Received from Natural England just now in response to my earlier request. Dear Dr Avery Access to information request – Acknowledgement – Request No 3002 Thank you for your request for information for extracts from Paper ref: NELG/S/07/4, which we received today. We are dealing with your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004….
Tag: Natural England
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…
M&S
Dear Marc Bolland Just a recap really in case you are thinking of selling red grouse meat in your shops this year. Some things that have happened since your excellent decision not to see red grouse meat in your shops last year: I started shopping at M&S again governments, including the EU (and including the…
Access to information is missing
Sometimes I’m busy, and sometimes I let things slip, but I usually come back to them with terrier-like tenacity. Using the hopeless GOV.UK site I found it impossible to understand how I could discover whether open access land, such as that depicted on this sign in the Peak District, would be closed or open a…
Occupy the butts!
Henry and I were having a chat in a grouse butt in Perthshire the other day…as you do. A few minutes after this photograph was taken a lady passed us in a car with a Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association sticker on it. That reminds me – we must call in on them soon. But Henry and…
West Pennine Moors
From what I hear and read, there is little movement on the notification of the West Pennine Moors as an SSSI (see previous blog). Natural England say that: We are here to secure a healthy natural environment for people to enjoy, where wildlife is protected and England’s traditional landscapes are safeguarded for future generations. So,…
Natural England says something, again, about Hen Harriers
In a statement on the parlous GOV.UK website, Natural England commented on the loss of a fifth male Hen Harrier from an English nest this summer. Rob Cooke, Natural England’s Director of Terrestrial Biodiversity said: The sudden loss of so many birds is of great concern and something that England’s fragile breeding hen harrier population…
What next?
There’s been an outpouring of frustration mixed with anger on social media, and in my head, over the fifth disappearance of a male Hen Harrier from the English uplands this year. Yesterday I was quite distracted whilst doing a BBS visit – I had to keep telling myself to concentrate and count the Carrion Crows!…
Mayhem
The fifth ‘disappearance’ of a male Hen Harrier from an active nest in England marks 2015 as ‘May mayhem’ year (see here and here). If five male Blackbirds disappeared from a small number of monitored nests it would be pretty odd, and Hen Harriers are designed to live a good deal longer than Blackbirds. A…