Representation by Gordon Campbell-Thomas
- Date submitted
- 12 March 2021
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I sincerely believe that the area known as Swancombe Marshes should be protected as a SSSI, my reasons for this belief is that it is an area that supports a number of rare or threatened species, perhaps more than on any other brownfield site, this includes the Critically Endangered Jumping Spider (Attalid distinguendus). I know from personal experience that brownfield sites have special value. I was involved in spearheading a campaign to prevent a brownfield site here in York being developed by the local council in the mid 80s into an industrial site with houses. That 10 hectare (24 acres) is now one of York’s LNRs (local nature reserves) and has now been held up as an example of community action and wildlife habitat that has endeared itself to the public of York and dare I suggest even wider. I know the area of Swanscombe Marsh when I used to live on the other side of the Thames, as an amateur entomologist I used to visit the site before moving north. I see no profit, apart from purely financial in destroying this unique wildlife haven.