“ The Times They Are A-Changing”

In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote his classic song, of which the last verse reads :

The line it is drawn

The curse is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is

Rapidly fadin’

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

I started this blog, because I felt that 2016 would be a year when monumental changes to Paddock Wood would be set in stone and the start of a new period of a major house building boom would begin. It is unlikely that the first bricks will be laid in 2016, but planning applications are likely to be finalized and the road to the start of laying the first brick will have begun. From the song “ The line it is drawn, the curse is cast ….”

Possibly it will be the last year to see the town’s wildlife as it is, before work commences on building 1000 new homes in the coming years. The times are indeed a-changing.

But the changing continues, for not only did Tunbridge Wells Borough Council issue the last public consultation of the current house building plans this week, a day later they also announced they were looking for new land for the next round of house building to take us up to 2033 !

Paddock Wood’s growth

Looking back on the history of the town, since the coming of the railway in the mid 1800’s, it has been one of periodic expansions. Google Earth shows this well, with landscape photographs taken since 1940.

Paddock Wood  circa 1940

Paddock Wood  circa 1960

Paddock Wood  circa 1990

Paddock Wood  circa 2003

Paddock Wood  circa 2015

What is apparent is how the farmland surrounding the town has, over the last 60 -70 years, been transformed into land containing ever more homes. So yes this round of house building is the largest since 1960, but with a growing national & world population, I can’t see how you can hold back the tide of more and more houses. Here is an interesting way to view the growth in human population over the last 2000 years see  www.vox.com/2016/1/30/10872878/world-population-map

Protecting Wildlife

Over the last 30 years or so, house building in the UK has been at a level insufficient to meet the growing demand for more homes. The developers have been buying up land, but this has not resulted in more houses. One reason they give is that the planning regulations are so strict that they can’t get permission for their building plans. An issue they have raised with the UK government is that the UK’s wildlife laws are far too strict and need relaxing. It looks like they have been listened to, for this week the governments ‘wildlife champion’  (I use the term very loosely) Natural England have pressed on with a number of changes, which on the face of it look like someone has ‘leaned on them’ to unblock the ‘wildlife restrictions’  in the planning process.

Firstly, Natural England are seeking opinions on a trial in the Woking area, where instead of protecting individual sites containing Great Crested Newts (Triturus cristatus), they wish to take a ‘landscape approach’ to great crested newt (GCN) protection. GCN’s currently receive some of highest legal protection of any species in the UK, not only is it illegal to kill, maim or injure, individual animals, it is also illegal to destroy habitats where they rest or breed.

Now, if the wildlife champions, Natural England, have their way, it will full steam ahead for developers to kill the animals, or trash where they live, provided they help pay to ensure that overall within the borough of Woking ‘Favourable Conservation Status’  for GCN’s is achieved. This is known as ‘biodiversity offsetting’ or ‘habitat banking’. It’s been tried in other parts of the world and the jury is out as to whether it actually works. Many respected academics have struggled to find one example where it has properly worked for any species it’s been tried out on.

I think I know ‘a fudge’ when I see it !

However, despite this,  Natural England have indicated that if this pilot project works, then they plan to roll it out for across the UK, for not only GCN’s, but in principle for many other currently ‘protected’ species as well.

The second bit of wonderful wildlife protection news from Natural England this week is that from April this year they will no longer fund the local record centres around the country; where all the records of legally protected animals are kept . Presently, ecological consultants, employed by developers, are supposed to check what records there are of legal protected species, in areas where their clients wish to build. Most consultants go to the local record centres for up to date records on protected species. Record centres which might no longer exist, so the question arises what happens to the future of these and future records ?

So what a glorious week for wildlife protection in Paddock Wood this has been.  The green light is given to allocate the land where 1000 houses can be built. A request has been made for even more land to build on. The government’s wildlife champion is doing the government’s bidding and helping to ensure that no little critters get in the way and hold up the granting of future planning permission to build upon England’s green and pleasant land.

As the last few lines in the song goes :

The order is

Rapidly fadin’

And the first one now

Will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

Finding Space for Willdife

Seen from space, the Earth is a wonderful blue jewel. A planet where life abounds. Life which is interlinked, like a spiders web. Touch one part of the web and the effects ripple out across the whole of the web. We are part of that web, but sometimes we falsely believe that we are the most important part of the life on that web.

I am minded of the following Cree prophecy from America :

When all the trees have been cut down,

When all the animals have been hunted,

When all the waters are polluted,

When all the air is unsafe to breathe,

Only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

And of a quote from the naturalist Gerald Durrell :

“People think I’m trying to save fluffy animals. But I’m trying to stop the human race from committing suicide”!

This week the signs are not good for the future of the wildlife, which forms part of the web of life of our small town. I am writing this blog to record what life can still be found on that web. Time will tell whether, as a community, we value all our fellow ‘web friends’ or whether as the town expands, our grab of finite resources will be at the expense of our fellow wildlife inhabitants, who enrich our lives in ways which we will only understand, and truly value, once they are gone.