To: The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Save swift nests before building work blocks or obstructs them
We call on the Defra Secretary to establish an emergency response protocol for credible reports of active swift nests threatened by building work.
The procedure must clearly define how police and local authorities respond, who takes responsibility, and how nests - and access to them - are protected. The risk itself must be assessed by someone with swift expertise, with decisions and actions recorded.
The procedure must clearly define how police and local authorities respond, who takes responsibility, and how nests - and access to them - are protected. The risk itself must be assessed by someone with swift expertise, with decisions and actions recorded.
Why is this important?
Swifts are in trouble. Their UK breeding population fell by 70% between 1995 and 2024, and they are now on the UK Red List of birds of conservation concern.
We are volunteer swift conservationists who have witnessed what can happen when building work threatens nesting swifts and nobody takes responsibility for intervening in time.
At Regent House in Dorking, a long-established swift colony was threatened during demolition. At another site in Banstead, scaffolding and building work obstructed access to an active swift nest. We reported our concerns, but encountered uncertainty about who should act, what evidence was needed and who was responsible for protecting the birds.
When a swift's nest entrance is blocked, every hour can matter. Swifts spend almost their entire lives in flight, returning to the same nesting places year after year. If adults cannot reach their eggs or chicks, the consequences can be devastating.
The law already protects active nests, but protection is of little use if nobody intervenes until the work is finished and the evidence has disappeared.
Every year, throughout the swift nesting season, reports emerge from across the country of building work threatening occupied nests, obstructing access and putting these remarkable birds at risk.
We need a clear, coordinated emergency response that protects occupied swift nests before it is too late.
Please sign to help make existing wildlife protection work when it matters most.
How it will be delivered
We plan to deliver the petition to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, supported by the signatures collected and evidence from swift conservation groups across the country.
We hope to work with 38 Degrees to arrange a formal handover, seek a meeting with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and secure a commitment to establishing a national emergency response procedure for threatened occupied swift nests.
