Blog posts titled Wuthering Moors are about the issue of burning of blanket bogs by grouse shooting estates (e.g. Wuthering Moors 28, 15 October 2012), the inability of the government agency Natural England to do its job properly on regulating landowners on protected moorland sites (Wuthering Moors 68 – the background to an unlawful decision,…
Category: WALSHAW MOOR
Wuthering Moors 71
Our lawyers at Leigh Day are in regular contact with Natural England following our successful challenge of the legality of the Walshaw Moor Habitats Regulations Assessment (see here and here). We understand that any new HRA will be informed by ‘‘the peat depth survey that Natural England is seeking to carry out’ . Well done…
Wuthering Moors 70 – EU infraction proceedings
The Guardian has an excellent story on burning of blanket bogs on grouse moors today. Well done to Guy Shrubsole who has done a better job than I managed in getting these details out of Defra. Read the Guardian story here. The papers released by Defra confirm what you will have heard in this blog:…
Guest blog – The Walshaw Moor blogs (1-68) by Richard Wilson (Wuthering Moors 69)
Richard Wilson is an independent professional ecologist with just under 20 years experience. When in the field, he specialises in invertebrate and avian ecology, with a smattering of botanical surveying thrown in for good measure. His background as a consultant has led to a keen interest in EU and UK law in the context of nature conservation….
Wuthering Moors 68 – the background to an unlawful decision
How did NE get into the position of allowing an unlawful Habitats Regualtions Assessment to be done? In this blog I will explain what I think has happened. But let me repeat that it is a serious matter when the government nature conservation agency produces an unlawful Habitats Regulations Assessment – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? …
A significant victory! – Wuthering Moors 67
Yesterday afternoon our lawyers at Leigh Day received a delayed response from Natural England on our Pre-action Protocol letter about Walshaw Moor. It contained the following important phrases: ‘Natural England accepts that in relation to ground (2), the HRA could have been clearer in certain respects. In particular, Natural England accepts that it is not…
Wuthering Moors 66 – Natural England you have lost the trust of the public
Nobody really trusts politicians these days (which personally I think is sad because there are some good ones out there) but until recently we have trusted government agencies. In nature conservation, in the olden days, some of the greatest nature conservationists of their time, of any time, worked in and led the statutory agencies –…
Amazing support – thank you! (Wuthering Moors 65)
The crowdfunder to support legal action against Natural England‘s failure to protect Walshaw Moor launched yesterday at 1pm – by 10pm it had already reached the first target of £5000. I’m so relieved and so grateful. This means that we can move forward with confidence and that I am not left with a big debt!…
Wuthering Moors 64 – a crowdfunder
I’ve been writing about Walshaw Moor for years – this is my 64th blog on the subject! But now I am asking for your help to protect this site from further damage. In fact, I am asking for your help to protect this site from Natural England who have reached a management agreement…
Wuthering moors (63) – waiting for an answer
I sent this FOI/EIR request to Natural England a week ago: Please send me the Habitats Regulations Assessments for the Catchment Restoration Plan for Walshaw Moor Estate and all associated documents, email correspondence etc. Note that I am requesting the Habitat Regulations Assessments – plural, as I believe that more than one version exists and…