Why do I even bother when a rich guy can unfortunately everything I work for and more?

[BirminghamWildlifeAdvocate]

My local council has had an application submitted to remove a massive portion of woodland which connects two nature reserves, is alongside a river which acts as a corridor for nature. Deer, badgers, hedgehogs even otters use this area to move through birmingham. For food, to breed, to live.
And someone has decided they would like to build houses on that area and destroy hundred year old trees, homes and food sources of countless animals.

The planning application includes these words "the site must be checked every morning for trapped or dead deer." So they know and expect to kill wildlife.

This is the middle of Birmingham by the way, a major city with limited green space. Why can't they build on the countless empty unused carparks? The dilapidated buildings and warehouses? Why here? Why this magical piece of land that contains so much? For 14 houses?
I know there is a housing crisis but these won't be houses for socal housing, they will be really expensive and massive and nobody i know will be able to afford them.

This site will most likely cause flooding, the area was purposely left over a hundred years ago to act as a flood plain.

There have been over 60 objections so far. I started a petition and got over 700 people to sign it. I was told by my local mp that it probably won't be enough and even though they are supporting me and raised an objection themselves, it will probably go ahead as the developers have a right to appeal of they are refused but 3rd parties don't if it is accepted.

I don't know how I can live in a world where I can spend all of my time and money trying to be eco friendly, when someone else with more money can say "right let's destroy this so I can get even more money!" I can't believe it. I feel sick and so worried for my children's future. For their safety.
There have been 2 similar developments on green spaces in my local area in the last decade. Why?

I'll Show you the link. If anyone can spend the time to object. This goes against the National planning policy framework for England, and it goes against the Air Quality Action Plan for Birmingham 2021-2026.
But that doesn't matter because money can be made.

eplanning.birmingham.gov.uk/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/Generic/StdDetails.aspx?PT=Planning%20Applications%20On-Line&TYPE=PL/PlanningPK.xml&PARAM0=1169190&XSLT=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Birmingham/xslt/PL/PLDetails.xslt&FT=Planning%20Application%20Details&PUBLIC=Y&XMLSIDE=/Northgate/PlanningExplorer/SiteFiles/Skins/Birmingham/Menus/PL.xml&DAURI=PLANNING

Welcome to the wonderful world of UK Planning which is completely stitched up by the Tory government dishing out contradicting statements and policies.

Basically there mate are all landowners and developers - all of them are Tories. It's just like the covid test and trace contracts.

You're more likely to vote Tory if you own your own house so what they are trying to do is give more and more people their own place.

The thing is, the last thing we need is yet more shitty little boxes in central Birmingham. We need well thought out long-term accommodation that is held by the government - social housing that helps people in need.

Instead blocks of land are sold off to Tory mates who develop them and earn a wad load of cash. The CEO of Persimmon (a big UK housebuilder) paid himself in 2018 a £100m bonus.

Just for one year of work!! £100 million pounds.

There is no housing crisis in the UK. There is instead a social affordable housing crisis in the UK. What we don't need is more "luxury boxes" what we need is low-cost long-term housing that is fit for purpose.

I have been involved locally and cried a lot of tears OP. It is so disheartening to watch every piece of land built on and no chance to stop it.

Restrictive covenant - burn that piece of paper - it's worth nothing.
The local borough planning team rejected the project - burn that vote - the Mayor of London instead will wave it through.

Time after time I've watched the little people - the NIMBYs as someone so kindly called us, fall prey to massive developers who create flats and boxes at £600k plus and only investors can afford that kind of price. It's a total nonsense.

They are all the same Hermione.

London's Mayor has allowed developments on every square inch and damn the trees and parks and green spaces people need. Labour is pressing with the need for more and more housing.

the Tories have scrapped the planning permission in many cases.

I despair, but as far as building new developments goes, they are all the same. Bastards.

Thanks @BirminghamWildlifeAdvocate, I have completed my objection.

Well said HermioneHere

@ChardonnaysPetDragon you're 100% correct.

I live in a Labour run council and they have been just as bad as the Tories. Pushing through huge developments on Open Metropolitan Land that isn't supposed to be built on - oh and ripping up restricted covenants as and when it suits them.

They are all in it together - it's not just the Tories at all - it's just they who are in power now.

The Labour run council here are more like the Tories than the Tories!

