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…

Going bats...

 

Noctule bats over Upper Bush...

I was pleased to be invited by an old former colleague of mine to go bat watching in and around the woods to the west of Bush Valley in Cuxton. Red Wood is part of the Halling and Trottiscliffe Escarpment SpecialSite of Scientific Interest, an area which covers most of the local Cuxton woodland from Upper Bush, up either side of the valley and over the hill through to Pilgrims Road in Halling.

The north end of Red Wood is an old chestnut coppice, but Jeff told me there are some big old chestnut trees in there where the bats like to roost during the day. This was news to me as I thought bats hid out in churches, barns, crypts and people’s lofts, but apparently not.

In the early evening, Jeff took me to show where he had found a colony of Noctule bats roosting.  How he how found it I don’t know, but we picked our way through the coppices until we came to a couple of great old chestnuts, just coming into leaf but cracked and worn and in pretty poor shape. These were just the things for these bats, however, and indeed you could see the guano all around and all over the branches of the trees. 

It was a bit too dark in the woods to take any decent pics and as the bats were already active I didn’t want to use a flash. I thought bats had an ultrasonic squeak but you could hear these chattering away as they left the trees and shot out towards Upper Bush. There were probably 40-50 bats emerging from the hollow trees as we watched. Jeff told me they were Britain’s biggest bat but they look a little bit like slightly over-sized, rather chubby House Martins, with a powerful, flappy flight.

Jeff had a gadget that allowed him to hear the ultrasonic squeaks as well which is how he knew for definite that these were noctules, although their appearance is fairly distinctive. 

I tried to get a video but the light seemed too poor for my camera (which was annoying as it still seemed quite light to me) so we made our way eastwards out of the woods and past Upper Bush farm and up by Longbottom Wood. You could see at least a dozen or so Noctules climbing up and then swooping back down over and across the valley to grab whatever munchies they could. We spent about half an hour or so watching them fly over Bush valley until it got too dark to see anything.

Despite not being able to photograph one clearly, it was an enjoyable experience. Jeff said that this was the largest colony of Noctules he knew of, although they tend to disperse in the spring and summer to breed.

By now it was around 8.30 and as the moonless sky began to darken, we headed off to the White Hart, well pleased with ourselves.