Boughton Lane

This project concerned a proposed access to a site allocated for housing through woodland considered by Natural England to be ancient. Planning permission had been refused inter alia on grounds of loss of ancient woodland.

Our woodland survey found no evidence of ancientness, which concurred with our detailed cartographic regression.

Despite no woodland being shown on any map prior to 1840, Natural England stood by its assessment, arguing that the index wood was not mapped because it was too small. This assertion was contradicted by a meticulous search of relevant historic maps, which found numerous woodlands of the same size or smaller.

Although NE declined to revise its position, the appeal Inspector concluded that there is no map-based evidence before this inquiry that shows any basis for believing Five Acre Wood to date back to 1600. To our knowledge, this is the first instance where the ‘ancient woodland inventory’ has been found inaccurate at appeal.