Dear friends and supporters

We took some dramatic drone footage of Leather Lane recently and these photographs so easily identify the importance of our campaign and preserving the Leather Lane oaks.

The picture shows the entire length of Leather Lane, from Potter Row to the A413. As you can see the wildlife/bat corridor is absolutely vital, as it provides the only connectivity and essential habitat from East to West for 7km of the destructive HS2 route. EKFB need to mitigate for the fragmentation caused last summer (shown in red dashed circles) where we have seen a huge decline in the number of bats crossing.

The HS2 Track Trace gap has been measured at 90m for the 9 trees felled. If their design goes ahead, based on these calculations, a further 20 or more trees will be felled, resulting in a gap of some 200m. 

We have been engaging with local residents, interest groups, parish and county councillors over the past year. As a result of our efforts, there was a unanimous vote at the Great Missenden Parish Council meeting on 11th April for our design, which not only works out cheaper, but as proved by experts reports the ecology argument is too strong to dismiss. 

We are still engaging with Bucks Council, including their planning officer who will be assessing the application for Leather Lane.  Our Ecological argument is very strong and supported by in-depth ecological surveys and reports from the UK top bat experts.  We also have a top engineer with 50 year’s experience. EKFB cannot match this. 

Your donations have been crucial to our campaign. Without them, we would not have been able to pay our engineer and ecologists, so thank you! 

We are now looking at a meeting with EKFB and councillors on the 18th of May.  We have a large engineering bill coming up and still need to raise over £10k so we desperately need your help to achieve this.  

Please share this update with your friends and colleagues.

You can donate to our Crowdfunder here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-towards-legal-case-against , or directly through BACS Transfer or Cheque - Account Name: Leather Lane Crowdfunding, Sort-code: 30-96-38; Account No: 11509663.

Last year I created a video dedicated to the Save Leather Lane Campaign. If you’d like to watch it again, you can here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P87YldhTQ0c&feature=youtu.be I am singing ‘Nella Fantasia’ originally by Ennio Morricone, with adapted lyrics for more relevance to our campaign.

It is worthy to note that even though we witness the tree being felled in the video at 3.51, we are proud to say that the majority of the trees remain, over a year on. This is a consequence of the Save Leather Lane Oaks campaign and your support! 

I dedicate my video to Leather Lane, and all the people who are campaigning to help save its woodlands, trees and wildlife from the unnecessary destruction by HS2.

Please continue to support us by making a donation again here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-towards-legal-case-against , even the smallest amount helps, and will go a long way to creating a legacy for Leather Lane and the Chilterns AONB. 

You can share Blaize’s video from Facebook here: https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=774835320099881 and Twitter here: https://mobile.twitter.com/OaksSave/status/1520448818646499328 Commenting also helps raise our profile. 

THANK YOU!