Guest blog – Emperor Gove’s New Clothes by Carol Day

Carol Day has worked for environmental NGOs, including The Wildlife Trusts and WWF, for over 25 years. She now works part-time as a Consultant Solicitor for Leigh Day and as a Legal Consultant for the RSPB. Carol was part of the Leigh Day team with whom I worked on our successful legal challenge to Natural…

Open letter to Andrew Sells

Dear Andrew I hope you are well but I fear that the organisation of which you are the Chair, is gravely sick. Natural England seems to have caught a disease whose symptoms are an inability to work for nature conservation in the uplands but instead to align itself with one small sectional interest, grouse shooting,…

Defra’s third draft on grouse shooting: wholly inadequate

The e-petition of Ed Hutchings, which calls for licensing of grouse shooting, has received a government response.I know that Ed is travelling at the moment but before he headed off he said he would write a guest blog here on his return in which he was expecting to comment on the government response which he…

Wemmergill Moorland Plan

Wemmergill Moor is where a young Hen Harrier ‘disappeared’ in February – the latest of so many.  It is also the first site where NE agreed a Moorland Management Plan with the estate. These MMPs are the response of Defra and NE to the fact that they have been told by the European Commission that…

Marc’d down on Wemmergill

The news (RSPB blog, RPUK blog) of yet another disappeared Hen Harrier from the cohort of 2017 youngsters is not a great surprise. There aren’t that many left! But the location is interesting – Wemmergill Moor.  Wemmergill Moor is a big-name grouse moor.  Until 2006, this moor, of 17,000 acres had been in the same…