Walshaw Moor Estate has had its planning application refused. The reasons are quite interesting given the history of the site. I see that the Bronte Society and the RSPB objected – clearly successfully – good for them in my opinion! in fact there were 41 objections and one letter of support. Where were Natural England…
Tag: Natural England
Government response to e-petition 65627
Our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed the 10,000 signature mark on 31 July and received a response after nearly five weeks of brow-wrinkling thought on behalf of Defra on 1 September (maybe they thought I’d be touched by it appearing on the centenary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon). The sections in…
Let joy be unconfined!
Tomorrow I will address the pathetically evasive response from Defra to our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting (that gives you a hint as to what I think about it) but you may have noticed that it mentions that there are four pairs of Hen Harrier in England this year. The existence of the fourth…
Reversing the trend – the future of meadows.
The following is a write-up, a personal one, that I did for Plantlife, the Wildlife Trusts and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust of a meeting to discuss meadow conservation which was held on 18 July this year. ’When people come to Highgrove and see the flower meadow there they often say that it reminds…
E-petition passes 16,000 signatures – where is Defra’s response?
A little while before midday yesterday our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting passed the 16,000 signature mark. Thank you to all who have signed it already. This is already, inside three months, the 9th most-signed e-petition aimed at Defra. And there are another seven months to go (there would be nine if it weren’t…
In case you missed them…
Three snippets: Jim Dixon is to leave his post as Chief Executive of the Peak District National Park at the end of the year to pursue a portfolio career in writing, consultancy and non-executive directorships. I wish Jim all the best in his new career as he is a former colleague, a nice guy and…
Lush cosmetics launch national Hen Harrier Day campaign
Hen Harriers come to the High Street thanks to Lush cosmetics. This week all Lush shops will have posters similar to that pictured above. The staff are briefed and customers will be asked to show their support for Hen Harriers in a variety of ways: sign our e-petition, send a postcard to HM The Queen…
Guest Blog – silence of the guns by Rob Yorke
Rob Yorke (@blackgull) is a hunter naturalist and rural commentator based in the Black Mountains of South Wales. He carries, at times, both a gun and binoculars and outlines below a possible scenario set in northern England after a ban on driven grouse shooting has been in force for a number of years. The characters…
Sunday book review – England’s 100 best views by Simon Jenkins.
I bought this book because I like views, I like Simon Jenkins’s writing, I admire and respect him as an intellect and I disagree with him quite a lot about some things (although I agree with him a lot about others). If this book had been written by another I would have been less interested…
Does driven grouse shooting rely on criminal activity?
There are many reasons to be opposed to the intensive management of our uplands to provide high-cost days shooting. But let us set aside the arguments on water quality, destruction of blanket blogs, carbon loss and the scale of legal killing of wildlife, and think only of the illegal killing of birds of prey –…