SIR - It would appear that the planning application for the proposed “holiday camp” over Hellifield Flashes could go to Craven District Council Planning Committee in early February 2019. For those people who care for nature - please read on. For those people who care more for business, development, financial desire and the economy - please read on.

The Flashes is an area of agricultural land 'twixt Hellifield and Long Preston, with parts of the site that flood with ground water creating a natural wetland. The main Flash, which can be seen from the A65, provides a fantastic refuge for thousands of birds, many species of which are of conservation concern such as Wigeon, Teal, Shelduck, Pintail, Redshank and Oystercatcher, and the sheer number of Lapwings alone is a spectacle to behold, especially when they take to the sky as a peregrine falcon passes overhead. There are two more smaller areas of water which also support many birds. The wetland acts as a magnet for migrating birds such as Whooper swans and Black-tailed godwits, where they can fuel up for the long journey ahead.

The Flashes lie no more than 200 meters outside of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the boundary being the railway line. Had the site been within that boundary then I would guess that there wouldn’t be a chance of such a proposed development ever going through. The Craven district does not have many places where nature can live in relatively undisturbed surroundings; Hellifield’s Flashes provides that refuge for wildlife. For example, when wildfowl shooting takes place on the Long Preston Deeps the birds there fly to the Flashes to use as a safe haven. Just like us humans, birds need a place to flee to in times of crisis.

If the developer “wins”, the site would be covered by hundreds of holiday lodges, a hotel, and all the paraphernalia that accompanies such. Hellifield already has two perfectly good hotels: The Black Horse, which provides excellent hospitality for humans, and The Flashes, a natural hotel which provides our wildlife with everything it needs. This site of natural heritage also contributes to our physical and mental wellbeing.

I have read that the developer has proposed to offer some finance to conservation bodies in order to “re-locate” The Flashes to another place. Please be sure that the Flashes are 'The Flashes, and the idea that the site’s natural heritage could be re-located to another place is beyond belief. Nature’s needs are just the same as our needs; a settled place to rest and find peace. To expect nature to simply re-locate wouldn’t work, just as it wouldn’t work for a village of people to be forced from their homes and find another site to reside in. A parish council extraordinary meeting to discuss the plans was attended by many locals who were overwhelmingly against the development. This isn’t a case of ’nimbyism’, more that the people of Hellifield are proud to have such an abundance of wildlife on their doorstep, and a peaceful place to exercise in. It is not right and proper that a developer can repeatedly put in new proposals until he gets what he wants. Money should not win out in this case. The people of Hellifield should not have to be pressured into having something they do not want.

My village may not stand out as the grandest place in the world, but its Flashes are an important part of the jigsaw of the survival of nature, take them away and it will be an opportunity for nature lost forever. For once, let’s put aside such an unneeded development and bring nature to the fore. We all love to feed the birds in our yards and gardens, taking great pleasure in seeing nature at first hand, so let’s give the birds of The Flashes their needs; an undisturbed, undeveloped, holiday camp for nature. Indeed, as Sir David Attenborough said in his recent BBC “Dynasties” series “All wildlife needs space to live in, and loss of space is a great threat to their survival”. “We ourselves, one single species, have taken up vast tracts of the habitable surface of the planet”. “Surely we should allow other creatures we share the planet with to retain some of their ancient heritage”. Why would The Flashes be any different from say a part of India where Tigers struggle to survive in an ever decreasing territory due to human land use?

Let us all stand up for nature over unwanted development.

For the sake of nature, and our own sake - Long Live The Flashes of Hellifield.

Andy Holden

The Green

Hellifield