Back in July, the Government put on hold National Highways’ destructive programme of infilling and demolition works at legacy railway structures, reprieving dozens of bridges that could prove useful for future sustainable transport schemes. Since then, the company has taken some steps in a better direction, but it remains unwilling to recognise its broader social responsibilities around ecological and environmental impacts. Infilling is expected to resume within weeks.

An evaluation of the 59 structures in England where work is currently paused - carried out by The HRE Group - has established that nine are in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, one spans a Site of Special Scientific Interest and 20 (34%) are located within or immediately adjacent to areas designated on the Priority Habitat Inventory for Deciduous Woodland. Of the 57 overbridges across Britain earmarked for full infilling, 38 (67%) appear to span viable wildlife corridors which would therefore be blocked.

And yet at one such site - Barcombe in East Sussex, National Highways’ engineer claims that the ecological impact of encapsulating a bridge in 1,800 tonnes of stone and concrete would be “low” despite the dismantled railway below it being recognised by local groups as an established wildlife corridor with sensitive habitat.

What’s needed is an expert independent study into the value of the routes spanned by infilled-threatened bridges so that those making asset management decisions have appropriate insight. To that end, campaigners at Barcombe have launched a petition, asking the responsible Minister to commission such a study.

National Highways cannot be allowed to block dismantled railways with huge quantities of quarried materials in the midst of an environmental and biodiversity crisis.

We urge you to sign the petition and share it with your friends, family and colleagues.

https://www.change.org/protect-railway-wildlife-corridors

Thank you for your continued support.