Hambledon Hill. Photo: John Miller. Rising to the challenge – ancient hillforts and wildlife to be given new lease of life Thirteen majestic iron age hillforts and 332 hectares (820 acres) of their surrounding landscape across Dorset and Wiltshire are to be given a new lease of life as part of a generous award of…
Tag: Natural England
Guest blog – Blanket bog burning: what’s planned? by Bob Berzins
Natural England has outlined proposals for the restriction of burning but what difference will we see in our uplands? A Freedom of Information request has revealed the following: There is a complicated series of consents which currently allow burning to take place on blanket bog. NE say “The consents will be individually modified or revoked….
Natural England – you need to look in the mirror
Our latest victory to protect moorland habitat was a victory against Natural England, the government agency and regulator whose job it is to protect such habitats. Just read that sentence again. The government agency which we pay to protect the environment has been forced, eventually, to do the right thing because of a legal challenge…
Wuthering moors 81 – some more detail
This blog looks in a bit more detail at the volte face that Natural England has been forced to make as a result of my (our) legal challenge. A bit later today I will take a broader view of what Natural England needs to do to regain some credibility and public confidence. Although the letters…
Wuthering moors 80 – another, even greater, victory!
Back in May we won a significant victory against Natural England’s decision to sign an agreement with the Walshaw Moor Estate which included a new track across the protected landscape of the moor. You may think that was the end of it but no, we’ve been nagging away at NE for the last few months…
Prospect press release – Natural England
Prospect report shows England’s natural heritage at risk from funding cuts Almost a decade of real-term pay cuts, and four consecutive years of funding cuts, coupled with the impact of Brexit, are putting England’s natural heritage at risk. That is the finding of a report by Prospect into Natural England which shows that the agency…
NE news
I hear that staff morale under the new interim Natural England CEO, Marian Spain, is rising. That’s good to hear. It might rise a little more if the report in Saturday’s The Times, that Tony Juniper might be NE’s new Chair, is true. It’s a difficult job but Tony might well be the person to…
Bowland harriers
Stephen Murphy of Natural England is backing up the Moorland Association’s nonsense that having brood meddling is turning gamekeepers into good guys according to a report in the Lancashire Post. I’m looking forward to writing in some detail about brood meddling again when we receive judgement from Ms Justice Lang but as we said when…
RPPDG thoughts
The non-attendance of the pro-shooting organisations at last week’s Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group (RPPDG) meeting (you read about it first here but see also my further blog, the coverage in RPUK here, here and here and The Times) was a big miscalculation on their parts, and one from which their reputations are unlikely to…
Our days in court
It’s a bit difficult to know what to say about our three days in court (5 and 6 December and 17 January) challenging the decision of Natural England to license brood meddling of Hen Harriers. The judge, is considering the cases made by our side and the RSPB that the licensing was unlawful, and the…