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…
Category: WALSHAW MOOR
Wuthering Moors 49
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…
Henry goes to Walshaw Moor/Wuthering Moors 48
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…
Wildlife sites
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…
Wuthering Moors 47
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…
Wuthering Moors 46
I see that Walshaw Moor Estate has made a planning application to build a livestock building and a stone access track. How sensitive of them at this time. There are quite a few local objections and I gather that NE are a bit worried about this too. To be fair, as best I can make…
And meanwhile, up in the hills…
I thought I ought to go and have a quick look. As you drive up the road, northwest, from the Pack Horse Inn you are on the route of the Pennine Way. On your left there is this sight… It doesn’t look very pretty does it? I looked over it for a while and didn’t…
Wuthering Moors 45
This is NE’s response to my FoI/EIR request of 10 March. The answer to Qu4a confirms the ongoing scale of the burning of blanket bog in the English uplands and the fact that it has been consented by NE. The answer to Qu 5 seems rather evasive to me. Qu10 – that’s a lot of…
What would you have liked to have asked? Wuthering Moors 44
This interview with the Chief Executive of Natural England is interesting in a way. It illustrates the tensions of pleasing one’s current political masters and living up to the mission that NE has had handed down by Parliament. Which direction to face? What would you have liked to hear him say? Here are some questions…
Wuthering Moors 43
This is the fourth blog today on the subject of burning of blanket bog (see here, here, and here). These were sparked (!) by the RSPB releasing data on the scale of the issue and calling for an end to the burning of blanket bog. There has been a little media coverage of this –…