Keele Golf Course was a Newcastle-under-Lyme municipal course, that closed its bunkers in 2014. Over six years after being left abandoned, nature has taken over and repaired what humans destroyed. Trees and wildlife have been left alone and allowed to flourish naturally, giving the community quality and valuable life.
The World Wide Fund for Nature says the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries on the planet. 30% of UK birds are threatened with extinction, along with more than one in seven native species. Despite nature’s struggle, Keele Golf Course is one small place on the planet that offers hope – a place that stands tall, protecting the gift Mother Nature given to us.
Badgers, foxes, grass snakes, newts, dragonflies, toads, woodpeckers and more have been spotted by walkers strolling through an unspoilt picturesque beauty spot. Wildlife photographers have taken pictures of geese, ducks and moorhens nesting and rearing their young. Local campaign group - Save Our Green Space – features many images of local resident’s use of the green space on their social media. Picturesque seasonal walks of beautiful flora and fauna, families captured in moments of joy, family dogs absolutely in their element and children experiencing blooming ecosystems.
Lockdown has seen people enjoy this vast open greenspace. Walking through land steeped in nature and wildlife gives people a feeling of peace giving them positive mental health. Urban areas fortunate enough to have an asset such as Keele Golf Course, close to their community, are at a lower risk to various health conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure. A report by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) places a monetary value of £30bn a year in health and welfare benefits of the the UK’s green spaces.
Leaving Keele Golf Course untouched will mean the woodland will replant itself. The Charity, Rewilding Britain says, “given sufficient seed sources and suitable site conditions, trees will plant themselves in their millions for free over as large an area of land as we are willing to spare,” which offers a natural solution to the governments ambitious target of getting 30,000 hectares of British forest cover annually by 2025.
Greta Thunberg sent shockwaves around the globe when in 2019 she announced at a World Economic Forum in Davos that our house is on fire. She told the listening globe that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave a stark warning the planet was 12 years away from undoing human mistakes. Two years later, we at North Staffs Green Party are horrified to learn there are plans to create more than 1000 homes on Keele Golf Course – aggressively culling everything nature has repaired.
So, just how big is the price tag?
It is widely acknowledged that Covid-19 has hit our already cash-strapped councils badly, so it’s understandable that land would be considered for sale, but would the funds be worth the already foreseen tribulations? Especially, considering the high value returns already seen from Newcastle’s very unique space?
The crucial truth is that the rich bio-diverse gem’s worth is beyond the balances and spreadsheets, its wealth is our potential for a happy and healthy future. We urge you to not disregard Greta’s and the IPCC’s warning. If these sanctuaries keep disappearing this alarming rate, we will fail upon our climate policies and promises.
In the government’s A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment, the Prime Minister sets out the government’s simple goals - “cleaner air and water; plants and animals which are thriving; and a cleaner, greener country for us all.” Keele Golf Course is already on its way to achieving this goal. Building a thousand houses on this untouched land will result in a decade of nature and an inconceivable amount of carbon storage being destroyed.
A thousand houses will require amenities, GP’s, Dentists, and schools. These amenities are already full or near full in and around the Keele area. Data from the Local Government Inform Association on school’s capacity concludes the number of pupils in primary schools already exceed school’s capacity.
NHS digital data shows a surge in demand at GP surgeries in Staffordshire during 2020. The pandemic has shown us the fragile state of overstretched GP surgeries. In a Guardian article Dr Jara Aziz says “General practice is at a precipice and any small shifts in workload – whether through staff sickness or extra patients on the practice list – could send it into freefall”.
A thousand houses will also raise an already high pollution level. Stoke-on-Trent was named as the one of the most polluted cities in the UK, and according to Public Healthy England data, life expectancy of people in Stoke-on-Trent is already lower than the average. Air pollution is predicted to kill 600 Stoke-on-Trent and over 3000 Staffordshire residents in the next ten years.
Destruction of our local lungs will have dire consequences on our community’s well-being, most of who are already suffering and suffocating from Walley’s Quarry’s Tip fumes, which is causing noticeable health issues far and wide; including headaches, nausea, eye, skin and throat irritations.
In a BBC Radio Stoke interview, Sophie Calvert reports from St Luke’s CE Primary School the impact statements of children suffering from the fumes. Therefore, it is undeniable that local communities need clean, fresh air.
A landmark ruling by coroner Philip Barlow found that schoolgirl Ella Kissi-Debrah’s death in February 2013 was caused by air pollution. He said “The whole of Ella’s life was lived in close proximity to highly polluting roads. I have no difficulty in concluding that her personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide and PM was very high.” He added “Ella died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution.”
Additionally, a thousand house built on fields will require drainage. The 2014 IPCC report rainfall is getting heavier and the UK’s infrastructure is not adequate to cope with heavy downpours leading to localised flooding. As recently as January this year, we witnessed the floods in Manchester where thousands of residents had to evacuate their homes during Storm Christoph. The River Lea in Madeley was perilously close to breaking its banks in the same storm. Madeley pond had overfilled and was using the wooded area as a flood plain. The Environment Agency warns the flooding caused by Storm Christoph is a sign of worsening climate shocks. “The climate crisis is happening right now” says Emma Howard Boyd, chair of the Environment Agency.
“Retrofitting existing homes is the most carbon-efficient way to provide green homes,” tweeted Molly Scott Cato – Green Party MEP. Around half of the UK’s total carbon dioxide emissions comes from the energy used in the construction and use of our homes and other buildings. Retrofitting removes the construction part of the equation. Yet the Green Homes Grant provided by government has been a fiasco. Thomas Lane, editor of Building concludes “that reducing domestic carbon emissions is so far down the list of priorities that it is not interested in making the scheme work.”
All that glitters is not gold.
The sale of this land for development use will ensure colossal costs to both the taxpayer and nature. Protection of this land is the glimmer of hope we need. Our fragile planet is experiencing daily trauma, and is given no time to repair, as targets are consistently missed and time is running out, we must save Keele Golf Course from destruction to enable our species protection and our global wildlife’s survival.