Press release from Cheshire Police:
29th August 2023
TEENAGER PLEADS GUILTY TO CAUSING NESTON MARSHLAND FIRE
A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to deliberately causing a large fire on marshland in Neston.
The teenager, who can’t be named for legal reasons, appeared at Chester Magistrates on 25 August for trial. He pleaded guilty on the first day to arson and damage of a site of special scientific interest. He was handed a nine-month referral order and ordered to pay £200 court fees and £22 victim surcharge.
Two other 15-year-old boys, who also can’t be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to arson and damage at an earlier hearing. They were also handed a nine-month referral order and ordered to pay £120 court costs and £22 victim surcharge.
The fire occurred, at around 6.15pm on Saturday 19 March 2022 in Parkgate Marshlands. Four young suspects were seen fleeing the scene not long after the fire started.
The three boys admitted they were at the scene but not who set the fire.
The fire damaged an extensive area of tall well-established reedbed vegetation. The most significant impact of the fire is likely to be the loss of breeding habitat for specialist bird species as well as wintering roost sites. The implication of the damage to the site and the wildlife was significant.
DC Adam Spencer said:
“What these boys did devastated the breeding grounds for protected species under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.
While all of them admitted to being present at the site, none of them would admit who started fire, leaving us with no option but to prosecute all three teenagers, meaning that they will all now be tarred with criminal records which will have lifelong implications.
The impact of their actions that day cannot be underestimated; the fire caused significant damage to the marshes which is likely to have a significant impact on local wildlife for years to come.
The message here is think before you act“.
Ginny Hinton, Deputy Director, Natural England Cheshire to Lancashire Team, said:
“Natural England assisted in investigating this crime and in assessing the damage to this important nature site. Our survey showed the fire had devastated a large area of reedbed and saltmarsh, destroying habitat for endangered birds like the Hen Harrier and Bittern. It will take a long time for the site to recover.
This incident highlights the need to follow the Countryside Code and respect, protect and enjoy the great outdoors. This also provides a reminder of the far reaching impact of fire on our well-loved natural spaces“.
ENDS
The vast saltmarsh at Parkgate on the Dee Estuary is a familiar site to many birders, particularly in the winter when this important site attracts Hen harriers, Peregrines, Short-eared owls, Barn owls, Merlin, Kestrels, wildfowl and wading birds, but it’s also an important breeding site for Marsh harriers, Bearded tits, Cetti’s warbler and others.
The RSPB conducted an assessment of the fire damage in 2022 and said that about ten hectares of the marsh was burnt during the arson attack, including all the reedbed vegetation and some areas of saltmarsh vegetation.
I’d argue that a nine-month referral order and pitiful court costs is unlikely to deter other would-be arsonists and doesn’t, in my view, reflect the seriousness of the damage they deliberately caused.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Absolutely useless punishment. What’s the point? These tykes wear it as a badge of honour. I live about 5 minutes away from Parkgate. I remember how furious I felt on hearing the first report last year. They should be made to work alongside staff and volunteers to undo the massive damage they did. Twerps.
Yes -and I think involving and educating these people in the value and importance of these reed beds and actually getting them physically involved the areas they live in with the people that put so much work here .. ..I think after 6 months of weekend activities they may well find a solution to their boredom. Who knows !
9 months working with rspb volunteers on restoring the site would have been far more educational and may have made them think more about wildlife and nature as something to engage with and not destroy.
I agree Hazel. You can’t realistically impose huge fines on 15 year olds and a custodial sentence would have been a disaster for them out of all proportion – enter as teenagers, leave as hardened criminals. They’re teenagers anyway so “deterrent” isn’t really something kids think about before making dumb decisions, which is why in other contexts they end up injured or worse. Making them spend their time in ways that inconvenience and embarrass them rather than polish their street cred amongst peers would have been more effective at putting others off. And maybe they would have learned something valuable if they had to work on the reserve and properly understand the damage they’d done. More remedial justice, and less “punishment”, works better with young people in most cases.
I don’t know if such a sentence was an option open to the court but I agree that it would have been a better way of treating these boys than the sentence that was given. There would have been a price to be paid in terms of giving up their time but there would also have been the possibility that they would have come to see how pointlessly damaging their action was. There would even have been a chance that the seeds of an interest in wildlife might have been sown leading to an altogether more positive use of their free time.
Absolutely my thoughts .. constructive and who knows if it’s what’s needed for bored youths ..
It is no wonder that environmental / wildlife crimes are rife in the UK. When are we going to get proper sentences and sentencing guidelines and a judiciary prepared to impose them?
All three will have criminal records for arson for the rest of their lives. That will have serious impacts on their ability to gain insurance or international travel, never mind finding work… unless they commit themselves to perpetual lying and criminality and the risk of extended stays at HMP.
Referral orders are a joke, and in some cases are not even enforced. Punishment via a Referral order, is NO PUNISHMENT.
As these crimes are rarely, if ever, pre-planned then it might be a good idea to start a campaign for a course introducing children to the natural world which would last over their experience of education.
These are generally “crimes of poverty” — impetuous, negative actions borne out of ignorance and disrespect for our natural resources. My full sympathy lies with those caught in the poverty trap, if not with the negative outcomes that poverty ridden life experiences often attract.
If I am correct that crimes like this committed by children are impetuous and not pre-planned then punitive actions will not stop them …. but education and respect while learning about the value of our natural resources might.
i can’t help but notice that hunting/shooting estates have the jump on us in this respect as, due to their hegemonic power in local councils, have enklisted schools to take the children along and i have no doubt they are structured to position shooting as an important and necessary part of our communities interaction with nature.
Could conservation oriented organisation not organise something similar with local authoritiesto give them an all round view of the wildlife-human interaction arena.
As it stands our impoverished communities are being conditioned in a manner that, in my view, is not conduscive with developing a envirironmental/ecological generation with the respect required to develop a new understadning of this ongoing relationship.
Yes education in all schools and a good teacher with that interest and enthusiasm will impart an enthusiastic response from most small children ..continue through education and no more vandalism.. sadly it’s home that must also have an input and it’s not going to happen . So solution here is to have the young offenders get involved in this community he lives in and understand the value the marshes and Contribute.
I could see tge extent of this fire from my home the other side of the Dee in North Wales. I’m horrified and bl..dy angry at the pitiful way these teenagers have been dealt with. Yes a far more reasonable approach was to ensure they all have to go out on those areas to work with wardens to appreciate the awful devastation they have caused and learn !!!!
Absolutely
The comment from the police is interesting – “none of them would admit who started the fire, leaving no option but to prosecute”.
Does that mean that if the perpetrator had admitted starting the fire then the police wouldn’t have prosecuted and administered something like a police caution?
I agree with all the other comments that a more fitting punishment would have been to make these youths work alongside the wardens trying to repair the damage caused by the fire, and hopefully to help understand the real consequences for all the wildlife which relied on this important habitat.
Sound as if they have all the qualifications to be employed on a grouse moor .
There’ll get away with blue murder with a top barrister and slack judge .