WILDLIFE photographers in the North East have a new focus – preventing the building of 600 homes next to a top nature reserve.
Kaleel Zibe and Alan Hewitt are backing the campaign, led by the Natural History Society of Northumbria, which opposes the earmarking by Newcastle City Council of fields next to Gosforth Park nature reserve for housing development.
The photographers feel that the visual impact of their images will bring home to people the landscape quality of the reserve, the wildlife its supports, and how the surrounding fields are used for foraging and access by animals.
The 150-acre reserve, managed by the society since 1929, is the last urban reserve for red squirrels in England and is also thought to be the oldest urban reserve in the UK.
The society says that the identification by the council of the green belt land off Salters Lane for housing could have devastating consequences for the reserve, which features a 30-acre lake, extensive reedbeds and woodland, with half of the reserve designated a site of special scientific interest. A total of 178 species of birds have been recorded.
The housing proposal is part of the One Core Strategy being developed by Newcastle and Gateshead councils to guide development to 2030.
Kaleel, who lives in Gosforth, says: “After learning of the council’s ill-thought-out plans for the building of 600 homes next to Gosforth Park nature reserve, we decided to offer our photographic services to the cause.
“The wildlife in the reserve needs the foraging ground in the fields surrounding the reserve. Apart from the fact that part of the reserve is a designated site of special scientific interest, it and the green belt fields around it are a wildlife corridor, as recognised by the council, all the way from the Tyne, up through Jesmond Dene and out to the wider countryside around Newcastle.
“If houses are built here, that wildlife will have nowhere to go and will die or move away.”
Kaleel and Alan, who is from Ashington, have set up a website www.save gosforthwidlife.com and a Twitter account @SaveGosWilldife to complement the Save Gosforth Wildlife Facebook group.
Around 150 people turned at a walkabout protest at the reserve, and a public meeting will be held on Tuesday at 7pm at Gosforth Civic Hall, where council planners will be present. Kaleel set up a trail camera to record video snippets of animals and was on watch with his camera from 5.30am to photograph deer and a fox crossing the fields into the reserve.
“When I heard about the plans it seemed like a preposterous idea to build next to the nature reserve which will destroy foraging habitat and the wildlife corridor,” said father-of-three Kaleel.
“Alan and I decided that the visual element of photography could really make a difference by showing people what would be lost.
“This is not only about now, but about a wildlife legacy to our children.”
Representations over the plans should be made to Planning and Housing Strategy, Newcastle City Council, Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle, NE1 8PH, or go to www.newcastle.gov.uk/haveyoursayonplanning
