Biodiversity? You must be joking!

Through a local resident's Freedom of Information request we now know that Mouchel (the contractors) have had prior consultation with Hackney's Biodiversity Officer, who didn't raise any concerns about a proper survey for bats and nesting birds. We are astonished to hear that given the fact that all of us have seen the green and open spaces of Horizon School being frequented by all sorts of wildlife from foxes to bats, birds, moths and all sorts of insects.

Tree Preservation Order news

Hackney Council received a number of requests to consider issuing a Tree Preservation Order for the trees in the current Horizon School from local residents and other people whose work or other daily routines bring them to the area. 

In answer to one of the requests signed by several local residents the case council officer responded  that he

appreciates the signatories' attachment to the trees and their effect on our views and the street', but Hackney are currently not planning to serve an order.

He then stressed 

this is not because the trees do not warrant one but because, even with a TPO, the trees could still be removed if a planning permission allowed it; a planning permission over-rides a TPO,

and finally added 

in this particular case my superiors are satisfied that a TPO is not yet expedient.

Our collective TPO request stressed the value of the trees and the green area around them for the local wildlife as well as the visual and aesthetic value of the trees, but the Council response entirely ignores this dimension of the residents' campaign to save the mature trees in Horizon school choosing to dismiss the request as merely one about views and attachment to the trees!

We are left wondering why then there is a department dealing with tree preservation orders if their decisions are by definition potentially redundant. Perhaps the department has a view on that?