Thank you for adding objections.
and thanks for the extra information. it is worrying but I will find the time to pursue this I don't mind. in fact I enjoy it. you tend to learn a lot

We did everything we could to stop Planning approval to an inaccessible site. Covid came along and it was down to one individual to approve it. We now have houses being built next door to us, all we hear from the people delivering the construction goods is words to the effect of 'bloody awful access'. When we bought our house, we got £50k off the original asking price, because the access is dreadful. Developer still thinks he will get a premium price for 'luxury' 3 bed homes with 2 parking spaces each and no other parking whatsoever. I had three deliveries today, no-one from the new properties would be able pass my house while my delivery drivers were there, the path width between my neighbours' houses is well narrower than the width that can become an adopted road. Fine while the houses are being built, a bit trickier when people need to get to work/school/whatever. We also suspect our developer is laundering drug money (whole other story, criminal record, about £1.50 profit last year at Companies House but can build 10 houses!). Council don't give a flying fairycake, Police don't mind him knocking down our wall, on our land, nor do they care about his threats, on camera, to take off my husband's head with his JCB. Environmental impact has been ignored (there is a river leading to a very important SSSI) Japanese knotweed is rife. I could go on. I have no doubt at all that either money has changed hands or there has been some back scratching

OP have you tried contacting Planning Aid? They are staffed voluntarily by qualified Planners and can really help people/communities understand and take part in the process, and make sure they know how to make their worries and objections heard.

Looks like a pretty good development to me, rather it be used to support desperately needed housing than keeping a patchy bit of woodland around an old carpark.

Op speaking as an ecologist myself who works on big projects, please DO NOT do what some of the previous posters have been suggesting with regards to GCN, bat boxes ect as these are species that are heavily protected and you will be breaking the law yourself, interfering with these species if they are present with out a personal licence.
On projects like this we spend years/months/hours monitoring/surveying and planning these areas for species and have very strict licencing procedures we have to follow and to comply with Natural Englands strict licencing requirements. The ecologist involved won't reply to you, so don't expect them to.
More often than not people protesting and complaining are not aware of mitigation and ecological works and nearly always do more harm than good without realising the harm they are doing to wildlife due to a lack of understanding and knowledge of the work being carried out. If you really want to assist you honestly have to main options, the first work with the developer and local community groups try to identify enhancements to the development and offer community engagement as good publicity they and the council will listen. Alternatively retrain as an ecologist, just like I did and make changes from within, no projects I have worked on are influenced by protesting they just hinder and cause more issues, quiet often claiming wins if our design changes or works stop quite unaware it's is honestly nothing to do with them in the first place, It's just pure coincidence.

There are some developments locally which make no sense at all and can surely only be explained by corruption enabling them to happen.

Like a mini Sainsbury's being built at a busy crossroads about 100 yards away from a massive Sainsbury's. All it does is adds congestion to an already busy junction.

@Evergreenblue

Op speaking as an ecologist myself who works on big projects, please DO NOT do what some of the previous posters have been suggesting with regards to GCN, bat boxes ect as these are species that are heavily protected and you will be breaking the law yourself, interfering with these species if they are present with out a personal licence. On projects like this we spend years/months/hours monitoring/surveying and planning these areas for species and have very strict licencing procedures we have to follow and to comply with Natural Englands strict licencing requirements. The ecologist involved won't reply to you, so don't expect them to. More often than not people protesting and complaining are not aware of mitigation and ecological works and nearly always do more harm than good without realising the harm they are doing to wildlife due to a lack of understanding and knowledge of the work being carried out. If you really want to assist you honestly have to main options, the first work with the developer and local community groups try to identify enhancements to the development and offer community engagement as good publicity they and the council will listen. Alternatively retrain as an ecologist, just like I did and make changes from within, no projects I have worked on are influenced by protesting they just hinder and cause more issues, quiet often claiming wins if our design changes or works stop quite unaware it's is honestly nothing to do with them in the first place, It's just pure coincidence.

Who pays your salary?

It's irellevant who pay's my salary, thank you very much. As with all ecologists I'm a member of The Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and every thing I do has to be within their guidance and principles otherwise I risk personally loosing membership and reputation within the industry and it's a small one. Before you start throwing accusations I suggest you see how difficult it is to become a chartered ecologist 🤔.

Defensive much?

I only asked a question.

More often than not people protesting and complaining are not aware of mitigation and ecological works and nearly always do more harm than good without realising the harm they are doing to wildlife due to a lack of understanding and knowledge of the work being carried out

So by protesting and trying to save their habitat OP is harming the wildlife? As opposed to the developers who actively want to improve it?

Nice.

