I was glad to see this in one of my local free papers.
Not the most inspiring account of the beauty of the sun shining on a wheeling flock of Golden Plover in the Nene Valley but useful nonetheless.
If we crash out of the EU then this protection, the Special Protection Area, could easily and quickly become useless. And that is the point of Brexit for many hard-Brexiteers who believe that the swashbuckling free-trading UK can shed the existing environmental protection and go it alone. That’s the last thing I want.
If you do go to www.nenevalley.net/spa then unfortunately you find no mention of the fact that this international wildlife designation is a product of our membership of the European Union – that’s rather a shame – in fact, it is rather shameful. I know I live in a strongly Brexit-oriented part of the country but still…
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Northants heavy Brexitland.
Try my new neck of the woods, Teesside (Hartlepool) voted 70% leave
If the Nene Valley is a wildlife designated area as it is mentioned in other Nene Valley press releases why do they keep building on it?
Douglas – because the SPA has a boundary and not all the valley is inside – but the best bits for wildlife are. You could look up the map of the site here if you really wanted to but it takes a while to figure out the system https://magic.defra.gov.uk/
I’m pretty sure the Rushden Lakes development was within the sssi boundary though, wasn’t it? How did building a massive shopping centre and cinema complex and all the associated rubbish during and after building improve the area.
Before I moved away saw more emtpy Starbucks cup floating around the reserve too
Douglas – I don’t know, but SSSI is far weaker protection than SPA (or SAC). In asny case, it is possible to get permission to dstroy parts of a ‘protected’ area but the more protected then the more dirficult,a nd the bigger the cost of ‘making good’ the loss.
We risk losing those strongest protections after Brexit – particularly if we are foolish enough to vote Tory this time around.