Save Danes Moss campaign – willow tit event

An event in Macclesfield is set to highlight the plight of the willow tit as a symbol of environmental loss. The willow tit is the UK’s most at-risk bird, with Macclesfield’s threatened Danes Moss North land one of its final strongholds.

Danes Moss North is a lowland peat bog under threat of development (950 homes plus roads and retail). Willow tits are just one of the more than 1000 species so far found on the development site.

Both the bird and the place will be celebrated with an uplifting evening of poetry, thought and determined action for nature.

The event – titled The Race to Save Danes Moss and the Willow Tit –  takes place at 7pm on Saturday 16 March at St Michael’s Church, Marketplace, Macclesfield. It is being organised by a group of local environmental organisations.

Tickets are free, but places need to be booked.

Speakers include:

• Steve Ely, poet and novelist
• Laurence Rose – author, conservationist and composer
• Dr Mark Champion, Lancashire Wildlife Trust
• Mark Cocker, naturalist and author of Birds and People and One Midsummer’s Day

The event will explore why saving willow tits and Danes Moss matters, the importance of the connections between Danes Moss and other willow tit sites, and why we need to know more about local populations to inform conservation efforts.

An ongoing campaign to stop the development is being led by the Save Danes Moss Community Group. We share their view that the development should be stopped. You can read the CPRE Cheshire position on Danes Moss as set out in our objection to the planning application. This focuses on the harm that development would cause to the peatland and its biodiverslty and the increase in carbon emissions that would result.

Book tickets for The Race to Save Danes Moss

Find out more about Danes Moss and the campaign to protect it