I’m ‘on the road’ so this blog is very short, but I was delighted to hear that hidden in the budget documentation was the announcement that there is to be a marine protected area around the Pitcairn Islands. This is a subject that this blog has promoted over the years (see here, here, here, here, here, here and back to here (August 2012)).
To be fair, it was one of the easiest decisions a government could make: the Pitcairn islanders were all in favour, the science was strong, the cost was low and nobody was against it! But even with an environmental no-brainer like this it has taken this government five years to stumble to a ‘yes’.
People sometimes (often!) say MPs don’t make a difference, but in this case a few dedicated MPs helped to push forward a matter of environmental progress against the active resistance of civil servants. Those MPs were (in alphabetical order): Richard Benyon, Ben Bradshaw, Barry Gardiner, Zac Goldsmith, Nick Hurd, Oliver Letwin, Matthew Offord, Kerry McCarthy, John Randall, Angela Smith, Caroline Spelman, Andrew Stunnell, Joan Walley, Roger Williams and the Environmental Audit Committee as a whole.
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Great news, hopefully, but it’s “provided naval costs can be met within existing departmental expenditure limits” according to the BBC. So money still comes first as usual.
A great acievement by all concerned. Although, as you say Mark, it was a “no brainer” I am sure it took a great deal of effort by everyone you mention and many others to overcome the “stick in the muds” and the inertia of the system. Perhaps this Government can make up for being so slow in announcing this marine reserve by now declaring similar marine reserves around Ascension Island and the South Sandwich islands and do it before the General Election????
without meaning to be politically partisan but they were quicker than the previous government
Yes, it’s great news, but we need more highly protected marine reserves in UK waters too.