Council set to drop Essex wildlife site from housing plan after eight-year fight Middlewick Ranges near Colchester is considered to be of national importance for its nightingales and acid grassland.
Middlewick Ranges, a former Ministry of Defence firing range on the edge of Colchester, is set to be dropped from the city council’s allocated housing sites after councillors took heed of a growing array of ecological evidence highlighting its national importance for nature.
After an outcry, and allegations that ecological assessments for the MoD had downplayed the natural riches of Middlewick and overstated the potential to recreate acid grassland elsewhere, the council is now being guided by its own report based on “robust ecological evidence” from experts including the government’s conservation watchdog, Natural England.
According to experts, Middlewick meets or exceeds the criteria for a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) in six categories – for its endangered nightingales, rare barbastelle bats, range of invertebrates, rare acid grassland, waxcap fungi and veteran trees.
The 3,500-member Friends of Middlewick group, supported by Essex Wildlife Trust, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, the RSPB and others, hopes that the former ranges will now be transformed into a community nature reserve for south Colchester.
