We want to know your memories of wild places that have been lost to housing or industry over the years. The places where you played during childhood or that offered vital respite, which have vanished or been left to go to waste.
Our Campaigns Manager Alan Wright reminisced:
“I used to live in Boothstown on the Salford/Wigan border. I remember there were loads of places to explore as a kid. There were woods and ponds where you could see all kinds of wildlife. All that is now housing.
“Of course, in that area there were railway lines and the remnants of coal mining, which have been changed into corridors for wildlife, which proves that we can work alongside development.”
Many more areas are under threat of development unless we put pressure on Government to introduce planning reforms that have nature in mind.
We have a vision for a Wilder Future, where 30 per cent of nature will recover by 2030. It will need the protection of a Wildbelt; creating and protecting a Nature Recovery Network across the whole of the United Kingdom, a network where wild things can flourish and recover.
We fear that the removal of safeguards in the Government’s planning reforms will lead to an increase in natures decline and put an end to the wonderful love affairs many people have had with wildlife on their doorsteps. The last thing we want is for people and wildlife to become strangers, wary of each other.
To help us in our campaign to ensure the Government listens to our concerns, please send us your stories to show them the value of the natural places we have lost, and that we stand to lose.
Tell us your stories of childhood places that no longer exist or secret places that could be threatened by a wave of development.
To send us your stories, click the button below or email info@lancswt.org.uk, marking the subject of your email 'Lost Landscapes'.
We will publish some of them as blogs on our website and use details to discuss planning reforms with government in the future.
