We have sent an open letter to Highways England, asking them not to start cutting down trees or destroying wildlife habitats until the outcome of the A38 Junctions judicial review is known.
If Highways England doesn’t comply with our request, we will lose thousands of trees and several hectares of wildlife habitat for nothing.
The following letter has been sent to all Derby City councillors, Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Erewash Borough Council, Breadsall Parish Council and Amanda Solloway (MP for Derby North) asking for their support in protecting our trees until the result of the legal challenge is known: -
Open Letter
To: Highways England
A38 Derby Junctions
We, the undersigned, respectfully request that no trees or other wildlife habitats are harmed or destroyed while there is a legal challenge to the decision by Grant Shapps to give consent to the Development Consent Order for the A38 Derby Junctions road scheme.
Derby City Council and the Government have declared a climate emergency so the destruction of mature trees and other important wildlife habitats in these circumstances would be unforgivable.
Preparatory works for this road expansion scheme would have many detrimental effects on the city – the loss of mature trees at Markeaton Park and Mackworth Park, the loss of local wildlife sites, loss of natural screening that protects residents from noise and pollution and the associated detrimental effects on people’s mental health of all the aforementioned.
It is not acceptable that these many harms could be inflicted on the city of Derby and its residents when there is no certainty that the road scheme will go ahead.
We would like assurances that the preparatory / clearance works will be postponed until the outcome of any legal challenges are known, including any appeals.
Signatories to Open Letter
Companies and Organisations
Derbyshire Community Supported Agriculture
Kilburn and District Labour Party
Derby and South Derbyshire Friends of the Earth
The Victoria Streets Residents Group
Christian Climate Action (East Midlands)
Extinction Rebellion Bury St Edmunds
Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group
Derby and Nottingham Entomological Society
Derbyshire Amphibian and Reptile Group
Derbyshire Ornithological Society
If you would like to add your company or organisation to this list please email us at savethea38trees@protonmail.com.
Individuals
There are now over 1,200 individuals who have added their names to the Open Letter - please Click Here to see the names.
You can still add your name! If you believe that Highways England should leave the trees and wildlife habitat alone until we know the outcome of the legal challenge, click here to add your name or the organisation you represent to the letter.
About 100,000 trees to be lost over Kingsway, Markeaton and Little Eaton
A former Derby City Council professional gardener has calculated that the planned £250 million expansion of the A38 through Derby will cause the loss of up to 100,000 trees. Ironically, Simon Beavis, 63, who worked for the council in the 1980s, planted some of the trees, which were themselves put in as "mitigation" for those that were lost when the A38 through Derby was first built.
Most people will probably be familiar with the iconic trees that will be lost at Markeaton Park but the scheme will result in the loss of many more trees than just those.
All the trees at Kingsway Island and it's approaches will go together with those alongside the boundary of Mackworth Park. From Kingsway Island to Markeaton virtually all the trees on either side of the road and all those on the central reservation. From Abbey Hill Roundabout to Little Eaton Roundabout nearly all the trees on the southbound side. At Little Eaton Roundabout a large area for the construction compound and most of the woodland on the Breadsall side.
None of the environmental assessments in the planning application give an actual number for the trees that will be lost and some Derby City councillors tried claim that not even 100 trees would be lost from the A38 expansion when residents objected to the scheme (these councillors had likely not looked at the planning document maps, visited the tree felling areas and certainly not set out to count the trees).
So Simon Beavis set out to discover what that number is. Simon visited areas in the "red areas" in the Highways England maps that show where trees will be felled. Then marked out 20 sq metre grids, counted the numbers of trees in the grid and scaled it up to the area. Turns out around 100,000 will be lost.
“New trees can just be planted to replace the 100,000 - what's the big deal?”
There will be a net loss of trees - 11.38 Hectares will be lost to the A38 expansion and only 6 hectares of replanting is planned by Highways England.
It would take millions of trees over half a century to absorb the amount of CO2 that this road scheme will generate. A typical tree can absorb around 21 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, however this figure is only achieved when the tree is fully grown - saplings will absorb significantly less than this. (Source).
We are in a climate emergency and have less than 10 years left to prevent irreversible damage from climate change - we don’t have time to wait for the trees to grow back!!
We are in a biodiversity crisis the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world and one in ten UK wildlife species face extinction. Saplings don’t provide the food and habitats to wildlife that established trees do. Losing these trees and habitats will cause more wildlife to die out. Where will all the insects, birds and mammals go during the 4 years of construction and while the saplings are growing? We don’t have time to wait for these saplings to grow and for nature to recover.
Highways England say they will replace thousands of established trees, some of which are centuries old, with twigs wrapped in plastic. These do not provide food and habitat to wildlife, shelter or screening from the road or absorb as much carbon as an older tree.
Many saplings do not survive to maturity. The highways agency said it removed around 400,000 trees and shrubs when carrying out the A14 roadworks but a large proportion of the “mitigation” saplings have died off.
We are in a climate emergency and a biodiversity crisis that threatens human civilisation and life on Earth.
Scientists are warning us that we need urgent, immediate action on climate change and the loss of nature to prevent a ghastly future of catastrophic ecosystem collapse, extreme destructive weather events, sea level rise, flooding, droughts, food shortages, mass migration, war and the death of billions as vast parts of the world will become too hot for humans to survive in.
We can play a role in the global effort to stabilise our climate and restore nature by stopping the A38 expansion which will fell around 100,000 trees and emit 131,000 tons of CO2 from just the construction.
The A38 Junctions is an outdated scheme that will cost over £250 million of public money just to make space for more road vehicles at a time when we need to be reducing road transport to cut carbon emission to halt further global heating.
There are plenty of other exciting, innovative, clean, environmentally friendly and often cheaper transport solutions that other cities and countries are already using! We can solve road congestion, cut carbon emissions, keep our green spaces and trees, make our roads & streets safer and end toxic air pollution. Road building and expanding roads to try and solve congestion is an outdated and failed form of transport planning that has no place in this century.
Check out these articles and a podcast about the future of urban transport.
