Campaigners have called for ancient woodland due to be cleared to make way for Hereford’s bypass to be saved.
Grafton Wood lies near the A49 Ross Road/B4399 Rotherwas Access Road roundabout, which is to be the start of phase 1 of the revived bypass scheme.
Plans published by Herefordshire Council show the proposed new road would pass right through the roughly rectangular wood, which as “ancient semi-natural woodland” is thought to have stood continuously since at least 1600.
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Jay Henderson, the Woodland Trust’s Woods Under Threat lead, said: “Ancient woods like Grafton are rich, diverse and incredibly scarce ecosystems, covering just 2.5 per cent of the UK.
“They’ve spent centuries evolving into unique and complex habitats for thousands of species of wildlife, including rare plants, fungi and insects.”
According to the council’s plans, it will plant a new woodland on a 3.5-hectare patch of farmland next to the A49 and the new road, “to offset the acquisition of land within Grafton Woods”.
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But the Woodland Trust says new plantations are a poor substitute for ancient woods.
“They are irreplaceable and cannot be regrown, so it’s vital we protect our last remaining fragments, including Grafton,” Mr Henderson said.
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The Trust has previously argued, particularly in the case of the HS2 rail London-to-Birmingham rail project, that restoring ancient woods over-planted with commercial tree species “is the only way to increase the area of ancient woodland with semi-natural characteristics in the UK, and is one of the most important things we can do for woodland biodiversity”.
It says these plantations on ancient woodland sites, or PAWS, make up almost 50 per cent of the UK’s ancient woodland, and are “vital reservoirs of biodiversity”.
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The council’s Cabinet will decide this week whether to press ahead with compulsory purchase orders to ensure it has all the land along its course up to the A465.
This is to include an embankment over a new “wildlife underpass”, along an existing hedgerow and “established bat flight path”.
The council has budgeted £40 million from its own budget for the scheme, of which £10 million is for preparatory works including land acquisition.
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