Natural England is taking forward the West Pennine Moors for SSSI notification in the coming financial year. Hooray! It’s obviously not a done-deal, just an almost done-deal, but it is the freeing up of a log jam that never should have happened. This is very pleasing news and the next time i see someone senior…
Category: Z SMALLER CATEGORIES
What nonsense from Defra
‘Bovine TB eradication strategy delivering results‘ was the headline of a press release issued by Defra on Thursday last week. Defra went on ‘The comprehensive strategy to eradicate bovine TB in England is delivering results with more than half the country on track to be officially free of the disease by the end of this…
A world united?
To get 195 nations to agree anything is pretty good. To get them to agree something pretty good is exceptionally good. Six years ago I was one of many people, was it 40,000 or so (?), who marched on The Wave through the streets of London ahead for the Copenhagen climate talks. I was lucky…
Climate march in London today
Together we are powerful – that was the message that thousands of people sent to our politicians in London this afternoon – and others were sending the same message in other cities across the UK and across the world this weekend. How many of us were there? I don’t know. I’d guess 20,000-40,000 but maybe…
Climate plus one
Global temperatures are set to reach 1°C above pre-industrial levels this year (Daily Mail, Independent, BBC) and world leaders are going to Paris in a few weeks time to sort it out. Today the RSPB released an important report and some very interesting polling information. Let’s deal with the polling first. The polling suggests that…
Lord Krebs on Badgers
My old boss, Prof Lord Krebs, was on Farming Today (8 mins in) being interviewed by Anna Hill on Wednesday morning. Lord Krebs provided a masterclass in sticking to the facts, despite some niggling questions from Ms Hill, and getting the message across very clearly. The message was that the ‘too-early-to-tell-really-but-the-figures-are-out-there’ results from the Badger…
Gate Zero and the West Pennine Moors
Access to information request – Partial release – Request No RFI 3031 regarding all records of, and documents related to, NE Board discussions on SSSI, SPA, SAC designation programmes, ‘gate zero’ and changes in strategy and approach from the present day back to the beginning of 2011 Many thanks for your letter and enclosures dated…
West Pennine Moors complaint to NE over their response
Dear [Natural England] I wish to complain about the information that you sent me in response to this request (RFI 3031). I request an internal review by NE of whether it has discharged its obligations under EIR. Specifically, the paper NEB 49 13 is heavily redacted and contains little information about how the ‘Gate Zero’…
A barn of special scientific interest? West Pennine Moors
And in case any readers of this blog think that site designations do not matter too much, I hear of a flower-rich meadow which is in the proposed (for a long time) West Pennine Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest that is now destroyed and has a barn built on it. As a local has…
What the frack? West Pennine Moors
Just in case any readers of this blog think that notification of SSSIs is mere paper-shifting that doesn’t mean anything on the ground have a look at this very helpful map of areas offered for fracking by the Oil and Gas Authority. The areas SD61 and SD62 on the West Pennine Moors have a bright…