Essex wildlife site saved after eight year fight
The Grasslands of Middlewick Ranges were set to be demolished as part of Colchester Council's housing plans
Last updated 17th Feb 2025
Middlewick Ranges – site of national nature significance - on the southern edge of Colchester have now been excluded from housing plans after an eight-year long community campaign.
Green MP Adrian Ramsay is touring the site of special scientific interest today which had been listed for development in the council's Local Plan.
Mr Ramsay says: “This is a magnificent success for a near decade-long campaign that has brought together the whole community to protect a resource that everyone can now use.
“I am visiting to say a huge ‘thank you’ to the campaigners and learn the ingredients of their success. I will use my position in Parliament to tell the government that its obsession with growth at all costs must not trample over nature and the rights of people to enjoy it."
Campaigners say "against the odds, we successfully fought against the MOD and Colchester City Council's plans to pave over the Priority Habitat."
Middlewick Ranges and Birch Brook Woodland form a patchwork of habitats on sandy soils, not only rich natural history but cultural and military history too, having been used as a firing range since the Boer War.
‘The Wick’ is home to the largest surviving area of acid grassland in Essex, a top UK Nightingale population.
It also homes Barbastelle bats and a wealth of other rare species, including nationally significant grassland fungi and invertebrates: the Splendid and Dune Waxcap, the Four-banded Weevil-wasps, and Necklace Ground Beetle.
Now taken off Colchester's Local Plan for development, campaigners says Middlewick Ranges can now be "secured as a nature reserve, improving access for all while safeguarding its precious biodiversity – working in collaboration with key stakeholders."