Letters

Dear Save Coate!

My objections to the proposed development of the Coate area are twofold. My first reason is purely personal. I live at White Edge Moor in Liden and my [previously] uninterrupted view of Liddington Hill and the downs has been disrupted by the new hospital. I accepted this as a hospital is necessary and could understand [some] of the logic for siting it near Commonhead. Also we were assured by the council that this would not form a precedent and no further development or ‘infilling’ would be forthcoming - how naive of me! I know supporters will say that when Liden was proposed there were probably objections from those overlooking the area. But there comes a time when one has to call a halt on expansion.

This links in with my second objection, from an environmental perspective. Again, some may say "oh no not another from the ‘fluffy bunny brigade’!" But I would like to think my objection is from a more reasoned approach. I have studied the wildlife of the area since moving here 23 years ago and so [with others] have built up a lot of experience and knowledge of the natural history of the area concerned. I have links with the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust as a County Recorder [of Dragonflies] for 8 years and have been indirectly employed for the last year as a membership recruiter for the trust so get to meet many like minded people.

This area of land is, like the ‘Front Garden’ a last remnant of old traditional farming landscape; with small fields large thick hedgerows and a minimum of modern chemicals used. The copse near Dayhouse Lane has a sizeable Rookery and the area also supports Barn and Little Owls. If developed’ the land would then deny feeding and breeding opportunities for these and many other species including several farmland species which have been shown by long term monitoring of the RSPB and the BTO to be in severe decline at the moment. Again, if both these area are lost to development then all that will be left south of Swindon will be Hodson Wood, the land south of the M4 being more intensively cultivated farmland more typical of today's agricultural practices.

Coate Water itself, as has already been mentioned elsewhere is a SSSI [site of special scientific interest] which in itself attracts certain protections but, as with a lot of habitats, relies on the hinterland or ‘buffer zone’ around it to help preserve its uniqueness. Whatever zones any developers propose will never substitute what currently exists and the disturbance from any additional resident human population will almost certainly have a negative impact on local wildlife populations. For example, using the hospital development; initially, after the hospital was built, the birds visiting my garden increased both in numbers and variety of species. This is undoubtedly due to their initial displacement from their territories. Since then the numbers have dropped due to these creatures not being able to find any spare suitable habitat to breed in, so dying out. This is the insidious thing - there is no sudden dramatic sight of large numbers of creatures being found laid around dead, but a subtle population reduction through lack of breeding success. There is, literally, no where else for them to go.

I must emphasize that all these comments are from a personal viewpoint and do not represent the views of the Trust. I am still trying to ascertain their stance on this issue, but would be most surprised if they accepted it lying down!

This is just one narrowly focused objection, [and to my mind one of the most important] but as you are aware there are plenty of other facets to this such as pollution, increased traffic, pressures on local services, historical association... Need I go on?

In conclusion, the council must be made to realise that we will not continue to meekly accept the steady erosion of our natural heritage due to muddy thinking and [possibly] vested interests. It is time we stood our ground and said NO MORE!!!

Yours, Most Sincerely,
Steve Covey.