Matt Jackson from BBOWT considers how wildlife could be included in new builds

The piping call of a kingfisher rings out across the River Cherwell, and I glimpse a flash of azure blue as the little bird streaks across the river to its roost in a willow on the other bank.

This is an amazing sight, and it could become familiar to residents of the new development planned as part of Bicester’s eco-town.

The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust is working with developers and Cherwell District Council to ensure the development is designed with wildlife in mind.

Plans include a nature reserve, country park, and natural burial ground, with wildlife habitats alongside watercourses and existing hedgerows to create a network of wildlife corridors and habitats throughout the development.

This should allow wildlife that is currently in the area, such as great crested newts, bats and butterflies, to continue to live here alongside people.

The creation of new habitats and improved management of existing hedgerows and stream-side habitats could encourage more species to move in. In fact, the aim of the development is for an overall gain in wildlife in the area.

This may be relatively small-scale, but the joining-up of wildlife habitats is what Professor Sir John Lawton called for in his Making Space for Nature report in 2010, which reviewed the state of all the wildlife sites across the UK.

This report set the scene for a new 25-year recovery plan that the Government is planning to draw up for nature and wildlife, announced last month by Liz Truss MP, Secretary of State for the Environment.

The 25-year plan promises to be pan-governmental, acknowledging that every department from business to health, education to agriculture has a responsibility to help maintain and improve a healthy natural environment for people and for the economy.

Here in Oxfordshire, the Wildlife Trust looks after 30 nature reserves, four of them close to Oxford city: Iffley Meadows near the Abingdon Road and beside the River Thames, Lye Valley between Headington and Cowley, CS Lewis Nature Reserve in Risinghurst and Rivermead Nature Park in Rose Hill.

These urban nature reserves are where you can take a few minutes out of a busy day to stop and listen to birdsong, watch butterflies in summer and admire the patterns created by the branches of trees in winter.

Numerous studies show that spending 15 minutes in a natural environment like this gives us time to relax, smile and breathe deeply – it’s the natural health service, and we feel better for it!

They are also precious sites for wildlife. Precious because they are small in area and surrounded by development that could so easily have wiped out their wildlife.

Many Oxfordshire towns and villages have green spaces, often around water and woodlands.

Build on these natural assets and they will be lost forever. Build them in to new developments and they can help create happier and healthier neighbourhoods.

The kingfisher I saw might become a regular sight for Oxfordshire residents lucky enough to live here.