative sites principle. This favoured the locating of any development which stood to compromise biodiversity at alternative sites resulting in no or less harm
A new requirement that planning authorities should refuse permission where harm to the species or their habitats would result, unless the need for, and benefits of, the development clearly outweighed the harm.
Examples of species threatened by the Royal Mail development
The Distinguished jumper (Sitticus distinguendus): a charismatic spider found on only two sites in the UK – both threatened brownfield sites. The spider has recently been added to the Government biodiversity conservation list that requires its protection.
The Brown-banded carder bee (Bombus humilis) and Red-shanked bumblebee (Bombus ruderarius) depend on the large areas of flower-rich grassland, most of which will be destroyed by the development. Both these bumblebees have declined massively in the UK and are now in a perilous position.
The Saltmarsh shortspur beetle (Anisodactylus poeciliodes): a large proportion of the habitat of this rare and endangered beetle will be lost – replaced by a car park.
Despite the Royal Mail Group’s Post OfficeTM advertisements featuring happy ants, the ants on this site will be less amused. The new development will stamp out a population of the rare Hump-backed red ant (Myrmica bessarabica).
