A new report from Cheshire Wildlife Trust has uncovered what it describes as “shocking failings” in the high-speed rail scheme’s standard of work.
The trusts says it has been fact-checking the nature-loss claims of HS2 Ltd for the past 12 months.
And they claim to have identified a large number of errors which mean large areas of wildlife will be lost without proper compensation.
This includes threats to the water vole population in an area of nature close to Hough, south of Crewe.
The report suggests a big list of errors across the 176-mile track from London to Crewe, with trees missing, many streams and hedgerows not mapped correctly or completely forgotten, and many ponds sliced in half and only half-counted.
Dr Rachel Giles, lead on the new report, said: “HS2 have claimed there will be no overall loss in nature between London and Crewe but the uncomfortable truth is they can’t replace something that they didn’t know was there in the first place.
“We’ve seen time and time again, important sites for wildlife just missed out or wrongly identified.
“Valuable wild spaces such as parks, old cemeteries and re-wilded sites are often not properly recognised.
“It means wildlife will suffer as a consequence of their amateurish mistakes.”
One site missed out is a section of Swill Brook near the village of Hough.
The Wildlife Trust has been monitoring the stream due to the presence of water voles – an endangered species in the UK.
Their survival in Cheshire is in doubt due to a rapid decline in numbers.
Rachel Giles added: “The water vole site at Swill Brook has been identified as a hedge in the calculations, it’s not even correctly identified as water.
“This is the habitat of a nationally endangered species.
“The issue is that this type of carelessness is replicated thousands of times between London and Crewe, it’s just one tiny example of how dire their mapping is.
“It’s exasperating that a project of this scale is using such poor-quality data that’s riddled with inaccuracies.
“Moreover, where is the scrutiny? It is alarming that our small regional charity is the only organisation that’s properly checked these calculations.
“On a large section of the line, we’ve found the amount of nature loss is likely to be at least 8 times greater than what’s been claimed and that is a best-case scenario.
“In reality, it’s probably far worse than even we have imagined.
“We must hold this multi-billion pound project to account otherwise nature will be paying the price.
“The Wildlife Trusts are writing an open letter to the Government asking for the construction of HS2 to be paused until HS2 Ltd’s work reaches an acceptable standard.
“At the end of the day, if we don’t challenge them on these failures, who else will?”
People can sign the letter by visiting: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/hs2-sign-our-open-letter#form
(Image by Terry Whittaker 2020 Vision)
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