§ Mr. Kenneth Carlisleasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the losses of ancient woodland by county since 1954.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI have been asked to reply.
I am advised that the Nature Conservancy Council does not have figures for losses of ancient woodland by county since 1954. It has, however, provided estimates for certain counties, based on studies of aerial photographs and ordnance survey data, of the area of ancient woodland which has been totally cleared in the last 50 years, as follows:
Hectares Avon 141 Bedfordshire 178 Buckinghamshire 299 Cambridgeshire 222 Cornwall 119 Essex 931 Hertfordshire 462 Humberside 110 Leicestershire 341 Lincolnshire 261 Norfolk 144 Northamptonshire 694 Northumberland 323 Oxfordshire 270 Shropshire 641 Somerset 426 Suffolk 483 Surrey 840 Clwyd 379 Gwent 925 Gwynedd 376 I am advised that ancient woodlands are defined as those which have been wooded since at least 1600.