We recently wrote to Sir John Kingham KCB FRS, Chair of Legal & General to explain why building woodlands and greenspace is unstainable and goes against the company’s ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) committments.
In our letter to Sir John Kingham we said:
We are campaigning against the plans to develop the 132 acres of woodlands and greenspace of Maidenhead Golf Course, owned by the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (RBWM).
Your subsidiary Cala Homes has entered into an agreement with RBWM, via the RBWM Property Company, to develop this public open space. This agreement is extremely contentious. We continue to question the processes and honesty around the land’s allocation in RBWM’s Borough Local Plan, and there’s no doubt these plans will lead to the destruction of thousands of mature trees and will significantly compromise the two hectares of precious Ancient Woodland at Rushington Copse on site.
We’re sure you are aware that protecting greenspace and biodiversity is a vital part of the steps we must take to prepare for and mitigate against the effects of climate change. Our government has signed-up to the UN’s Sustainability Goals, including taking urgent action ‘to reduce the loss of natural habitats and biodiversity which are part of our common heritage and support global food and water security, climate change mitigation and adaption, and peace and security.’
The UK is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries in the world* and a new study published in the journal of Forestry and highlighted in the Guardian this week (8 November)** warns UK forests face catastrophic ecosystem collapse within 50 years due to multiple threats.
It is critical that we protect what little remains of our wildlife as well as taking steps to secure nature recovery.
We’ve launched a new petition calling on our council to put a stop to plans to develop Maidenhead Golf course, and we intend to take further steps to continue to raise the profile of this horrible attack on the wellbeing of wildlife and people in our town.
https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?Id=2184
We’d also like to draw to your attention the Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) scoping report that was prepared for Cala homes in respect of the planned development on Maidenhead Golf Course.
The potential significant effects of the proposed development on Ecology were listed in section 6.3.22, organised into construction phase and operational phase as shown below:
Construction phase
• Damage via machinery incursion, pollution and spillages/runoff on retained habitats on or adjacent to the Site including ancient woodland (Rushington Copse)
• Destruction, damage or disturbance to bat roosts in buildings and (pending survey
results) trees during Site clearance works
• Disturbance of foraging/commuting bats, and bats roosting in retained habitats
(e.g. tree roosts) due to insensitive construction lighting. Destruction of badger setts and/or killing/injury of badgers during Site clearance and construction works.
• Entrapment of badger, hedgehog and other small animals in excavations during construction work
• Destruction of nests, eggs and young of nesting birds during Site clearance works, potential disturbance of Schedule 1 protected bird species (firecrest) during clearance and construction works
• Killing/injury of slow worm during Site clearance and construction works
Operational phase
• Damage from recreational pressures (principally path erosion and trampling) to offsite protected areas including Burnham Beeches SACs as well as SSSIs, LNRs and LWSs within 2 km.
• Permanent loss of habitats to construction footprint including broad-leaved semi- natural woodland of high ecological value, semi-improved grassland of moderate ecological value and modified grassland of low ecological value.
• Damage from recreational pressures (principally path erosion and trampling) to onsite retained habitats, particularly Rushington Copse (ancient woodland).
• Permanent loss of foraging and roosting habitat for bats and risk of disruption to
commuting corridors with attendant loss of landscape connectivity.
• Permanent loss of habitat for nesting birds including Species of Principal Importance
• Permanent loss of habitat for slow worm
It’s clear this development will significantly damage local biodiversity and the environment.
Please can you urgently review these environmentally damaging plans against your own ESG targets? It’s not right to say one thing and then do another, and we must take urgent action now to halt the destruction of our wildlife habitats for the sake of younger and future generations.
*https://www.wwf.org.uk/future-of-uk-nature
On 21 November, we received the following reply from John Allan, Managing Director of Cala Homes:
Thank you for your email regarding our proposed development in Maidenhead, which has been
passed to me by the team at Legal & General and I am responding in my capacity as Managing
Director for Cala Homes (Chiltern), the business responsible for the proposals for the
Maidenhead Golf Club site. I can, however, confirm that a copy of this response has been
shared with Sir John Kingman’s office.
Our owner, Legal & General, has pledged to invest where there is potential to drive
decarbonisation, whilst at the same time providing long-term, positive outcomes for society
and we believe our proposals for this development absolutely meets these criteria; delivering
wider economic, social and environmental benefits. In this case, it will deliver much-needed
homes in this part of the country, including affordable homes for rent and shared ownership
and it will provide substantial publicly accessible green space. The ancient woodland will be
retained and protected, and the development will also deliver a 10% biodiversity net gain. In
addition, vital community infrastructure will also be provided, including new schools.
We are also looking at plans for an organisation to hold precious woodland and green space
in trust, ensuring its protection for future generations.
The Preliminary Ecological Appraisal conducted by Sundew Ecology sets out a series of
surveys required in order to fully assess the ecology on the site and naturally we will be
following this common approach through the work of our own professional experts in this field,
who will produce comprehensive reports that will be submitted as part of the planning
application.
With regards to our initial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping, all of
the points outlined in your email will be addressed in the subsequent Environmental Statement
(ES) which is the next step in the statutory process. The ES will be available for public scrutiny
as part of the comprehensive planning application documentation.
I can also confirm in respect to Rushington Copse, that, as ancient woodland, we will have the
appropriate mitigation measures and long-term management arrangements put in place to
safeguard its future.
Finally, I should point out that following our first two rounds of public consultation (Nov 22 and
Feb 23), we have worked through the valued feedback we received from the local community
and our team have also, of course, previously met with members of the Maidenhead Great
Park group to discuss our proposals and the next stages of ecological assessments and we
very much hope to maintain an open dialogue with the campaign group as our plans move
forward.
I hope this information helps to reassure you that we understand the importance of this site for
Maidenhead and that we are committed to delivering the proposals for much-needed new
homes responsibly, following all appropriate statutory processes.
We pan to write to Sir John again, hoping to get a direct response from the L&G board.