21-Jan-2022

It’s not too late to Save the Leather Lane Oaks !

It’s not too late to stop the destruction…. Our campaign ‘Save the Leather Lane Oaks’ has attracted over 43,000 supporters nationally including from top UK bat experts, The Woodland Trust, Sarah Green MP, the Chiltern Society and the Chiltern Conservation Board, as well as Buckinghamshire Council.

To date, we’ve managed to stop the needless felling of 88% of the oaks along the southern bank of Leather Lane and have raised funds to pay for Ecological surveys which have confirmed the oaks as a crucial bat corridor for up to 7 species of bat including the endangered Barbastelle bat.

We now have the chance to save 31 to 40 further oaks and the wildlife that relies on them. Funds raised have paid an independent engineer to put forward a proposal to realign the new road to the North of Leather Lane (called option 7) and would mean no further felling of any trees.
HS2’s own proposal (called option 6A), realigns the new road to the South side of the existing Lane and would mean the felling of approximately 31 -40 more oak trees that currently line Leather Lane.
We believe that our design option is viable and should be adopted by HS2 in line with their own Environmental Statement and a commitment to the Precautionary Principle.

We need to show HS2 that we have the support of local residents for the Option 7 route which stops further destruction of oaks and wildlife. The contractors will have to listen if we represent over half the community.

See our report showing the importance of these trees

What can you do to help?

"None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."

– Mother Teresa