WOODS UNDER THREAT: Pencoedtre Wood, Wales

The Woodland Trust (Coed Cadw), the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, has launched an eleventh hour bid to save Pencoedtre Wood, an irreplaceable ancient woodland situated just north of Barry in Wales from being bulldozed to make way for new housing and industrial units. If granted, the planning application would destroy 9.4 hectares (23 acres) of the wood as well as fragmenting and degrading the 6.3 hectares (15 acres) remaining.

The Welsh Assembly’s key planning document - Planning Policy Wales – which came into force in 2002, granted ancient woodland protection under planning regulations. Paragraph 5.2.8 of this document clearly states that: “Ancient and semi-natural woodlands are irreplaceable habitats of high biodiversity value which should be protected from development that would result in significant damage.”

The Vale of Glamorgan’s Unitary Development Plan appears to be at odds with this national policy, as it has allocated this area of Pencoedtre Wood for development so there is a high risk that it will be approved.

One glimmer of hope centres around an ecological report on Pencoedtre Wood which the Vale of Glamorgan Council commissioned at the end of 2005. This habitat survey found no less than 46 different plant species that are specifically associated with ancient woodland, including greater butterfly orchid, wood sorrel and dogs mercury. In total, 126 different species of vascular plants were found, as well as 71 different kinds of mosses and liverworts and 22 bird species. This confirms clearly that the wood is ancient and of very high ecological value, contrary to claims by the potential developers.

Coed Cadw is now undertaking an evaluation of the woodland’s importance in the national context, a process which may lead to its notification as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
This would be by far the greatest loss of ancient woodland in Wales since the Assembly

Rory Francis of the Woodland Trust (Coed Cadw) says: “We understand that Pencoedtre Wood has a complicated planning history, but the latest survey shows clearly how special it is in wildlife terms. To destroy ancient woodland like this to make way for housing and business units would be the worst kind of vandalism, particularly when alternative, brownfield sites exist.

The Trust is concerned that the local authority decision-makers may have the impression that people in the area are not greatly concerned about Pencoedtre Wood. They are urging locals to write to the Vale of Glamorgan Council to voice their opposition.

Further news from the Woodland Trust in Wales can be accessed at: www.treeforall.org.uk/wales
The Trust adopted a new Welsh language name in 2000: “Coed Cadw”. This is an old Welsh term, used in medieval laws to describe protected or preserved woodland.