It would appear that another controversial planning application for Newcastle Great Park is holding up the submission of Cell A plans. Proposals for 492 houses and a spine road in Cell D of Newcastle Great Park, approximately 600 metres from Havannah Nature Reserve, are set to bisect an important wildlife corridor and Ouseburn Meadows Site of Local Conservation Importance. The plans have the potential to result in: • Loss of bat roosts and badger setts • Fragmentation of commuting routes and foraging areas, particularly for bats and badgers • Increased light pollution, which will disrupt and displace wildlife • Loss of hedgerow, scrub and grassland habitat used by nesting birds and farmland birds • Increased predation from domestic pets • Disturbance to otter and kingfisher, including potential pollution of Ouseburn • Severance of linkages between great crested newt breeding ponds and loss of terrestrial habitat • Severance of the Ouseburn Meadow and increased mortality due to traffic • Harm to other UK Biodiversity Action Priority species, including hedgehog, common toad and brown hare • Increased disturbance on surrounding areas, such as the Ouseburn corridor and Havannah and Three Hills Nature Reserve Lots of people have already objected to the application, which will go before committee on Friday 19th May at 9.30am, in Newcastle Civic Centre. You can object to the plans by emailing david.grimshaw@newcastle.gov.uk quoting planning application 1999/1300/236/RES or registering to log your comments here: https://publicaccessapplications.newcastle.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=makeComment&keyVal=OGBO2RBSKRX00 Please attend the meeting on Friday 19th May, if at all possible.