Compensation Culture

Cambridgeshire has not always been my local patch; I spent my teenage years living in a small village just outside Cardiff. South Wales is a beautiful place with a rich history, it’s not hard to see why Welsh people often feel so connected to their fatherland. It is a land where rolling verdant hills meet wild gushing rivers. When people think of South Wales they may be inclined to picture pit-marked valleys undulating around tight-knit communities, with sheep grazing the fertile fields. Parts of the region do indeed live up to this stereotype, but there is another side to the place, one that has propelled itself into the 21^st century with as much vigour as any other modern, vibrant city.

Cardiff serves as not only a centre of devolved power (housing as it does the Welsh Assembly), but also a hub of the arts, sport and finance in Wales. As you have probably guessed, I’m a country girl, but as cities go Cardiff is one of the more pleasant. It is compact enough not to feel like an urban sprawl, and has more than your average concentration of green areas.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that, unlike anywhere else, Cardiff hasn’t had its fair share of tension between nature and economic development.

Cardiff Bay is a paradise for tourists, it houses the world-famous Millennium Centre (particularly famous as the home of Welsh opera), contains more restaurants and cafés than you could ever visit and is set in a stunning location at the side of a freshwater lake.

The problem is that the freshwater lake didn’t use to exist. Although once a thriving dock, Cardiff Bay fell into disrepair in the 20^th century. No longer useful, it was simply seen as unsightly. With an extremely high tidal range, the Bay’s mudflats would lie exposed for as much as 14 hours a day. These were a fantastic habitat for waders and waterfowl, but potential investors saw them as ugly.

In the 1980s a proposal was made to build a barrage across the Bay, where the rivers Taff and Ely meet, thus creating a more aesthetically pleasing body of water and attract investors to the area.

As you can imagine, this didn’t go down well with conservationists who recognised the value of the mudflats that would be destroyed by the barrage. At this time the EU Habitats Directive had not yet been adopted but was in discussion. The Severn Estuary, including the Bay, had been proposed as a Special Protected Area during the discussions but was not formally protected by the Directive.

The Habitats Directive was passed by the EU in 1992 but in 1993 the Cardiff Bay Barrage Act was passed to allow the construction of the barrage, on the grounds of over-riding public economic interest – one of the get out clauses of the Habitats Directive. And with that the construction of the barrage started in 1994, was finished in 2000, and the mudflats were lost.

The Habitats Directive does state that habitat compensation must be provided in cases where the Directive is over-ridden. In the case of Cardiff Bay this was provided on the nearby Gwent Levels. A small wetlands reserve was also added right next to the Bay.

Last weekend we went to visit my mum, who still lives in Cardiff, and decided to take a trip to the Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve to see how it was doing. It was a particularly chilly day which felt like it belonged more to winter than autumn. The leaden sky hung heavy above us and the air was damp with fine drizzle. Luckily, it was fairly still so most of the wildlife did not seem put off by the dismal weather.

As we approached the entrance to the wetlands reserve we could see the developed Bay to one side and crowds of racing sailing boats to the other. The wetlands feel like an oasis of stillness amongst a lively nerve centre of activities. Herring gulls, black-headed gulls and lesser black-backed gulls flew overhead, distinctively calling as they went. It was hardly surprising to see them this near to the coast.

The reserve lies at the edge of the freshwater lake, alongside neighbouring residential areas. It is made up of boardwalks interspersed among pools and reedbeds, accompanied by a token patch of wildflowers.

At first we could only see the gulls but the information boards assured us that the wetlands are popular amongst resident and migratory water birds so we pushed on. Only a few metres into the reserve we caught sight of a speedy flash of blue and green sweeping away from a pond – a kingfisher! This was a good start. As we wandered over to where he had appeared from we saw that the pond was absolutely teaming with fish, flashing silver as they darted around below the surface.

Coots screamed out at each other from between the reeds, alerting us to their presence. Moorhens, too, placidly swam about the pond, dipping their comical red and yellow beaks below the surface intermittently to scout for food.

Above the pond a lone robin sat on a bare branch, surveying his territory and watching us with curiosity. He was silhouetted against the ashen sky, giving him an air of authority over the pools below.

Continuing along the boardwalk as it turns out towards the freshwater lake, in the distance we could see stately mute swans placidly swimming amongst elegant great-crested grebes.

Ubiquitous mallards floated upon another isolated pond. Beside them were two bulky hybrid ducks standing on rocks and looking particularly imposing over their slighter acquaintances.

A grey wagtail zipped with impressive speed between the reeds and onto the muddy banks below, his saffron underside making him conspicuous aside the murky earth.

One cannot say that birds have rejected this human constructed reserve. There are clearly birds here that rely on this new habitat. But the real question is whether it and the reserve on the Gwent Levels have provided genuine compensation for the important habitat lost by the barrage construction. More research is needed to determine the long-term effects of the habitat change but the act of destroying rare habitat, essential for specialist waders, is highly concerning.

The situation may not be perfect but at least the EU Birds and Habitats Directives are in place to block other developments which threaten to trash irreplaceable environments. The most worrying thing now is that the Directives are under threat due to the European Commission’s review to determine whether they are still “fit for purpose”. On 20^th November a conference will be held in Brussels to discuss the findings of the evaluation. It is easy to feel helpless and assume that only politicians have any control over the outcome of the “Fitness Check” but there is no point becoming complacent. The RSPB and other nature charities have campaigned against changes and are educating the public about the importance of the Directives. They have encouraged over 100,000 UK residents to respond to the Commission consultation to say that the Directives are appropriate and necessary. We can only hope that together we can dispel the myths proffered by politicians that the Directives are damaging to businesses, and rely on our political leaders to represent our views at the conference at the end of November.