Stamps launch faces legal challenge

14 April 2008 12:00am

The launch by the Royal Mail of a new set of stamps featuring endangered insects has met with a counter-launch of legal proceedings by conservationists.

Buglife - officially known as The Invertebrate Conservation Trust - announced that it plans to go to the Court of Appeal in a bid to challenge a legal decision giving the go-ahead for a mail distribution depot which, it says, threatens to destroy some of the UK's rarest species.

Two months ago, the High Court rejected Buglife's bid to stop construction of the depot and lorry park on an area the size of 15 football pitches on West Thurrock Marshes in Essex, which had been sanctioned by the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation.

The marshes, a major wildlife conservation site, are home to more than 1,300 species of invertebrates, birds and reptiles, including 36 species on the conservation Red Data Book.

The invertebrates include species such as the brown-banded carder bee, the distinguished jumping spider, the five-banded weevil wasp, the hump-backed red ant and the fancy-legged fly.

The High Court ruled in February that, given the protected status of adjoining land, it was fair to describe any long-term ecological harm as "not significant".

Buglife director Matt Shardlow said: "The fact that the Royal Mail is launching a set of stamps featuring endangered insects while their own plans will endanger many of our rarest insects is a classic example of spin over substance.

"Today we call on Royal Mail to stop stamping out wildlife. There are lots of alternative sites for this development that are not home to endangered animals."

The charity has prepared its own range of stamps, featuring some of the endangered insects which it says are threatened by the development.

No date has been set for a Court of Appeal hearing.

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