JoJo, as you asked...

The picture earlier in my blog is my own house. This is the one opposite that they plan to demolish. It's the one on the left, as you can see it's directly opposite my front gate. You can't actually see or get into the wildlife site except through a gate up the side of the house, so the best I could do for a glimpse of it is take a photo from my upstairs window. Sorry for the streaks of reflection. The land stretches away to the right behind five double-fronted houses like the one on the right.

Planning law is different in England than it is in the US. Our Local Council receives plans, and a planning committee has to approve them. Often (as in this case) the planning officers give the applicant a lot of help to get it right. Objecters get no help, only get told what is not a valid reason for objecting (ie. the noise and dirt of the development!), but wildlife is supposed to be a consideration these days. SUPPOSED to be.

A planning officer is visiting the site next week (no-one's even looked at it yet!) and we hope that will inform their recommendations to the planning committee. The officers are paid workers, the committee is made up of elected officials.

Our first step is to make sure we don't lose the initial vote. Pro Bono is not on offer for things like this as far as I know, but we have three lawyers living in the affected area.

Thanks for all your support and good wishes.