Stone Curlew Note 1

Myth or Fact?

The sighting of the Stone Curlew by Mike Read was for a time something of a myth. His report was included in the Environmental Assessment that British Car Auctions were required to produce by the Secretary of State before he would determine the Public Inquiry into BCA‘s third application to build a housing estate at Fox Farm.

When an Environmental Assessment is carried out, the planning laws which require it also require that the general public be given an opportunity to comment on it. The Yateley Society and Yateley Town Council made submissions to the Secretary of State and the Public Inquiry (originally held in 1996) had to be reopened (in 1998) in order to give the public a chance to make submissions to the Inspector concerning the Environmental Assessment.

Inspite of the fact that Mike Read carried out the bird survey before the opening of the 1996 Inquiry, BCA did not submit the survey as written evidence nor did they call Mike Read as a witness. Their stance was that they would accept the evidence of the RSPB, which did not include a sighting of the Stone Curlew. Thus the sighting in 1996 was therefore only a rumour (and possibly a myth!) going around at the time of the original Inquiry.

However, EPCAD Consultants who carried out the Environmental Assessment, of which the bird survey was only a part, under contract to BCA, decided to publish the Mike Read survey as an appendix to their Environmental Assessment. BCA did not call Mike Read as a witness to the reopened Inquiry in 1998.

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