WILDLIFE NOT WAREHOUSES - STAUNCH Campaign

Stretching across Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire, the Upper Nene Valley is a captivating landscape that encompasses a mosaic of habitats including wetlands, grasslands, woodlands and rivers. This diverse range of ecosystems fosters a remarkable array of plants and animal species, making it a biodiversity hotspot in the United Kingdom.

Please help us to stop the proposed development of TWO massive distribution ‘parks’ covering over 319 acres on farmland between Thrapston and Titchmarsh in the Upper Nene Valley. NEITHER site has been designated as suitable for warehouse development, or indeed any kind of development; both applications are speculative.

These proposed developments are on Functionally Linked Land (FFL) to the Titchmarsh Nature Reserve, an Internationally Important Wetland and includes a Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar with many legal protections. The land is used regularly by overwintering Golden Plovers in flocks of over 1% of the population - which is down 97% since 2011. This FLL is essential to this designated species survival so that they can forage for food. Natural England advises that land that has strong functional linkage must be avoided.

This area is also frequented by 30 species of protected birds, including 15 UK Priority Species and 11 Red List. It is also a good habitat for the Black Hairstreak, White-letter Hairstreak Butterfly and the Small Heath Butterfly, a species of Principal Importance and vulnerable to extinction.

1.9km of hedgerows, some dating back to the 1700’s and identified as Habitat of Principal Importance (HPI) under Section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 will be torn out. Three of these hedgerows are protected under the Hedgerow Regulations 1997 as they meet the criteria for determining ‘important’ hedgerows of the Hedgerows Law.

20Ha of BMV farmland will be lost.

This area is a sensitive area of flood resilience with flooding events as recent as January 2025. Delicate ecosystems will be impacted by run off from any pollutants introduced into the water system.

Air pollution is already at the highest levels recorded by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory in this area - and this is without the increase in traffic along the A605, predicted at an extra 3680 HGV and 11,500 cars and lorries per day.

STAUNCH has been granted Rule 6 Status at the Inquiry for one of the applications, scheduled on the 22nd July. To that end we have instructed Leading barrister Paul Stinchcombe KC to represent our campaign group; all donations will be used to fund our legal expenses.

If these 2 logistic sites are built, Halden’s Parkway Industrial Estate’s footprint will be larger than Thrapston Market Town itself. Please donate whatever you can to stop the reckless decimation of the countryside by unscrupulous developers. Every little will help. Thank you.