Red Flag for Flagstones

27th March, 2001

One of the world’s most striking and unusual habitats – limestone pavement - is in danger of being irreparably damaged. With less than 3,000 hectares remaining in the UK, it is imperative that this beautiful landscape is safe-guarded for the future.

Limestone pavement is being illegally destroyed, broken up and sold in garden centres as rockery stone. The Wildlife Trusts are calling upon all gardeners to help to protect limestone pavements by refusing to buy water-worn limestone and choosing instead re-constituted stone or rocks such as sandstone, granite, deep quarried limestone or York stone.

The British Isles holds the world’s most significant areas of limestone pavement, of which only 3% has escaped damage. Sculptured by glaciers and weathered for over 10,000 years it has a unique broken and splintered appearance with fissures separating the solid blocks of bare limestone. Rare plants like rigid buckler-fern, bloody crane’s-bill, angular Solomon’s-seal and downy currant can be found growing amongst limestone pavement, alongside animals like the tiny whorl snail and the threatened high brown and pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies.

The Wildlife Trusts are encouraging the public to seek alternatives to water-worn limestone for their gardens and to raise their awareness of this problem, since many consumers may be inadvertently supporting this damaging trade.

What you can do

• Don’t buy water-worn limestone (sometimes labelled Irish limestone, Cumbrian stone or ‘weathered limestone’).
  
• Use re-constituted stone and artificial substitutes made from fibreglass or cement, or alternatives such as sandstone, granite, deep-quarried limestone, slate or York stone.
  
• Report sale or extraction of limestone pavement to the Limestone Pavement Action Group on 01539 448280.
  
• Write to your local MP calling for better limestone pavement protection.

1. Most limestone pavement in the UK is found in north west England in North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire with small pockets found in Wales, Perthshire and the north west of Scotland. Limestone pavement in Ireland comes from the Burren
   
2. Retailers sell limestone pavement under a number of misleading names including water-worn limestone, Cumberland, Westmorland or Irish limestone. Only the expensive price and rough, worn appearance will reveal its origin.
   
3. Limestone pavement is listed as a priority habitat under the Government’s UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) – a set of published rescue plans for endangered species and habitats. The Wildlife Trusts are working with partners to implement action plan for limestone pavement.
   
4. The most important areas of limestone pavement in Britain and Ireland have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the EC Habitats Directive. In addition, local authorities can make Limestone Pavement Orders on pavements of special interest that make it illegal under the Wildlife & Countryside Act to remove stone or damage pavement. However, many pavements in Britain and Ireland receive no such protection.
   
5. The Limestone Pavement Action Group, based at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, was formed in 1994 to address the threats to limestone pavements. For further information visit their website: http://www.limestone-pavements.org.uk/
   

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