If you go down to the Natural History Museum today you’re in for a big surprise. Instead of finding an exhibit of extinct teddy bears enjoying a summer picnic, you will find a new certificate displayed on the building’s wall. The document will say that the institution has achieved an E grade for energy efficiency under a new rating system drawn up by the Prime Minister’s Communities and Local Government department. Granted, it is the third worst ranking possible on the A-G scale but is still better than the F grade given to Eland House, the central London HQ of the CLG. The department admits it must do better and is promising more efficient heating and ventilation. It’s a shame it has taken public humiliation to force officials to act. Equally mortifying could be the outcome of the CLG’s eco-towns initiative. Tesco today became the latest developer to withdraw its backing for an eco-town proposal near Cambridge. A quarter of developers behind the 15 shortlisted eco-town plans have now scuttled off, too wary of the extent of public opposition. Eco-towns should be a good idea though, and in principle they still have the RSPB’s support. In practice, schemes are looking less and less green and prompting increasing hostility. The need to travel has not been properly addressed with some schemes seeming to encourage car use; the government has admitted that the final list of 10, now promised next year, could include proposals not currently publicised so being far from democratically approved. And two of the shortlisted projects will endanger important wildlife sites. The first, plans for a new town close to Bordon in Hampshire, will threaten an EU-protected site which is important for Dartford warblers, nightjars and woodlarks.
These birds nest close to the ground and the vast influx of people from a new town will put them at risk from human disturbance and predation by pets.
Initial plans for the second, an eco-town at Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire, would have destroyed an existing nature reserve forming quarter of a SSSI and current plans could still affect water availability and quality, and cause disturbance. Lost would be rare hay meadows and at risk would be semi-natural woodland and farmland, where turtle doves, skylarks and treesparrows now thrive. All of these birds have suffered steep declines across Britain. Loss of habitat is seriously harming the fortunes of wildlife but so too is disturbance and the arrival of eco-town residents - both people and pets - at these two sites could substantially devalue them for many vulnerable species. Abandoned teddy bears would be a relatively benign outcome. Trampled plants, flattened nests and fleeing wildlife would be more serious. Bordon-Whitehill and Western Otmoor should be dropped from the eco-town list.