MORE than 500 campaigners walked a threatened wildlife corridor yesterday in protest against proposals for almost 1,000 homes which they claim will wreck nature sites and smother local communities.
The turn-out – twice than that expected – delighted the Save Gosforth Wildlife movement and West Moor Residents’ Association which organised the march.
The column of campaigners, some dressed as animals such as badgers, took two hours to follow the wildlife corridor from near Gosforth Park nature reserve along the Ouseburn to the Tyne.
They are fighting proposals in Newcastle City Council’s One Core Strategy, which seeks to guide development to 2030, for 600 homes off Salters Lane on fields next to the 150-acre Gosforth nature reserve.
The protest is targeting a planning bid by Bellway for 366 executive homes on the Whitehouse Farm site inside North Tyneside and opposite the reserve.
Campaigners say the “pincer” developments will devastate the reserve and wildlife corridor, engulf communities in urban sprawl and worsen traffic congestion.
Around 1,000 objections have been lodged with Newcastle and North Tyneside councils against the proposals.
“The fantastic turn-out for the march really shows how much people want the councils to listen,” said James Littlewood, director of the Natural History Society of Northumbria, which manages the Gosforth reserve.
“It also shows the politicians have overlooked just how passionately people feel about wildlife and natural places where they can enjoy fresh air and relief from urban pressures.
“We are not anti-development but it has to be in the right place. Development on green buffer zones for a nature reserve and important wildlife corridor beggars belief.”
Sandy Irvine, who lives in Gosforth and helped plan the route, said: “A lot of people have turned out to make a statement. There has been a real diversity of people taking part, from older to younger and from all sorts of backgrounds.
“It shows there is genuine public support against these proposals and a deep suspicion about the core strategy and that brownfield sites should be developed before green sites.
“People are worried the strategy looks like a charter for developers who will cherry-pick the best sites.
“There are strong feelings about healthy local communities being smothered by urban sprawl.”
Nick Price, from the West Moor Residents’ Association, said: “The message behind the turn-out is they understand the issues at stake and want to have a say over proposals put forward by developers and council planners.
“The strategies are fundamentally flawed, with the myth perpetuated that executive housing will bring inward investment and economic benefits. The people want development which is sustainable and in the right place.”
