These individually numbered fields are Ireland's single most important site for Whooper Swans. 50ha out of this 165ha floodplain are going to be lost: buried under asphalt and industry, disturbed and fragmented. Infrastructure projects in protected habitats especially wetlands of international importance to migratory birds must stop now.
We have only just learned, in an answer to a Freedom of Information question, that the Department for Infrastructure has known since 2004 or 2005 (they are not sure exactly when) that the area through which it is building an offline, 4km long loop of the A6, known as the Red Route Variant, has been a candidate Special Protection Area which means it is protected! A five-year site fidelity review completed in 2010 for the Northern Ireland Environment Agency established that the 165 ha site known as the Toome Complex or Creagh Meadows met all criteria for designation in its own right as a Special Protection Area. Why do such documents never see the light of day? A lack of independence has led to appallingly weak environmental governance whilst our best wildlife sites are being systematically destroyed.