Chapel's swifts part 3 - An open letter to Jon Pearce MP

Lots has been going on and is still going on to try to get Network Rail to reopen the blocked swift nesting sites at Chapel Milton Viaduct. Lots of promises, lots of assurances but as yet NO PROGRESS. 

This is simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH Network Rail!

If you want to help:

• email Jeremy Westlake, CEO of Network Rail jeremy.westlake@networkrail.co.uk and Ellie Burrows, Regional MD ellie.burrows@networkrail.co.uk. Demand urgent action!

• if you are a High Peak constituent, email our MP jon.pearce.mp@parliament.uk to encourage him to intervene with Network Rail and High Peak Borough Council. He can only act for constituents so include  your full name, full address and postcode and a contact telephone number

This evening (22 April) we sent the following plea to Jon Pearce, MP for High Peak. Read on to find out where we are at right now.

Our campaign covered in the Telegraph this month

Dear Jon (by email)

Thank you for your continued support for our swift campaign. Your engagement on TikTok and Facebook has been invaluable in reaching a wider audience, and we are grateful for your discussions with the Rail Minister to highlight how vital this issue is for High Peak.

Please can we call on you for support once again? We are in a situation which you are uniquely placed to help resolve. It's desperate. We need you please to intervene and put pressure on Network Rail and High Peak Borough Council to expedite any planning processes so that the nest entry holes can be reopened URGENTLY.

The plight of the swifts at Chapel Milton has gained an amazing amount of attention and support right up to national level, as you know. But this campaign began with, and has always been led by, the Chapel Biodiversity Group. We're still working tirelessly to get these three small nesting site entry holes opened up on span 3 of the Chapel Milton Viaduct after Network Rail mortared them up.

Despite all their promises and assurances, Network Rail still have not acted. Deborah Pitman and Jason Adshead from our group met a sustainability manager and comms representative from Network Rail today at the Viaduct. Network Rail brought no detail, no clarity, just a hollow assurance that "we’re taking it all very seriously". The worst bit? The manager let slip they haven’t even checked if the mortar was injected into the nests or surface dressed. So at the moment they don’t even have a serious plan for how to open the nests.

Network Rail and High Peak Borough Council (HPBC) claim they need planning approval to unblock the holes, yet as of today, HPBC has not even received the required documentation from Network Rail to begin. 

This simply is not being taken seriously. It's not good enough.

The entry holes remain blocked. The swifts will be here within days - they have already been sighted just 20 miles away. When these birds find their nesting sites blocked, they will exhaust themselves trying to enter. It is a distressing spectacle and a tragedy for local biodiversity. We will be at the Viaduct to bear witness if we have to. But we don't want it to come to this. 

Jon, you are uniquely placed to put pressure on Network Rail and HPBC to act now.  There is still time to prevent this, but only if they move now. Please help us save these swifts.