Roswell Pits Protected!

9.35.30am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 14th Jun 2008

The recent announcement by Natural England, that the Roswell Pits and meadows are to be declared a SSSI for wildlife, has been welcomed by local Liberal Democrats.

"Our congratulations and thanks must go to the local campaign group LCPRE who, along with the RSPB and Wildlife Trust, successfully made the case to the Government body. However, while the new designation protects the nationally important wildlife at the site, for its long term well-being a proper maintenance plan for the site must be in place" said Nigel Bell Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Ely North & East.

"We believe that the Ely Wild Space scheme, drawn up by the LCPRE, must be considered as part of any plans for the Ely Country Park. The District Council has no designated Local Nature Reserves and must begin to address this deficit within these plans. They should be providing a Park for the 21st century that has as its main priority the protection of the environment and increasing Biodiversity. The 80 hectares that comprise this newly designated SSSI would, at a stroke, meet the target for the District set by Natural England of 1 hectare per 1000 population."

Liberal Democrats have a long running campaign for the site to be run as a Local Nature Reserve. East Cambridgeshire District Council recently received outside funding and have begun a consultation on setting up an Ely Country Park with a scheme proposal to go before the Community Services Committee in October 2008. Currently East Cambridgeshire District has the lowest provision of Local Nature Reserves in the whole of Cambridgeshire, with no Council designated LNRs.