Our response to the Guardian article.
You know us; we are about the truth. So we were sad to see the inaccuracies printed in the Guardian newspaper about Leather Lane. The Guardian rightly gave HS2 the right to reply to the Campaign’s statements about Leather Lane and Ilona, the lone oak that stands close to the Oaks of Leather Lane.
However, the article quoted an HS2 spokesperson as saying: “HS2 strives to reduce our impact on the environment, however some trees on Leather Lane are directly in the path of where the new railway will be built. From the outset, we have sought to reduce the number of trees that need to be removed, and across phase one we are planting up to 7m trees and will leave behind 30% more wildlife habitats than exist now. There is no evidence of bat roosts in the affected trees.”
HS2 have misled the Guardian in their response.
Click the link below to read our response in full:
https://tinyurl.com/5663k9vh
Let’s fact-check HS2’s statements:
HS2 - ‘Some trees are directly in the path of the railway.’
Whilst 9 trees were directly in the path of the new railway, (these trees were felled in July 2021), the remaining 87 trees currently lining Leather Lane, as well as Ilona the lone oak, are not in the path of the railway track, or the haul road that required the felling of an additional 3 trees in March 2021.
To be very clear, the remaining trees are at risk of felling in order for HS2 to reroute the ancient holloway of Leather Lane to the south of the existing lane, and in the case of the magnificent Ilona, she is in the way of a bund, a giant view-blocking mound of earth required for "landscaping" purposes.
HS2 - “From the outset we have sought to reduce the number of trees that need to be removed.”
The Campaign has worked tirelessly for a year and a half employing professional engineers to provide HS2 with an alternative, rerouting Leather Lane to the North rather than the South, that would save every remaining oak tree and hedgerow, and to suggest alternatives to build the bund around the iconic Ilona.
HS2 and their sub-contactors are obliged by law to apply the Mitigation Hierarchy – this requires them to AVOID ecological harm if possible. The Campaign has provided them with a solution that does just that, if HS2 adopts it.
“Across phase one we are planting up to 7m trees.”
“Up to” means they could plant 1 tree! It is this type of misleading language that really upsets us. When projects like HS2 are called out for Greenwash this is a great example.
When Freedom of information requests have been submitted to HS2 by Campaigners as to how many trees have been planted to date and where they are planning to put these ‘up to’ 7 million trees, HS2 seem mighty scared of telling us exactly how many trees they are planting and how many survive.
The definition of tree used by HS2 is totally misleading. Many ‘trees’ are in fact single whips of shrubs and trees, certainly nothing that could ever replace the great oaks like Ilona and her friends on Leather Lane.
Let’s compare the image attached of Leather Lane at the top with the image of HS2’s efforts at tree planting at Bowood in mitigation for those felled at Jones Hill Wood in 2021.
HS2 - “There is no evidence of bat roosts in the affected trees.”
We have yet to see the outcomes of any bat surveys undertaken by HS2 at Leather Lane - despite requesting them previously.
We understand that HS2’s subcontractor is undertaking bat surveys on Leather Lane currently (after already felling the trees for the track and haul road and after already creating untold damage to the precious ecology of the area).
Leather Lane forms the only east-west connectivity and flight corridor for bats for 7 kilometres and has been identified as a feeding habitat for the endangered barbastelle bats. The loss of the Oaks on Leather Lane would cause catastrophic harm to the barbastelle colony. It can be avoided and should be.
Finding roosting barbastelle bats is extremely rare as they have transitory roosts. Individual bats can use as many as 30 different roosts.
True mitigation should be like-for-like. HS2 cannot mitigate for an established bat flight corridor, used by generations of bats for hundreds of years, by planting trees elsewhere along the route or indeed, by building bat roosts anywhere! Without connectivity, bats will not reach their roosts. The colonies will simply disappear and the population will decrease. The cumulative effect of this nationally will be massive for all bat species but particularly devastating for the barbastelle.
‘HS2 says building on the north would have led to the loss of a different woodland area’
There is, in fact, no woodland to the North. It is no more than a chalk and flint pit and it is outside of the HS2 Act limits, so this argument is baseless.
Our engineer’s design for an alternative reralignment of Leather Lane stays within the boundary of the HS2 act (within HS2 land).
Leather Lane Oaks are going live!
Tune into our live stream on our Facebook page @SaveLeatherLaneOaks at 7.30pm Tuesday 23 August where we will be discussing everything bats including the Guardian article featuring our resident campaigner Carol-Anne and Bucks girl Lindsey Spinks from Lawyers for Nature!!
If you have not seen the article already you can find it HERE : https://tinyurl.com/3uzcf587
Please also head to our Instagram: @ilonatheoak or Facebook: @SaveLeatherLaneOaks where we will be posting a Q&A box on our story for you to ask any questions you might have regarding our discussion topic.
There will also be a poll for you to vote on what you want us to discuss in our next live stream.
Alternatively, please email any questions you might have to us at: saveleatherlaneoaks@gmail.com.
International Bat night
August 27 is International bat night. For some great resources see the link HERE https://tinyurl.com/mr2dsm6 and watch out on our socials for some batty celebrations. We are posting daily bat facts on our stories, setting challenges and giving prizes away to lucky competition winners!
See our Campaign video here:
We are only able to pay for our engineer and lawyers thanks to the generous donations of those supporting us. Please donate to help us win this home straight!
Donate here:
https://tinyurl.com/34yhv7p3
Together, we are making a stand and protecting our nature so THANK YOU!!
The Campaign to Save Leather Lane Oaks ©
For more Info:
http://www.hs2amersham.org.uk/index.html?News/LeatherLane.html
How you can help:
Please continue to share our local petition with your friends and family: https://tinyurl.com/2p9fa7pk For friends, family and colleagues that are not local to Leather Lane, you can email them our Change.Org petition https://tinyurl.com/4m5rm7jd to sign. We have almost 43,000 signatures and it would be amazing to get this figure to 50,000.
You can also help by following us on our social media channels below, sharing our Facebook posts, retweeting our Tweets and reposting our stories on Instagram.
Facebook: @Saveleatherlaneoaks
Twitter: @OaksSave
Instagram: @ilonatheoak
TikTok: @slloaks
If you can assist in any way, please let us know by replying to this email. Any help will be most gratefully received, no matter how small.