My name is Tim Scott and I’m a farmer growing essential food in a nature-friendly way at Lark Rise Farm near Cambridge. Together with the Countryside Regeneration Trust, I have created an oasis for many highly endangered farmland bird species, such as grey partridge, lapwing, golden plover, yellowhammer, and skylark, mammals such as brown hares, numerous bat species, and a huge variety of insects such as beetles and butterflies.

Some of these are among the most threatened species in the UK, with the government’s own statistics showing the alarming decline of farmland birds due to habitat loss. Now East West Rail want to slice part of Lark Rise Farm in two so they can build a rail link running from Cambridge to Bedford that will cost £1billion more than the more logical route recommended by East West Rail's own consultant, affect more people, have a greater environmental impact.

More than ever before we need to ensure farmland allows wildlife to flourish. Not all farms do this because to encourage farmland flora and fauna you must create the right habitat and farm in a way that helps regenerate the land. I’ve been carefully doing this for 20 years and the land East West Rail want to run a railway through bucks the national declines for many Red-listed birds.

When the CRT bought this land there was virtually no wildlife on it, but now it is rich in many specialist species that simply can’t exist on a typical nature reserve or green space. This is something I am immensely proud of, but now I am very worried it has all been for nothing.

Farmers are being asked by the government to do more to protect and restore the countryside so its Environment Plan pledges to halt the decline in species populations by 2030 and increase them by at least 10% by 2042, can be met.

Destroying farmland that is already achieving so much for the countryside to build a rail link that has an alternative route with less environmental impact, isn’t the way to achieve this. We need East West Rail to recognise that no amount of ecological compensation sites can make up for the loss of fertile and nature-friendly farmland. Please sign this petition and show East West Rail that you want to protect the countryside and the wildlife in it.