www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Yet another new development planned!?? In yesterdays Daily Express.

"Plans to build an ‘Eco-town’ of 15,000 houses at Weston Otmoor, north of Oxford, have been slammed by Europe’s largest conservation charity, the RSPB.
The charity has slated the plans, which threaten the Wendlebury Meads and Mansmoor Closes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and would destroy BBOWT’s Woodsides Meadow nature reserve in the process.
Both sites are sensitive meadows rich in orchids, wild flowers and grasses, butterflies, moths and birds.
The Weston Otmoor proposal is a serious threat to one of Britain’s natural jewels, a designated wildlife site bursting with unusual flora that is supposed to be protected from damage."

ALSO - in the same paper a report on houses being demolished in towns and cities and then being built in the country. So do we really need so many new houses or "eco-towns"?

It is very hard to know what can actively be done to deflect the government from what I believe is a thoroughly misguided policy of development in what is already a very overcrowded country. If anyone has any constructive comments or ideas then I for one would be delighted to hear of them - the alternative is a bleak future for wildlife in the UK.

George

Over twenty years ago, in the interests of preserving this special area which was then also under threat, I along with numerous others, purchased a square metre of Otmoor.

Now then, what will become of all these individual 'landowners' ? Compulsory purchase ~ I could be rich beyond my wildest ~ My tree hugging days long gone ~ no more Fords for me ... I'll get a Vauxhall...

More seriously, I'd be interested to know precisely whereabouts the planned developement will be situated.
....

Between the A34/M40 junction and Weston-on-the-Green, rather than on the moor itself, which can get a bit wet at times. It is very close to a couple of wet grassland SSSIs which could well be affected, and rare hairstreaks are said to breed on the site.

Father Christmas will be bringing the developers a copy of Dale Carnegie's "How to Make Friends and Influence People" after the local wildlife trust only found that a reserve they had been leasing for years had been included within the footprint of the development from the local press.