@Redcart21

I’m sorry you sound like a NIMBY. There is a housing shortage and people need houses to live in. It’s not as easy as saying build on brownfield sites as very often these sites are not fit for purpose for housing, they don’t attract families to live in those areas, lack of outdoor/green space and parking for houses. It can also be far more costly to build on brownfield sites.

It’s easy for you to say this sat in your home in a lovely area surrounded by greenery. There are thousands of families who need appropriate housing which there is a lack of.

The main reason developers don't build on brownfield sites is cost.

The cost of clearing, and sometimes decontaminating, brownfield sites makes them more expensive to develop. Passing on those costs to house buyers would make the the houses more expensive than comparable developments on greenfield sites, so less easy to sell.

Developers are in the business of maximising profits, not protecting the environment, and they have the ear of government (partly because so many of them make big donations to the Tories).

Imo, greenfield developments should be a last resort, rather than the first priority of developers. And as for housing being needed, there's an edge of town brownfield site just a few miles away that has had PP for 400 homes for over 10 years, and no progress has been made towards building a thing.

There's a battle commencing round my way. A major landowner wants to build 3,000 homes on a greenfield site right next to a national park. It's only served by 4 (very) minor roads, the rail route is at capacity, schools and GPs in the area are already oversubscribed and supermarkets struggled to meet existing need, even before the current shortages. If those houses have an average of 2.4 people per household, that's over 7k additional people moving into an area that bridges a gap between a tiny hamlet and a small village.

And the landowner? None less than Eton College, alma mater of Boris Bloody Johnson. I don't hold out much hope of any Tory minister turning this down, and I strongly suspect the application will be "called in" and decided at ministerial level.

Link below if anyone's interested.

I'm sorry to hear that much-needed urban space seems likely to be lost OP, but really hope the campaign against this succeeds.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

More often than not people protesting and complaining are not aware of mitigation and ecological works and nearly always do more harm than good without realising the harm they are doing to wildlife due to a lack of understanding and knowledge of the work being carried out

So by protesting and trying to save their habitat OP is harming the wildlife? As opposed to the developers who actively want to improve it?

Nice.

Here we go, do you want to know how many times I have provided mitigation for protected and endangered species keeping them away from works for protestors to setup camp or protest in donor sites or other untouched areas only to cause more disturbance and harm to the very thing thing they claim to be saving. I ensure that bio-diversty net gain is provided and acctally protect species and populations, what do you do? I make an actual difference not blow hot air what do you do? 🙄

You have done so well to find the energy to do everything you have done. I am so sorry about it all.

For the future- I know it all seems like we can't have much impact, but don't be hopeless, have a look at Immy Kaur who runs Civic Square. She is an inspiration and Birmingham needs more people like her. If you still have energy to improve the world I'm sure there's things that you can achieve.

FFS. Don't blame the ecologist here.

They do amazing work and they make sure that developers develop projects responsibly and with regard to biodiversity and wildlife. They are not the people you should worry about here.

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I ensure that bio-diversty net gain is provided and acctally protect species and populations, what do you do

In a development, such as the one described by OP of by the PP, how exactly do you do that?

The fact that you don't want to say who pays you for that is very telling.
What you do is provide the requisite whitewash so the developer or the council giving yet another planning permission to decimate yet more habitats and greenfield can go ahead with it.

Haven’t RTFT. But very cynical having seen a local developer get away with everything and anything. The rules are written by people who expect everyone to follow the rules and don’t consider people who will cynically exploit everything to make money. And these developers get away with it. It’s enraging. Good luck OP. Get on Twitter tooX

Why are you attacking the ecologist @ChardonnaysPetDragon ? In my (lengthy) experience they are consistently tough with developers and always extract the maximum protections they can within the parameters of the planning system. They are unsung heroes really.

If you look at my posts you will see what I disagree with.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

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I ensure that bio-diversty net gain is provided and acctally protect species and populations, what do you do

In a development, such as the one described by OP of by the PP, how exactly do you do that?

The fact that you don't want to say who pays you for that is very telling.
What you do is provide the requisite whitewash so the developer or the council giving yet another planning permission to decimate yet more habitats and greenfield can go ahead with it.

I can see there is no point to have a grow up conversation with you, you are obviously blinded by your ignorance and lack of understanding. Maybe you should try expand you knowledge with facts rater than bias and ignorance. Also why should I provide you personal details on MN about who pays for my services, that has ZERO bareing on my work. Thank you to others who appciate the work we do and yes we do come down hard on developers too.

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I read your post @ChardonnaysPetDragon and they don't accord with the reality I have seen in over 15 years of working with developers and ecologists.