Work at The Hoskers begins…
As part of the controversial deal to bring Sainsbury's to Westhoughton, Westhoughton Cricket Club would be vacating their home at the Tyldesleys on Cricketers Way to move to a larger greenfield site at The Hoskers.
The process is thus:
- First the land at the Hoskers (some 17 acres) will have to be prepared - this includes dealing with the colonies of Great Crested Newts (protected species); preparing, draining and remodelling the land for cricket and building the new facilities (The Pavilion, etc).
- Once the playing area deemed acceptable by the Cricketing Authorities, the cricket club will be able to move to The Hoskers.
- Once the exiting Tyldesleys site is vacated and cleared, the building of the Sainsbury's store can begin. Also involved in this will be the remodelling of Cricketers Way to allow for the enhancement of the Pavilion Square entrance, creating a junction with new traffic lights. Sainsbury's are hoping to be up and running in 2009.
Preparing The Hoskers
28/7/08 - with the great crested newts 'collected', workmen have now set about clearing and levelling the Hoskers in preparation of turning a 'field' into a 'playing field' ready to welcome Westhoughton the Cricket Club and the junior rugby players. The former rough and accessible field that was a place of open and informal recreation, is being quickly transformed by bulldozers and digger employed to turn over the land and make its surface ready to take flat, well-drained playing fields.
The upsurge in activity coincided with the school holidays, and whilst for many it is sad to see the loss of the open space, in time residents will welcome the Cricket field, its pavilion and facilities. The clubhouse may even become a popular watering hole for residents.
A recent amendment to planning conditions was approved in that the new cricket club facilities be extended and open 9:00am and 11:00pm Monday to Saturday, and 9:00am and 10:30pm on Sundays. The extended hours will enable the use of the car park by parents dropping off and picking up children attending St George's Primary School and provide the respective clubs the flexibility to operate during the daytime. Possible noise and light pollution in a residential area were considered though not deemed suffient an issue.
16/6/08 - There has been much activity on The Hoskers of late. The Great Crested Newts and other amphibians having been rounded up and moved; the 'newt fences' have been removed. The land is being prepared for the contractors to move in. This has meant the cutting back the grass/applying weed-killer and the felling of trees.
Residents can expect much noise and disturbance over the coming months as contractors get to work and lorries come and go. There will be pressure on contractors to meet deadlines as the Sainsbury's project depends upon the cricketers vacating their current home. Ironically, it is looking like developments at the Greenfields PMC site mean that competitor Aldi could get a head start on them if permission is given to build a new store on the site of the social club that until recently was ear-marked for apartments.
Bolton Council have said that the 'protective covenant' on the Tyldesleys site will be transferred The Hoskers maintaining the site as a recreational area - until the next time a developer comes along with a wad of cash? It's hard not to be cynical about what Bolton Council has to say on planning matters!
Many of the dog walkers displaced by the lass of the Hoskers are exercising their animals beyond the new fencing; the Rugby Club are not happy about the near infringement of their playing area. Hardly an unexpected outcome at the loss of what was popular, informal open recreational land. The issue of the footpath to the side of the new cricket ground remains unresolved: some local residents are unhappy about the state of the path and its condition in wet weather. Some concerns were raised about personal safety.
Great Crested Newts (work completed)
Update: 28 July 2008 - According to the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit, the 'trapping' is now completed. All 5 species of amphibians were trapped (great crested, smooth and palmate newts, frogs and toads), with nearly 100 animals moved out of the site. The perimeter fence is now inspected on a weekly basis to undertake repairs and move any additional amphibians – a trapping out exercise will not capture all the animals in a given area but is designed to trap a significant proportion. No great crested newts have been captured since the trapping has been completed.
In earlier surveys the land at The Hoskers was found to be a home for Great Crested Newts, these protected species require a licence for removal/relocation and specialist contractors would be be charged with the task before any formal work could begin on the site.
The many people that use The Hoskers as a short cut or recreationally to walk their dogs will have noticed contractors erecting knee high temporary fencing effectively partitioning off areas of the field.
Obtained from the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit, here is a brief synopsis of how the development will proceed and how Great Crested Newts (GCN) and other amphibians will be protected during the construction.
Prior to any works starting on site the developer has to obtain a licence from Natural England in order to derogate (depart from) the provisions of the Habitats Regulations. This application was submitted to Natural England in March and agreed by them. This process is independent from the Local Authority - although the LPA has to submit a statement with the licence application form - and the licence application must fulfil three tests
- There is an over-riding public need for the proposed development
- There is no alternative solution to the proposed development
- There is no impact on the favourable conservation status of the protected species (in this case Great Crested Newts). This means that post construction of the development there is no negative effect on the species' population so they have access to a breeding pond and terrestrial foraging habitat.
The licence was issued last week (14/4/08). The licence is issued to the developer who has to employ and retain the use of an ecological contractor to supervise this work. This consultancy is TEP, a well-known firm who are very familiar with this type of ecological work. Prior to any site excavation or vegetation clearance the construction area needs to be cleared of GCN (and incidentally of other amphibians too). This involves the erection of temporary newt fencing and humane live capture of the animals, so they can be moved out of the area of construction work.
TEP have started work on erecting this fencing (22/4/08); this work will take the rest of this week.
Once the amphibian fencing is erected it will remain in place and the trapping will commence. This will require a minimum of 30 nights - the newts being active at night - when the air temperature is high enough for them to be active. The TEP Ecologist informed me that this is likely to start next week or perhaps on the weekend if the fencing is completed. The capture may involve the use of buckets sunk into the ground, which the animals fall into and/or use of carpet tiles, which they crawl under. There may possibly be some night searches using torches to capture the animals by hand when they are active on warm moist nights, but this usually only occurs where there are large populations and easily visible areas to search.
During construction works Once the ecologist is satisfied that the site is cleared of amphibians, the internal newt fencing will be removed, but some amphibian fencing is likely to be retained around the perimeter of the site to stop newts wandering into the construction area. Spoil heaps and rubble etc can provide good sheltering places for the animals during the day. The TEP ecologist will have an arrangement with on- site staff to ensure that the fences are maintained in good condition.
As part of the construction works 'mitigation' will be put in place. In this case it is a ditch, which forms a corridor between the existing pond towards the railway embankment. The railway embankment has very suitable 'rough' habitat on it, which the amphibians can use for foraging and sheltering.
In addition, the ecologists have considered the surface drainage of the site to make it less damaging to amphibians.
Landscaping works will be undertaken once the basis of construction is complete. This will include suitable planting to the ditch and other areas outside the zone of play (e.g. woodland planting and long grassland). TEP will have a role in ensuring that this is undertaken to an appropriate standard. Once the cricket pitch is established the mown grassland will also be available for the amphibians to forage on as they will move across this area in search of bugs and worms etc. at night and then shelter in the rougher grassland during the day.
Once the whole development is complete the Natural England licence will probably require a monitoring survey to be undertaken to ensure that the GCN are still breeding in the pond - as an indication that the habitats are still suitable for both breeding and foraging. I hope that this gives you a clearer idea of how the process will proceed. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me - I can also attend the site to explain in detail how the process works. I would obviously ask permission, as a matter of courtesy, of the ecological contractor if this were the case.
Natural England also provides information which may be of interest.
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