2 October 2021
Identification of badger setts at the proposed Pinner Road green corridor have been reported in My London this week: "Badger-loving campaigners say plans to build a housing development in a North West London borough will destroy a badger habitat." (My London, 30th September 2021)
Ahead of the Pinner Road planning application (P/3450/21), which will be discussed at Harrow Council's Planning Committee meeting on 17th November 2021, Christine Wood, Chair of Herts & Middlesex Badger Group has made the below a statement:
Our policy is usually to keep badger sett locations confidential, in the interests of the badgers' security however the Pinner Road clan would be in real danger if the proposed development goes ahead and, in this case, we welcome local public support for them.
It would not possible to re-locate the badgers from this site and this development would leave insufficient habitat remaining to support their needs. There is nowhere for them to go apart from onto the railway line or into neighbouring back gardens. It is a five hole active sett which is centrally located.
As it is not possible to mitigate for this clan adequately, it is our hope and expectation that planning will be refused.
National Planning Policy Framework: Conserving and enhancing the natural environment
The National Planning Policy Framework (paragraph 180, a.) states that:
When determining planning applications, local planning authorities should apply the following principles:
(a) if significant harm to biodiversity resulting from a development cannot be avoided (through locating on an alternative site with less harmful impacts), adequately mitigated, or, as a last resort, compensated for, then planning permission should be refused;
Badgers are protected under a number of UK Public General Acts
Badgers and the setts they live in are fully protected in the UK by the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 and by Schedule 6 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and Section 40 of the National Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, which places a public duty on all public authorities in England and Wales to have regard, in the exercise of their functions, to the purpose of conserving biodiversity. Badgers are of material consideration when it comes to planning applications.
It is an offence to:
Wilfully kill, injure, take, possess or cruelly treat a badger or attempt to do so. Intentionally or recklessly damage, destroy or obstruct access to a badger sett. Works must be kept to a pre-determined distance where damage to a sett will not occur, this may be 30m in some situations.
Christine Wood
Herts and Middlesex Badger Group
Registered Charity 1076878