The red arrow shows the location of the track which is just north of the public footpath and parallel. The surfacing starts just east of Highshaw Clough.
This area is completely within the Special Area of Conservation as shown on the Magic system:
Natural England, a few questions:
did you receive an application for this work in the SAC?- did you consent it?
- if so, why?
- if not, what action are you now going to take?
- and why are you and the Peak District National Park apparently happy for the policing of the planning consents for the National Park and SAC apparently to be done most effectively by the general public and a bunch of fell runners rather than the public servants who are paid to do it?
UPDATE: I gather NE has not given consent for these works, they have requested that work should stop and a site visit is planned for next week
A reminder of what we are talking about…
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Sounds like another Walshaw Moor to me: do as much damage as we can before someone notices; NE awoken in their hammocks by a call from some fell runners; NE start legal proceedings; the politicians get involved a force a behind-closed-doors ‘deal’ to be done; RSPB complain to the EU; goes quiet; got away with it – job done.
As this is within a SAC, and a likely significant effect is clear, an Appropriate Assessment should have been done both by Natural England and the NPA under Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive. On top of that, Natural England should, on behalf of the goivernment, be taking ‘appropriate steps’ to avoid such deterioration of habitats within this SAC.
I wonder if they’ll ‘strike a deal’ as they did at Walshaw?
Interesting test for Mr Gove too.
The ‘appropriate steps’ requirement is found in Article 6(2) of the Habitats Directive, in case NE is reading this and hadn’t noticed.
Yep, sadly Messi is spot on.
At the risk of lots of dislikes, are NE past their sell by date?
Yes, ok poor grassroots staff are demotivated etc. (are there any ecologists or scientists left), t’others are well paid wheeler dealers fixing issues as decreed by senior managers & politically appointed/chosen directors (do NE directors still receive annual bonuses or was it actually stopped?).
NE fit for purpose? People should offer up case studies (good as well as the bad) via https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/nerc-act-committee/news-parliament-2017/call-for-evidence/
Such blatant and arrogant disregard for the law – what shocking images. This speaks volumes about the attitudes of grouse moor owners – written in stone on the ground. I do hope Mr Gove will now prove he means business and is not just about fancy words.
So, when the authority’s attention is drawn to the matter they do something about it. I have tried to make this point before – enforcing agencies cannot be everywhere but rely on public eyes and ears. There is no conspiracy, just hard working public servants trying their best to do a good job with ever dwindling resources. Tell them and they will sort it out….if somebody were to live in near an area (say, Bowland) and was half way savvy with planning and environmental law I’m sure they could run a campaign of bringing breaches, of which there are many, to the relevant authorities’ attention (say for example, the planning department at Lancaster). That would have an actual and very direct effect on the individual landowners. They won’t want the enforcement officer on their land every week poking about at unauthorised tracks and the like. That approach would have a more direct impact on the individual landowner than national campaigning aimed at the industry as a whole, which of course is absolutely crucial.
Jason – thank you for making some good points.
I would just say that there are quite a few cases (e.g. Fine shade Wood, the Sanctuary, NW Pennines SSSI and others) where progress appears to have moved from snail’s pace to tortoise’s pace once an issue is featured on this blog.
Quis custodiet cipsos custodes?
Jason – many of us are doing both: tackling innumerable breaches on the ground, on our patch – and being met with NE foot-dragging; and also highlighting such things nationally. National campaigns help to pull things together and reveal a pattern of neglect and deterioration across the country. Really, I think we need NE to be proactive, out there, monitoring sites more (my closest SSSI hasn’t had a Condition Assessment done in a decade), as well as being on-hand to react when alerted to problems by members of the public (who tend also to have day jobs, and quite often are hardworking public servants themselves!) I assume you’re familiar with Walshaw? Is that a government agency conspiring to turn a blind eye and doing dodgy deals with land owners? I’d hate for us to be too naive.
Wasn’t it Wemmergill where a similar thing was done some years ago costing the owner many many thousands in track removal and restoration along with some punitive fine?