Natural England is taking forward the West Pennine Moors for SSSI notification in the coming financial year. Hooray! It’s obviously not a done-deal, just an almost done-deal, but it is the freeing up of a log jam that never should have happened.
This is very pleasing news and the next time i see someone senior from Natural England I might have to buy them lunch!
Well done NE – I still wonder whether you are fit for purpose but at least this shows that you aren’t totally unfit.
Also well done to all those locals who have been collecting data on Sphagnum mosses, breeding birds and other wildlife for years – and years – to make the case that was well-made years ago, and have then persevered with writing letters, sending emails, and having meetings in order to progress the case satisfactorily.
And well done to the local MP, Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen, Con), who has been very active and supportive too. Well done, him!
And well done to others who have done things about which I know nothing in order to help this come to pass – whoever you are, and whatever you did, well done to you too.
It’s all in the past now (almost) but if you want to read previous blogs on the West Pennine Moors see Natural England seem to have forgotten the West Pennine moors, 2 April 2015; West Pennine Moors, 12 June 2015; West Pennine Moors Again, 22 June 2015; Dear Natural England, 22 June 2015; Fair do’s, 22 June 2015; Gate Zero and the West Pennine Moors, 21 September 2015; What the frack? West Pennine Moors, 28 September 2015; A barn of special scientific interest? West Pennine Moors, 28 September 2015; West Pennine Moors complaint to NE over their response, 28 September 2015; Gate Zero and the West Pennine Moors, 5 October 2015.
So there is good news! Hooray!
But there is also, of course, a list of uncertainties and worries.
No site is protected until it is protected – and the West Pennine Moors are simply heading for protection, they haven’t yet got it. Have a sparkling white, but keep the champagne on ice for a while.
Protected sites need their protection to be implemented, and that remains to be seen.
But more generally, the fact that we kicked up a fuss about this site has certainly helped its cause, but that may be to the detriment of other sites. I am still concerned at the Gate Zero process and the possibility that some equally deserving sites haven’t made the cut.
But for now – celebrate because something good is happening.
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I’ll have to make do with coffee and an Eccles Cake as I’m not working at home.
And I’ll give a plug to my local MP, Rt Hon Lindsay Hoyle, MP for Chorley (and a Deputy Speaker), who’s also been pushing Natural England for this SSSI designation – having originally been pursuing a West Pennine Moors AONB. And to Mr Peter Jepson, now retired Lancashire County Council Senior Ecologist, who’s been pursing this for what seems like forever.
If it actually becomes a SSSI, a slice of buttered barmbrack may be in order…
David – indeed! Thank you for filling in some gaps in my knowledge (there are plenty of them!). Well done them too!
This is good news indeed. More power you your elbow, and of course all the named and unnamed heroes who have fought long for this.
Fantastic news, well done everyone, whoever’s been involved. Slight query: what’s to stop the landowner doing lots of damaging stuff quickly before they are prevented? Is there some way of stopping (further) damage immediately, now that the area is going to be protected?
Interesting to compare the photo you posted in This is a damaged landscape on a managed grouse moor to the photo of what a natural (if there is such a thing) moorland landscape should look like. I trust Natural England are aware of this huge difference in the quality of moorland landscape environment due to the destructive overmanagement by grouse moor owners, and take due note of it in their assessments for SSSI status.
Excellent news …. but it would not be wise to hold one’s breath where site protection (SSSI or SPA / SAC) is concerned ….
With respect I fear that …. “no site is protected until it’s protected” doesn’t apply in parts of the north, see https://markavery.info/2013/01/17/guest-blog-a-muzzled-watchdog-toothless-terrier-helen-kirk/ This action has still not been addressed beyond NE (not the perpetrator) plugging the breach. Any impact on nationally rare invertebrates is apparently not their problem but down to ‘a. n. other’ to prove, nor did the RPA express any interest in recovering public funds by virtue of breach of cross compliance!
So, well done in keeping the WPMs high profile & here’s to a positive outcome.