Standing up for Nature
I recently contacted Natural England and asked them the following questions which they have been kind enough to answer as follows: Q1: Has NE’s James Cross met Richard Bannister of the Walshaw Moor Estate in 2016? A1: Yes, he has, on 4th February 2016. Q2: What was the subject of their meeting? …
The news that the European Commission is starting infraction proceedings against the UK, presumably for lack of action in England, over upland management issues, revealed on Martin Harper’s blog today is very welcome. It’s very welcome because it shows that the EU is a force for environmental good (but we knew that anyway) – although…
This is a map of Walshaw Moor which was used in the 2012 case against the estate which was mysteriously dropped by Natural England. You can make out the purple areas, which are made up of lots of purple lines, which the key tells us are artificial watercourses. Many of these would be known to…
George Monbiot’s article in today’s Guardian reinforces the view that Defra has sunk to about as low as it can get. He points out that Defra announced the impacts of NOx pollution on human mortality and a consultation on how to fix it on the Saturday just before the media were swamped with the news…
email to Dr Mike Clarke, Chief Exec of the RSPB. Dear Mike How are you getting on with your complaint to the EU over Defra’s handling of the Walshaw Moor case and its position on burning of blanket bogs in general? I have asked Defra how they are getting on but they have invoked…
Dear Defra I am complaining about your response to a FoI request RFI 7667 on two grounds: the time taken to reply and the answer that I received. The time taken to reply. Your reply was short and contained no information that you needed to spend lots of time collecting and yet you took…
I asked Defra for an update on the ‘progress’ with the complaint by the RSPB against the UK government to the EU over burning of blanket bogs (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and Inglorious for more details) on 6 July. After the usual delay in replying I received what passes for…
I thought that Henry ought to see Walshaw Moor before he reads about it on pages 149-157, 175-176 and 190-192 of Inglorious – conflict in the uplands. But all this talk about the damage that heather burning does to peatlands (see here and here) reminds me that the RSPB has an outstanding complaint in to…
Alan Parfitt made a good point in a comment here yesterday – SSSIs were originally meant to be good examples of fine habitats rather than a complete coverage of such habitats. Increasingly, they are the last remnants of those habitats and have remained largely because of their SSSI status. This is good news (the designation…
Walshaw Moor Estate has had its planning application refused. The reasons are quite interesting given the history of the site. I see that the Bronte Society and the RSPB objected – clearly successfully – good for them in my opinion! in fact there were 41 objections and one letter of support. Where were Natural England…