04 Mar 2024
Much-loved birds have disappeared from the gardens of St Albans residents living alongside a major railway tree felling project.
As previously highlighted in the St Albans Times, homeowners in Lancaster Road and Gurney Court Road are angry at a scheme to remove many of the trees behind their gardens – including sycamore and ash – which are home to bat roosts, badger setts and nesting birds.
Network Rail insists the work is vital for health and safety, and their contractors hav refused to stop the work even though nesting season is underway.
Neighbour Nadia Bishara, who is leading the grassroots Wilderhood Watch campaign against the felling of the trees, revealed: “Neighbours have already spotted blue tits, long tailed tits, great tits, chaffinches, black caps, blackbirds, greenfinches and goldfinches pairing up and scouting for nesting sites.
“This is clear evidence that nesting season has begun in earnest, and indicates that any major work carried out from this point in the year risks severely adversely affecting the breeding of many species, including red listed birds.
“In light of this, I would urge Network Rail to adhere to Section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA) 1981 and delay any major cutting down, topping or pruning of trees until nesting season has well and truly finished.
“We can already see that the presence of people working with extremely noisy machinery throughout the day is having an adverse effect. For example, a resident on Gurney Court Road has noted that she now has no birds in her garden where previously she had plenty, after Network Rail contractors worked for two days clearing trees and vegetation.
“It doesn’t take a huge amount of imagination to realise that if our birds are terrified by the noise and disturbance around them they will be spending their days flying away and hiding instead of finding mates, preparing their nests and feeding their offspring. This will have a dramatic negative effect on our bird population, and could eliminate red-listed birds such as greenfinches from the area.
“Network Rail’s own review states that ‘works affecting nesting birds should not be undertaken during the nesting season’ and ‘all line side vegetation management should be planned to minimise any negative impacts on biodiversity, this is particularly important during the bird nesting season’.”
In a statement released ahead of the work, Tara Scott, infrastructure director for Network Rail in the East Midlands, said: “We know how important trees and vegetation are to local communities and the impact that removing them can have, especially for our neighbours. This is why we carefully assess vegetation management work before we begin and hold public events as well as send notifications before work starts.
“Vegetation, especially trees, can pose serious safety risks for passengers and rail staff. Trees can fall onto the tracks, risking potential derailments. They can also come into contact with overhead power lines, risking fire and also causing delays to services.
“The issue of leaves on the line causing a black ice-type of surface and affecting trains braking is well known and overgrown vegetation can also obscure signals, the traffic lights of our railway, and also impede our staff from safely accessing the railway.
“With all of this in mind it is essential we take action to manage the risk of the vegetation and keep everyone safe. All trees that are located within 6.5 metres of the railway will be addressed, the health and size of the trees outside of this will also be assessed. We will carry out the minimum amount of work needed to keep people who live near and travel on our railway safe for years to come.”
Following the start of the work, Ann Shorthouse, community relations manager for the Network Rail East Midlands route, told Nadia: “Although we fully appreciate your concerns that bird nesting season is beginning, we do need to carry on with our work. The size of our estate means that we are unable to stop all vegetation work during the bird nesting season and the trees we’ve identified pose a real risk to the safety and reliability of the operational railway in this area.
“However, we do take our responsibilities to the environment seriously. We are overseeing the work of our specialist contractor carefully. As part of their engagement, they are required to fully comply with our standards which set out the mitigations they need to take when work is essential during the bird nesting season.
“Nesting surveys will be carried out on the day of commencement of works between dawn and 8am, and every day of work thereafter. The survey requires detailed and extensive information to be provided by the inspector including weather conditions, precise location, ground- and tree-nesting activity and mapping potential exclusion zones to avoid any noted nesting activity.
“The survey methodology was developed with input from The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and The British Trust for Ornithology.”
Nadia’s neighbour Meryl, who lives in Gurney Court Road, added: “Network Rail have shown a dreadful disregard for our concerns and the wildlife which live along the track.
“It seems like this is a total removal of trees and shrubbery, not a selection of trees deemed ’dangerous’; a specialist tree management contractor would not have decimated the area! Let’s hope they stop the work soon. The ‘size of their estate’ is not a sufficient reason to justify ignoring our concerns.”
