NATURE CONSERVATION: ESSEX
93
for the sole purpose of protecting the true Oxlip (Primula elatior).
This wood is leased by The Nature Conservancy.
The term S.S.S.I., standing for Site(s) of Special Scientific
Interest, is so often used that I think a short review of the position
with regard to these may be of interest. These sites are notified
by The Nature Conservancy to the local planning authorities
under section 23 of the National Parks and Access to the Country-
side Act, 1949, and these authorities are required to consult The
Nature Conservancy before giving any planning consent to
development directly affecting these sites. The local trusts come
into this procedure now for The Nature Conservancy, through lack
of adequate field staff, seeks their advice in every case and the
advantage of having such local, expert and up-to-date knowledge
readily available will be appreciated. It should be emphasised
that notification imposes no legal obligations on owners or
occupiers of such sites, nor does it confer any rights of entry or
public access.
There are approximately one thousand seven hundred S.S.S.I.s
in Great Britain that had been notified to the planning authorities
by The Nature Conservancy. Unfortunately, afforestation and
agricultural reclamation are among those operations which are not
regarded as 'development' under the Town and Country Planning
Act, and many sites have been ruined by clear-felling of woodland
and the ploughing-up of grassland.
In the case of Essex, there are thirty-two S.S.S.I.s, with an
additional three recommended but not yet scheduled. The Essex
Trust has asked the Nature Conservancy to review all these sites,
bearing in mind that the present list was prepared in 1954 and
that there has been rapid and extensive development in the county
since then. The reply was that the list cannot be reviewed at
present—and that there is little hope of it being done in the
foreseeable future. This decision by The Nature Conservancy is, to
say the least, most disappointing.
While on this theme, I think it is worthy of mention that
during the whole of the Trust's formation period, its purchase
of The Wick, its fight for The Naze and its assistance in the survey
and reporting on S.S.S.I.s threatened by development, not a
penny has been received from The Nature Conservancy, although,
of course, advice and assistance has been received from the staff
of The Conservancy from the Director-General downwards.
Even at The Naze Inquiry, where the naturalists fought on the
grounds of the unique geological and the general ornithological
interests, The Nature Conservancy at first refused to support the
Trust.
It is appropriate here, perhaps, to refer to the present position
regarding The Naze. The proposed development by the erection
of houses, shops, hotel, chalets and car parks was a very real
threat to this area and particularly to the geological section here
exposed. This section is of the famous Waltonian Crag, rich in
fossils, which is unique in this country, if not in Western Europe.