Charity continues to oppose development

Buglife’s fight goes on despite Royal Mail saying it won’t build a depot on Essex marshland

An environmental charity opposed to Royal Mail building a new depot on 45 acres of Essex marshland has vowed to continue its campaign despite Royal Mail saying it has abandoned plans to move in.

Yesterday, the Telegraph reported victory for the Invertebrate Conservation Trust, aka Buglife, which promotes the conservation of insects, arachnids and so on. But today the Trust said it would continue its campaign because it suspects that Royal Mail has only delayed its decision.

“Our position remains that until such time as Royal Mail issues an incontrovertible statement that they will never occupy the West Thurrock Marshes site, then they and their distribution hub remain a real threat to the endangered wildlife of this extraordinary site,” Jamie Roberts, Buglife projects manager, told BusinessGreen.com

However, Royal Mail’s press office is unequivocal that there are no secret plans afoot.

“Royal Mail doesn’t have any plans to move onto the site… hasn’t filed a planning application for the site… and has been looking at alternative sites for some months,” a spokesperson told BusinessGreen.com

Buglife fought an unsuccessful High Court action in February to contest the planning approval of the site and subsequent development. Letters sent to the High Court last June, seen by BusinessGreen.com, clearly show Royal Mail as the intended tenant of the site and highlight the “unquantifiable likely costs and impact on the Mail’s quality of service” should litigation prevent Royal Mail from moving in to the site later than September 2008.

Royal Mail wanted the Thurrock site as a regional distribution centre, to replace the centre on Stephenson Road, Canning Town, which the company has to vacate by December 2008 because it is earmarked for redevelopment under the 2012 Olympics scheme.

Outline planning approval for the West Thurrock site was granted last year by Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation (TTGDC) to Rosemound Developments (now part of Goodman Property Investments).

Buglife’s High Court case, citing the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006), claimed the planned depot would cause “catastrophic damage” to rare, indigenous, invertebrate wildlife. Thurrock Council, which was ousted from the planning process by TTGDC, said that it would not have approved the application on environmental grounds if it had still been in charge of the planning process.

However, the judge, Justice Mitting, accepted Rosemound’s view that the environmental damage would only occur while the site was being developed, not once it was in operation as a Royal Mail Depot.