Reasons To be Objectionable (Part 3)

What Vineyard Farm's new restaurant complex may look like at night...

In previous posts I have described how the Vineyard Farms planning proposals for a new country club and restaurant in Bush Valley are primarily based on sophistry and inadequate and distorted data. The Ecological Impact assessment doesn’t quite fall into either of those categories, but, rather like the traffic survey, it looks to be limited in scope and with serious omissions. It seems that the assessment refers only to the impact on the immediate area of the site, as if somehow the site exists in complete isolation from the habitat around it. Both the Environment Agency and Natural England have nodded the assessment through, but only on face value as they rely solely on the assessors to flag up any issues.

The site itself is historically arable farmland, and so it would not be expected to harbour permanent populations of wildlife. Similarly, the band of scrubby woodland to the north of the site scheduled for hacking back is only around 40 years old and (from my own walk-around in it) I would agree with the survey when it says that it is nothing special.  (Update: as an antidote to my lamentable ignorance about the value of this "plantation" woodland, please see p.20 of the "Community Insight" document. It is far more valuable than I thought...)

The winery development site is in close proximity to SSSI sites to the south and west, however. Whilst these are acknowledged by the assessment as existing, the long-term effects of the construction and operation of the restaurant and entertainment venue upon the adjacent wildlife is only mentioned in passing.

Hypercallia Citrinallis

The extensive Halling and Trottiscliffe escarpment received its SSSI designation because of the presence of rare insects and orchids. The survey does not consider the impact that Vineyards Farm’s new country club could have on the nearby SSSI woodlands and its wildlife.  It mentions in passing the rare moth Hypercallia citrinallis (found nowhere else in the UK) and yet the assessment made no attempt to see if it was present, even in transit, on the site. A simple night-time moth trap could have been used.

Both the lighting assessment and Foster & Partners Design and Access statement show that the restaurant building will be lit up throughout the night.  At the moment this is quite a dark site, largely sheltered from the lights of Cuxton and further afield by woods and hills. Given the elevated position of the Vineyard Farms’ new country club on the top of Barrow Hill, however, it is going to act like a giant insect trap in Bush Valley when lit up at night.  The adverse affects of artificial lights upon wildlife are well known yet the assessment fails to mention it.  I wonder why?

Red Wood, looking south from fields above Warren Road...

I was also very surprised by the bat survey results. Back in 2017 I witnessed dozens of noctule bats (Britain’s largest bat) flying around Bush Valley, and yet the survey in 2021 found not much bat activity (though there were apparently some “big” bats around that the survey couldn’t name!).  It seemed that they suffered from mysterious technical failures of their recorders and no attempt was made to repeat the work due to the rushed nature of the assessment.

This lack of bats led me to go looking for the noctule bat roost that I had been shown at the northern end of Red Wood. Historical records of bat surveys in the area showed no evidence of the roost I saw, but then I certainly never brought widespread attention to it (I don’t count this blog as nobody reads it) and neither would my bat-hunting companion have done (and indeed, we have seen what happens when you advertise the presence of our wildlife to the wider “community”…).

Unfortunately, I found that that area of Red Wood has recently been coppiced (long overdue, to be fair). I certainly couldn’t find any evidence of the rotten old chestnut trees that were the roosting trees, but to be fair I am not 100% certain they were in the area where the coppicing has taken place. It is illegal to disturb bat roosts, but Tilhill (the woodland contractors for Vineyard Farms) are a highly professional crew and I have no doubt they would have spotted the roost if it was there.

Northern part of Red Wood, recently coppiced...

It seems likely that the coppicing activity would have disturbed any nearby bats though, who would have just flown off elsewhere.

If you want to make an objection to the council about Vineyard Farm’s proposal, then you are running out of time (closing date September 22nd.) 

As an aside, I have been rather surprised to see the degree of on-line hostility directed towards those of us who have taken the considerable trouble to read through the hundreds of pages of planning application documents and analyse them in detail. I came into this with an open mind, hoping to see a sound justification for the project. I really, really like Lord Foster’s design. Instead, the submission has been shown to be a rather disappointing collection of half-truths and distortions, some of which could have a significant negative impact upon the village of Cuxton. I thought local folk would be grateful for our efforts in calling all this out.

Instead, we have been decried as NIMBYS, whingers and (my favourite) “fluffy hand wringers”. I’m not going to respond to that. After all we live in a democracy, where one person’s angry, self-centred ignorance is equivalent to another’s knowledgeable attempts to educate and inform.

I look forward to seeing a reasoned, well-argued case in favour of Vineyard Farms’ plans. It isn’t in their planning application as yet. And it certainly won’t be put together by some of the Facetube/Twitbook brigade, who prefer lazy insults to the hard work of actual research and careful, documented argument…