Save Weston Big Wood — stop the Tower Farm and Black Rock allocations in Portishead.

Did you know a Government policy meant for scrubland and old car parks is being used to threaten an irreplaceable ancient woodland?

Weston Big Wood is irreplaceable. It has stood on the edge of Portishead since the last Ice Age — a Site of Special Scientific Interest, ancient woodland, and the anchor of a wildlife corridor linking three SSSIs across the Gordano Valley. Natural England has already assessed the entire SSSI as being in unfavourable condition.

Now, North Somerset Council proposes to close the wood in from both sides. It has allocated 28 hectares of long-established Green Belt pasture immediately beside the wood — Tower Farm, on Portishead Down — for up to 400 homes. And on the wood's far side, it has allocated Black Rock, a working arable field, for around 100 more. Some 500 new households would press in on a woodland already in decline.

The pasture at Tower Farm was placed in the Green Belt in 1988 for one reason: "protection of the setting and character of Weston Big Wood". Its only vehicular access is a residential cul-de-sac past two primary schools. And the National Planning Policy Framework's own safeguard — footnote 7 — is explicit that land where the protection of SSSIs and ancient woodland provides a strong reason to restrict development cannot be treated as grey belt.

The policy is being misapplied. A woodland that has stood here since the Ice Age is being placed at risk in decisions that took months. If grey belt can be misused here, it can be misused anywhere.

We, the undersigned, call on the Prime Minister to intervene to save Weston Big Wood by ensuring that the Tower Farm and Black Rock allocations are removed from the North Somerset Local Plan.

*Please include your postcode when you sign — every Portishead and North Somerset postcode we can count strengthens the case we take to No 10.