To Rory Stewart, Defra Dear Minister The government response to the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is simply awful. It is partial and inaccurate. I have previously asked Defra whether responses of this sort are seen and signed off by ministers and have never received a response. Did you sign off this response?…
Tag: Defra
New Shadow Defra SoS on World at One
The sun was shining yesterday lunch time so I thought I’d go out and pick some blackberries – I’d been in Canterbury on Saturday and then it had rained on Sunday, so the weekend had not been a harvesting opportunity. I think others must have been similarly occupied or put off because the hedgerows were…
Kafkaesque
I complained to Defra about their handling of my FoI/EIR request on 1 September. Yesterday they replied saying how they were going to handle it – and that was fine. No complaints there. None at all. The letter even said ‘If you have any queries about this letter please contact me.’ which I thought was…
Lack of Truss
Yesterday I travelled into London for the launch of a couple of documents by Wildlife and Countryside Link (of which more later). As I walked up the steps of Westminster tube station I felt slightly nostalgic for the days when I used to spend a lot more time in this habitat and as I emerged,…
Henry goes to London – Defra
Henry has been keen to go to London for a long time – but we only flew down there a week ago. What a great day it was – so many photo opportunities – only some of which we can share with you this week. And so many friendly conversations with taxi drivers, tourists and…
Join the Hen Harrier Day thunderclap please
Comments Off on Join the Hen Harrier Day thunderclap please
Whether you can or can’t attend Hen Harrier Eve, and whether you can or can’t attend Hen Harrier Day, you can, if you use social media, add your name to a message that will go around the world at 10am on Hen Harrier Day saying: “We’re missing our Hen Harriers – and we want them…
Dear Natural England
Dear Natural England This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. Please supply, in electronic format, the following extracts from Paper ref: NELG/S/07/4, Title: Designations Programme: Process to establish Gate Zero’, Sponsor: Dr Tim Hill, Chief Scientist, which was Item 4 on the meeting of the Natural England…
West Pennine Moors again
Local people involved in the West Pennine Moors lingering non-notification case have received various documents from Natural England under Freedom of Information requests. This blog uses information from the heavily redacted note to the NE Leadership Group Strategy meeting of 23 March 2015 (meeting no NELG/S/07) entitled Designations Programme: Process to establish Gate Zero (whatever…
Being open
Members of the ‘Sodden 570’ at last year’s Hen Harrier Day event in the Upper Derwent Valley will recognise this area – we were getting soaked just off the left hand (western) side of the map on 10 August last year. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act provided open access to open ground (in…
New Defra ministers announced
Truss, Eustice and de Mauley are back. Rory Stewart is regarded as a bit of a waste in Defra by the Spectator! Labour is expected to keep the Defra shadow ministerial team intact.