WILDLIFE campaigners plan to appeal a High Court decision to allow the creation of a Royal Mail distribution centre in Thurrock.

Conservation trust Buglife has announced its continued fight at the same time as Royal Mail is launching a set of stamps featuring endangered insects - an irony not lost on leading campaigner Matt Shardlow.

He said: "The fact Royal Mail is launching a set of stamps while their own plans will endanger many of our rarest insects is a classic example of spin over substance.

"We call on Royal Mail to stop stamping out wildlife - there are lots of alternative sites for this development that are not home to endangered animals."

The appeal is the latest twist in a two-year battle to save West Thurrock Marshes, which Buglife says is one of the richest and most important wildlife sites in the UK.

The charity took the Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation to the High Court in February to try to save the Marshes, a former brownfield site.

But, in a ruling that was condemned by conservationists as a huge setback for the UK's wildlife protection laws, Mr Justice Mitting pronounced in this case the proposed warehouses and lorry park were more important than the endangered wildlife.

The Buglife appeal seeks to reverse that ruling.