Eco & Environment | Posted on January 23rd, 2025 | return to news
Dorset MP calls for an end to ‘environmental vandalism’
Vikki Slade is calling for automatic tree protection to prevent developers causing environmental vandalism.
Vikki Slade is calling for automatic tree protection to prevent developers causing environmental vandalism.
The MP for Mid-Dorset and North Poole has called on the government to enact automatic tree protections to protect woodlands and prevent developers causing environmental vandalism.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday 20 January, Vikki Slade recalled the incident in Corfe Mullen in September 2023, when a firm of developers sent a team onto a one-acre site for 14 hours, with chainsaws, to clear the site of all traces of woodland, including valuable wildlife habitats, despite knowing it would be unpopular locally.
Local residents were outraged at the destruction, including Cllr Jackie Bonham who is trying to force the new owners to compensate neighbours and be held accountable.
“The neighbours raised the alarm that the trees were going to be taken down, they flagged it with the council, but they didn’t see a problem,” Slade told Parliament. “Just a week later, developers brought chainsaws and destroyed every bit of nature on the site.”
Slade pressed Matthew Pennycook, the minister for housing and planning, to take action, asking: “Will the Minister commit to bringing forward legislation to auto protect trees above a particular size or age in their planning reforms, so developers do not get away with environmental vandalism?”
Pennycook promised to look into the case in more detail once he had the full details.
Following the debate, Slade said: “We must not sit idle and allow this vandalism of our landscape to continue. We have to press the government to bring forward reforms that protect not only our woodlands, but our wildlife as well.”
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