21 December 2020
The last remaining mistletoe in St Helens borough is under threat – from St Helens Council.
St Helens Council has earmarked Green Belt land in Haydock for industrial development, including the site of what the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland states is home to what is now the borough’s only surviving mistletoe plant.
Mistletoe is an evergreen plant which in winter produces clusters of pearlescent white berries that are favourites with hungry birds such as thrushes. There are more than 900 species of mistletoe around the world but only one, the European mistletoe, is native to the UK. The decline of orchards and development of the countryside have seen the plant increasingly confined to the west and south-west of England.
Paul Hooton of St Helens Green Party says:
“A once-common plant is now on the brink of localised extinction. And as we watch more and more of our countryside disappear beneath concrete and steel, it is clear that some of the people running the council know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
“The demise of this lonely mistletoe might not seem like the end of the world, but it’s yet another step in the wrong direction. When we lose the land, we lose the wildlife that depend on it, we lose the beautiful views and we lose the fresh air. In its place comes two of the most carbon-intensive building materials on the planet. It makes no sense.
“In the darkest days of lockdown there was a lot of talk about ‘the new normal’ and ‘building back better’. I’m calling on St Helens Council to build back better, to keep the bulldozers out of our countryside, and to nurture our green spaces that are so important to our mental and physical heath.
“As we come towards the end of a truly awful year, we are seeing a glimmer of hope with the new Covid vaccine. Perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope for our countryside too?”
St Helens Green Party continues to oppose any encroachment on to the Green Belt.
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