Zoo boss calls pipeline plan on site 'unacceptable'

Chester Zoo's chief executive has said plans to build an underground pipeline that will cut through wildlife and habitats on the site are "unacceptable".

The zoo has 470 acres (about 190 hectares) of land just outside its main site, which make up a regional conservation and habitat recovery programme.

Zoo boss James Christon said conservation efforts were under threat from the Peak Cluster Project - a plan for a pipeline through the North West to transport carbon emissions to the coastline. He said the current route "would rip through our fields and jeopardise environmentally sensitive habitats".

Peak Cluster chief executive David Parkin said the firm remained committed to working with the zoo.

He said this included "irreplaceable wetland habitats that support wildlife and store carbon".

Peak Cluster is a project to develop an underground pipeline across the north-west to capture carbon emitted by cement and lime factories in the Peak District

Once built, the Peak Cluster underground pipeline would transport harmful carbon dioxide emissions from Derbyshire to the Wirral Coastline

From here, the gas would be compressed and stored within a former gas reservoir deep under the Irish Sea, off the coast of Morecambe in Lancashire, where the emissions would not be able to do any damage to the environment

Christon said Chester Zoo bosses first wrote to Peak Cluster in March voicing their concerns about the route and met with project bosses in May to ask them to relook at the proposal.

Since then, Christon claims he has had no contact with Peak Cluster, leading him to believe there will be no changes made to the proposed route.

"We recognise development can be necessary and welcome progress on low-carbon infrastructure," Christon said.

"However, we're against bad development that would damage the irreplaceable habitats and ecosystems we're all working so hard to protect.

Christon added he wanted to see a route forward that worked for "people and nature alike".

"The decarbonising industry should not come at the expense of nature," he said.