BBC ‘Damages Countryside’ to Film Chris Packham’s Springwatch

Residents have accused the BBC of damaging the countryside to film Chris Packham’s Springwatch. The Telegraph has the story.

The show is broadcasting live from a National Trust estate in the Peak District which is home to one of Britain’s most threatened birds, protected insects and rare plants.

But residents have accused the BBC of “hypocrisy”, saying that the “reality” of the wildlife show is actually to damage the wildlife, including roads built for lorries and a steel plate over a meadow where wildflowers were about to burst into bloom.

Mr Packham is joined by fellow presenter Michaela Strachan at the National Trust’s Longshaw estate for three weeks of live filming for the show’s 20th anniversary.

The first episode, which aired on Monday, opened with the pair praising the habitats and the wildlife at the location, including hares, herds of deer, short-eared owls and ring ouzels.

But resident Christine Laver said that the “reality” of the show behind the scenes was very different.

Tonnes of limestone were tipped into a gritstone landscape, which could cause damage as the materials support different types of habitat.

Other damage saw ditches blocked and tracks “widened by vehicles they were never designed for”, the local council worker said.

She added that there was “a meadow covered in steel plating, just when the wildflowers are coming into bloom” and “dozens of staff and production vehicles”.

“How many tons of CO₂ will this lot produce in three weeks, Chris Packham?” she asked.

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