This article contains outdated information. Read our latest post for the most up to date information about Brockadale nature reserve.
www.ywt.org.uk/news/sad-day-yorkshires-nature-and-people-brockadale-nature-reserve
Brockadale nature reserve is recognised as nationally important, as it is home to many wildlife species that are found nowhere else in Yorkshire. These same species are also extremely rare across the whole of the UK. Brockadale is a place much loved by locals and visitors alike and has provided sanctuary for many throughout the pandemic. We must protect this natural refuge for people and wildlife, safeguarding its rare and important species.
Earlier this year, the Environment Secretary set ‘world leading’ targets to halt species decline across the UK. These included commitments to protect our woodlands - recognising them as one of the most vital habitats to help us tackle the climate emergency - with ambitious targets to recover nature, restore lost habitats, and return lost species.
However, North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) will shortly determine a planning application to quarry nearly 10ha of open countryside immediately adjacent to Brockadale nature reserve. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust believes that the proximity of such extensive works to this rare and nationally important woodland and grassland reserve is at odds with the commitments and statements we are hearing from the government.
While the planning application will not remove Brockadale’s ancient habitats, experts agree that such close quarrying is likely to significantly impact the reserve’s rare species. Given the scarcity of some of these species locally and nationally, we will not be able to restore them if they are lost. They are irreplaceable.
If you would like to support the campaign to protect Brockadale nature reserve, then please email planning services at planning.control@northyorks.gov.uk quoting planning application: NY/2019/0002/ENV.
Comments on the planning application have to be submitted by Tuesday 21st September (Now Closed). Please keep sharing this information with your social and personal networks.
Help us convince NYCC to protect Brockadale for people and its wildlife from these quarrying impacts. The government has set targets to ‘restore nature’ but if NYCC approves this application in its current form then they would be making a decision that does the opposite.
Find out more about the application and its implications below.
