Legal action looms over permission for cycle track at nature reserve

A city council faces a legal challenge from a local conservation group against its decision to grant planning permission for a cycle track on a nature reserve.

Derbyshire Wildlife Trust has asked Derby City council to stop clearance work at The Sanctuary reserve, and warned it will otherwise seek an injunction to halt it.

The trust has also warned that it will seek judicial review of the planning decision to approve the track.

Conservation manager Tim Birch said: “We have been advised that we have grounds to seek such a review on two counts – the absence of a winter bird survey of the nature reserve, meaning that there is incomplete information about its wildlife, and the offer of a compensatory site at Alvaston Scrub, which is inappropriate and inadequate.”

He said destruction of the wildlife habitat would set “a dangerous precedent that makes other local nature reserves in Derbyshire and around the country vulnerable to development.

“If Derby City Council is prepared to build on this local nature reserve, which will be the next they line up for development?”

A city council spokesperson said: “The council acknowledges the current legal proceedings with regard to the closed circuit cycle track. The council will make no further comment at this time.”