Landowners prevented from cutting down part of a hedge when local residents stood in the way could be stopped for good - because a species of fly not previously known to science has been found there. Council chiefs have confirmed to Bristol Live that the award of a special nature protection status is pending for the field and hedge on the western side of the A38 Bridgwater Road in Bishopsworth.
Once it is confirmed, it will be a challenge to do anything that damages the habitat there. Bristol Live reported on Monday how local farmer Catherine Withers and her supporters from across Bristol set up an impromptu blockade in front of the hedge all day, preventing a contractor hired by the owner of the land to cut down some of the hedge to create a new gateway into the field beyond.
Police were called to the scene on Monday morning, but left after deciding it was a civil dispute, and the stand-off continued all day, despite the contractor and the property owner’s agent showing a letter from Bristol City Council sent in February, which told them they didn’t even need to apply for permission to cut down the hedge and create the gateway.
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But it now transpires that a different department at City Hall has been in the process of confirming the awarding of the status of Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) on the field and the hedge, after local wildlife experts applied for that earlier this year. In February, Bristol Live reported on the potentially remarkable discovery by an expert who was commissioned by Ms Withers, the owner of nearby Yew Tree Farm, to survey the insect population in the field and hedgerows on the farm last year.
He found a kind of grass fly that was so unusual it was described as being a species that could be new to science, and experts across Europe were consulted to verify exactly what it was. Other rare species were found in the field, and the council is understood to have agreed with the request to make the field and hedgerow an SNCI.
This would mean anyone disturbing it would have to get special permission first. There is a lengthy bureaucratic process from requesting to confirming the status of SNCI on any piece of land, and Monday's stand-off happened during this process.
The land has been farmed as part of the family-run Yew Tree Farm since the 1960s, but farmer Ms Withers has always rented the fields nearest the main road. The owner of the land has signed a deal with Redrow Homes, which plans to build 200 new homes there. They submitted the first stage in a planning application - a scoping request for an Environmental Impact Assessment - but have never progressed to a full application to build new homes there.
In April 2021, there was outrage when diggers arrived contracted by Redrow Homes to survey the land, but so far a vociferous fight over the greenfield housing sites in South Bristol has kept the builders off the field in question. City leaders have now agreed it should be kept out of the Emerging Local Plan, so the possibility of it being developed is dwindling.
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council confirmed to Bristol Live on Tuesday that officers were now informing the landowner that the SNCI status is pending, and that they will need to talk to officers before trying to create a new gateway again.
“Officers have been made aware of the events at Yew Tree Farm this week and have made urgent enquiries with the landowner’s contractor as to the nature of this proposed work,” she said. “The Council’s resident ecologist and local planning authority officers will seek to ensure that the landowner is clear on the relevant planning regulations and their statutory responsibilities,” she added.
Yesterday, Ms Withers said that the official council planning map had now been updated, showing the whole of the farm - plus the field and hedge by the road - had now been designated as an SNCI. "We have got SNCI status for the whole farm which will protect us from developers," she said. "I love my home and love that wildlife gets to thrive here. Top notch food production can go hand-in-hand with nature recovery."
Part of the dispute over the hedge hinges on access to the field next to the road. This has not been an issue for decades because it formed an integral part of Yew Tree Farm, and can be accessed from the farm’s other fields. But this year, Ms Withers said she has now been told her rental agreement with the landowner is over and she is not to use the field anymore.
She told Bristol Live the landowner has rights of access to the field on a private lane shared with Yew Tree Farm and over her field, but the landowner’s agent told Bristol Live their work was straightforward, and was nothing more than creating an agricultural entrance to an agricultural field, because they didn’t have that access.
Read more:
- 'Ambitious' or 'quite weak' - Bristol's ecological emergency action plan is launched
- Diggers arrive at Bristol's last working farm despite Mayor's pledge to save it
- Housing plans for Yew Tree Farm could face new obstacle
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