09 Sep 2023
Residents living on the Verulam Estate are suffering a ‘double whammy’ of misery courtesy of St Albans district council.
Everyone needs nature. And people know what’s fair, what’s just and what’s right. Significant encroachments on green space proposed, prompted (and not prevented) by SADC are abhorrent to every right-minded person living in our district.
The first part of this double whammy is the decision by SADC to include Bedmond Lane wildlife meadow in the draft Local Plan as a potential site for development. This is neither fair, nor just nor right.
Bedmond Lane Wildlife Meadow forms the whole of the western boundary of the Verulam Estate. This meadow is not just an ordinary field in the Green Belt. It is very special both in terms of supporting a massive range of biodiversity and – as a former Asset of Community Value – the extent of its use by many local people for outdoor recreational, social, sporting and educational activities over five decades.
This wildflower and wildlife meadow is described by the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Wildlife Trust as “unique in St Albans and of significant ecological value and importance”. It is one of the very rare examples of a true natural wildflower and wildlife meadow that remain in this county.
The meadow is also recognised by the ecologist at Herts county council as “floristically rich” and “supporting a sufficiently diverse range of plants to meet Local Wildlife Site status”.
The diversity and rich mosaic of different forms of life it sustains is huge and includes many mature trees (some with Tree Preservation Orders) and a vast array of flora, together with fauna (including deer), many species of insects (especially butterflies) and a large range of birds and invertebrates. The beauty of this wildlife meadow is like an ecological kaleidoscope, constantly changing through the seasons. Its value to the environment is immense. Even protected species of orchid can be found there.
SADC’s proposal that this wildlife meadow has potential for development flies in the face of the Government’s Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 which states: “We will halt the decline in our biodiversity so we can achieve thriving plants and wildlife … This goal is at the apex of our plan: all other goals will help us to achieve it.”
The Government Plan has a commitment “to restore or create more than 500,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat by 2042”.
Looking now at the second part of this double whammy, and how the district council seems intent on smothering all of the remaining green lungs on and around the Verulam Estate because, at precisely the time it is proposing Bedmond Lane Wildlife Meadow for development, it is sitting on its hands and effectively doing nothing to stop the land grab of green parcels of land in and around the estate.
As previously reported in the St Albans Times last week, these parcels of land are being regularly sold at auction for development due to maladministration by St Albans city council some 50 years ago.
These green lungs were crucial elements in the original plan for the estate. They were designed for the openness, both visually and spatially, that they provided as an integral part of the character of the estate. The current land grab was prompted by maladministration by SADC in the first place. The same SADC who are now singularly failing to prevent it. Fair, just or right? You decide.
Sometimes people feel let down by politicians and those in authority. In these circumstances – as the green lungs of nature are being hit in a pincer movement – Verulam residents have every reason to feel this way: ignored and forgotten.
