The charity’s expert ecologists will be submitting an official response to the consultation, but it is keen to encourage as many people as possible to take part in the consultation to highlight public concerns for wildlife and the environment. Mr McDaid added: “In addition to designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest, including ancient woodlands, dozens of Local Wildlife Sites will be affected, sites close to where people live, places where people see and engage with wildlife daily – so the impacts will damage people’s quality of life. Responding to HS2’s claims that they will be creating a ‘green corridor’ as part of the mitigation for environmental impacts Mr McDaid said: “Talk of HS2 creating a green corridor is disingenuous in the extreme. Whilst they are proposing significant mitigation, as is legally required, tree planting schemes and other habitat creation projects will not be sufficient to offset the damage caused. The complexity of some fragile habitats will never be re-created and people living along the route will be faced with a loss of wildlife from the local environment for generations to come. We believe that it is vital that people raise and share their concerns before it is too late. The government needs to understand that wildlife is important to a large proportion of the public and the impact of such schemes simply cannot be ignored or offset.”

As the latest period of consultation gets underway Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is frustrated that the true impact of loss of wildlife habitat isn’t being properly considered - Mr McDaid added: “Wildlife sites, some of our rarest species, and the people who care about wildlife will be affected right along the route in Nottinghamshire, but sadly throughout the consultations we feel that HS2 have consistently undervalued the importance of wildlife habitats and been dismissive of the impacts. We also believe that they have failed to appreciate the impact that the loss of wildlife areas will have on people’s lives.”