HS2 will undo progress of stewardship schemes, say charities

A coalition of wildlife charities has accused the company which is building high-speed rail line HS2 of underestimating its impact on habitats and wildlife.

The Wildlife Trusts says HS2 Ltd’s nature assessment has not been carried out properly, and the methodology it has used to calculate the impact of the project on biodiversity is “fundamentally flawed”.

The trusts warned HS2 will “leave a huge scar across our countryside” at a time when the country is not meeting its own “no net loss” nature targets.

See also: NFU petitions for fair treatment of farmers affected by HS2 Phase 2b

The coalition is urging the UK government to step in and pause the construction of HS2 to allow a reassessment of its impact on nature and wildlife.

However, HS2 Ltd has hit back at the claims and insisted the trusts’ assessment is “not reliable”.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s evidence and planning manager, Rachel Giles, compiled the charity’s report (PDF), which carefully analysed all the available data, including HS2 Ltd’s own survey data.

“Many of the examples of mapping errors and undervaluing nature are on farmland, which supports wildlife-friendly features, such as hedgerows, ponds or wildflower meadows,” said Dr Giles.

“For example, well-established tree-lined and species-rich hedgerows, which provide berries, shelter and nesting places for farmland birds, have been given a lower nature value than the new hedgerows that HS2 Ltd is going to plant. 

“We also found watercourses, ponds and trees which were missed out of the data.”

Dr Giles added that some farmers and landowners whose hard work for nature has gained “wins” for wildlife under decades of environmental stewardship schemes may find their work destroyed by the construction of HS2.

As well as being devastating for nature, she said this was also a “poor outcome for the public money which supported these schemes”.

Company response

An HS2 Ltd spokesman said: “We don’t recognise the figures from the report, nor do we believe them to be reliable.

“The Wildlife Trusts have undertaken limited desk research and have not accessed huge areas of land for undertaking ecological survey, in contrast to the ecologists who have compiled HS2’s data.

“Independent experts from Natural England have consulted on our methodology and it has been rigorously assessed by a team of professional ecologists, with the data shared with the independent Ecological Review Group.”

HS2 said it is committed to reviewing its assessment methodology on an ongoing basis and intends to align more closely with the government’s biodiversity metric once it is published in the coming months.

The spokesman added: “As well as delivering the country’s largest environmental programme, planting seven million trees and creating over 33sq km of new habitats on phase one alone, we continue to minimise loss through design refinements, such as our recent 30% reduction of the impact on ancient woodlands on phase one.”