WILDLIFE TRUST'S PLEA AS HUGE IMMINGHAM HOUSING PROJECT GETS PLANNING GREEN LIGHT

                                                                    

Wildlife Trust urges: Don't forget welfare of  Mrs Tiggywinkle & Co!

WORK could start next year on one of the largest housing estates ever to be approved in North East Lincolnshire.

This is for 525 homes - plus an 80-bed care home - on what is currently cereal-growing land adjacent to  Highfield House on  Stallingborough Road in Immingham.

The project was initially approved in May last year at a meeting of North East Lincolnshire Council's planning committee.

However, it has taken the best part of another 18 months for the legalities to be completed.

The successful applicant is the Brocklesby Estate which has not revealed whether it has yet signed up one or more housebuilding companies to construct the dwellings. 

Rubberstamping of the project will come as a relief to Estate bosses given the high costs of progressing the scheme.

Just the planning fee charged by NELC  for permission to develop this 23.29-ha site amounted to £40,136!

Among the numerous consultees has been the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust which has  asked for wildlife habitat to be created to compensate for the loss of green fields.

Its planning specialist, Clare Sterling,  has outlined proposals to encourage wildflowers, birds, frogs, newts, bats, bees, butterflies and dragonflies.

Says she: "Opportunities should be taken to enhance the site for wildlife, such as raising fences or providing gaps at intervals to allow hedgehogs to pass safely underneath and maintain connectivity between areas.

"We would encourage the inclusion of features for bats on suitable mature trees and would expect a development of this size to incorporate a significant number of bat bricks within suitable buildings.

"Provision should also be made for declining urban birds such as swifts, starlings and house sparrows as well as nest boxes on suitable trees." 

*Photo of hedgehog via Wikimedia Commons

The Grimsby News says: It is good that the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust has taken an interest in this project. Sadly, most new-build housing  estates are nature-free and soulless. Here's hoping that the Brocklesby Estate and any contractors or sub-contractors heed the Trust's recommendations.