Peat extraction threatens Salford’s ‘rainforests’

SALFORD'S RAINFOREST:Chat Moss, with the devastation caused by peat extraction hown in clear contrast behind. Picture: James Ellaby

May 2010: Controversial plans to extend the peat extraction license at Chat Moss in Salford have been criticised by the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Manchester and North Merseyside, who are calling on people to send letters of objection to Salford City Council.

Mosslands such as Chat Moss are important, because the peat stores huge amounts of carbon, helping to fight climate change, while the habitat also provides a home for a host of amazing plants and wildlife, something which the trust believes makes it far too significant to lose for compost.

‘In terms of global importance, these habitats are our rainforest,' says the Wildlife Trust's operations manager Mick Weston. ‘Ninety-nine per cent of them have been destroyed in our area in the past 100 years. We are determined to save the rest before it is too late.'

A planning application has been submitted to Salford City Council by horticultural manufacturer William Sinclair, which is asking for permission to continue extracting peat on the site for another 15 years. This will allow them to take a further two metres of peat off the site.

Restoration would not then start for 15 years
Current permission finishes in December, and it had always been intended that as soon as this finished restoration of the site to an active sphagnum bog would take place. Indeed, agreement over restoration was a condition of the the current planning permission. If however, the company succeed in their bid to continue extracting peat, restoration will not start for another 15 years. Furthermore, when more peat has been extracted it will become increasingly difficult to restore the site at all.

Peat extraction runs counter to both local and national policies and will have a continuing devastating effect, not just on the biodiversity of the site, and neighbouring sites, but also on carbon emissions and climate change, says the trust.

‘Britain's mosslands hold the carbon equivalent of 35 years of national carbon emissions,' said Dr Chris Miller the Trust's Mosslands Project Manager. ‘If peat is dug up the carbon in the peat is oxidised and within a relatively short time it will all be in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This is why restoring mosslands can make such a big contribution to fighting climate change. Peat extraction is disastrous.'

The trust is now calling on people to send formal letters of objection to Salford Council, quoting the following application reference numbers: 10/58824/FULEIA, 10/58825/FULEIA and 10/58826/FULEIA. Objections can be e-mailed to planning.contact@salford.gov.uk or posted to: Planning Urban Vision Partnership Ltd, Emerson House, Albert Street, Eccles, Salford, M30 0TE.