Three months into a sparkly new role as Campaigning Assistant at the Woodland Trust is ample time to instil anyone with the passion to pursue a lifelong career championing ancient woodland. This is perhaps a good thing since legal wrangling over HS2 promises a long and steady schedule of man-versus-nature related strife, with the potential start date for work set to begin in 2022.
The announcement of the HS2 Y route on Monday the 28th January saw myself and courageous colleague Katharine ploughing through over 70 maps. From our valiant efforts we have an overview of what these plans will mean for the precious ancient woodland located in its path… However we desperately need more detail! Despite numerous requests we are still waiting for HS2 to supply the necessary geographical information system layer or ‘shape files’ which we urgently need to fully understand the layout of the route.
I’m hopeful of a long and fruitful career campaigning to protect our natural environment which seems to be under threat from so many angles. I expect plenty of challenges ahead… But so far I would say that the biggest hurdle has proven to be extracting this overdue information from HS2 and of course our fair leaders at the Department for Transport!
Almost a fortnight on and we are still waiting… If only high speed were indeed the order of the day!
Matina Loizou, Campaigning Assistant
The whole thing is aweful I went to a meeting last night in Colton in Staffordshire – Packed- My concern is the devastion to Woodlands and wildlife we will never ever get them back we are only custodians of this gift we do not have the right to massacre the woodlands – we have to get rid of HS2 once and for all
Hi Peter, ancient woodland is indeed irrepplaceable. We are working with communities along the route, keep an eye out for us!
It is an Abomination this line, and for what…20 mins off travel time London to Birmingham,. These pompous self importsnt people. Dont give up, Govn. Depts. Stonewall. Can we have an Email Storm/Twitter ttorm etc?
I enjoyed reading this. The writer has a lively sense of humour. I hope she can keep it intact. I’ve a horrible feeling she’s going to need it.
Thanks for your feedback Joseph. Sometimes you have to laugh etc…!
If you prefer to see a featureless plain, chop all the trees down they won’t complain.If you want to make room for a high-speed train, then chop all the trees down for whatever gain.If you want to evict all the birds and the bees, then chop us all down, we’re only trees.If you want creatures to have no domain, no shade from the sun, no shelter from rain, then chop us all down we have no choice.Who will be the woodland voice? ( A) the Woodland Trust —-Of course
Thanks for this Enid…with your continuing support we will indeed!
From personal experience the information you need will be on the sheet/map/plan they forgot to include. Take care! Good luck!
There are so many silent voices wanting you to succeed
best wishes from the antipodes
Hi Valerie, that is very good to know! Many thanks for your support
The more environmental groups that stand together to fight the hs2 route the better chance of consultation to alter it so that it dosent decimate ancient.woodland.,greenpeace friends of the earth 38 degrees c p re all have good track records (forgive the pun) and use the most effective tools i e PEOPLE POWER through email such as Aileen suggested.I Wonder why hs2 is delaying in providing route information for you____ stalling for time perhaps? forgive the sarcasm ___these people lack souls all they think about is money and power .You would have thought that they had learned their lesson from the response they got when they tried to sell off our forests and woodland By the way ,38 degrees was the leading force in that particular battle.
Hello Glyn, the delay has left us wondering too! It’s now Friday afternoon and still no sign of the shape files nearly three weeks since the Y route was announced… Oh well our fingers are crossed for Monday morning!
For HS2 Phase 1, the Department for Transport published an ESRI Shape File that contained detailed information about the route. I converted that into KML and produced webpages that show how close Phase 1 comes to a place (where you could choose the underlying map to be from the Ordnance Survey, OpenStreetMap, Google or Bing): http://www.thehs2.com/phase1/maps
My web site allows you to overlay the map with details of nature areas, heritage areas and/or public rights of way.
As you say, details about the route for HS2 Phase 2 were published by the DfT on January 28th in 73 PDFs. However, there was no ESRI Shape File. On January 29th, I submitted a FOI request to DfT for the lat-lons of the route (e.g., by an ESRI Shape File) but I’ve not yet had a reply to my request. I guess the official 20 working days will expire on February 26th.
Because there is no ESRI Shape File, my web site has a more clunky way of seeing how close the route of Phase 2 comes to a place. However, I still feel it’s easier to use than what is offered by the DfT: http://www.thehs2.com/phase2/maps
Barry this is really useful thanks! I shall have a good look at that while I await word from HS2…
My web site for HS2 Phase 1 allows you to overlay Ancient Woodlands and SSSIs onto the maps. I’ve used the ESRI Shape Files provided on the Natural England web page: http://www.gis.naturalengland.org.uk/pubs/gis/GIS_register.asp
An example is http:/www.thehs2.com/phase1/maps/showmap.php?place=Wendover%20Dean&type=nOS&lat=51.732&lon=-0.734
That’s a long URL. If it gets garbled, try: http://tinyurl.com/hs2nature
My web site for HS2 Phase 1 allows you to overlay Ancient Woodlands and SSSIs onto the maps. I’ve used the ESRI Shape Files provided on the Natural England web page: http://www.gis.naturalengland.org.uk/pubs/gis/GIS_register.asp
An example is http://www.thehs2.com/phase1/maps/showmap.php?place=Wendover%20Dean&type=nOS&lat=51.732&lon=-0.734
That’s a long URL. If it gets garbled, try: http://tinyurl.com/hs2nature
Well done Matina and everyone else resisting the threat of HS2. We have a few years before the bulldozers come out. I am confident that common sense will prevail and this will end up looking like the worst policy idea in recent political history. The trees and woodland need us–we are their stewards. Good luck everyone.
The Department for Transport has now provided me with the route of Phase 2 in two ESRI Shape Files. These have been released to me today with the Open Government Licence. I have derived some KML files and GeoJSON files from these ESRI Shape Files. All these files are available from http://www.thehs2.com From my web site you can also display maps showing ancient woodlands and SSSIs as well as the route of Phase 2. An example is http://tinyurl.com/hs2whitmore which goes to http://www.thehs2.com/phase2/maps/showmap.php?place=Whitmore%20Wood%20%28AWI%29&type=nOS&lat=52.973&lon=-2.314&zoom=13
The number of wood claimed to be threatened varies with almost every press release.
Woods close to the line, but not on the route may actually be protected, as they will be less desireable for building. Plus the Trust could utilise margins to create more woodland, useful as a sound screen, but also creating woodland corridors.
A postive approach is needed, not knee-jerk opposition. Unless, of course the Woodland Trust wants the only alternative to HS2 – more roads. Many more roads.