Author Archives: jenny

Natural England’s situation is hopeless, says Walshaw Moor monitor as Defra rejects legally binding targets for moorland restoration

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Upper Calderdale Wildlife Group says the situation with Natural England is hopeless following Defra’s recent rejection of Natural England’s recommendation to set legally binding, strong targets for improving conditions at Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

The quango’s ability to protect Walshaw Moor, above Hebden Bridge, was already limited.

With its budget slashed over the past decade and a half by central government, Natural England hasn’t had the staff to monitor the Walshaw Moor Estate Site of Special Scientific Interest – even though, as a Natura 2000 site, the grouse shooting moor is supposed to have the highest level of conservation protection.

Walshaw Moor is one of the rare areas of upland blanket bog in the UK, and as such, should be protected as a vital carbon sink on a par with tropical rainforest. But its management for intensive driven grouse shooting is at odds with protecting this vital habitat, and the wildlife it should support.

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Spy Cops “Deep Deception” meeting with Helen Steel, Hebden Bridge Trades Club 10th April

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Calderdale Trades Union Council is holding a public meeting at 2pm on 10th April at Hebden Bridge Trades Club, with  “Deep Deception” co-author Helen Steel and Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) core participant Mark Metcalf, a National Union of Journalists delegate to Calderdale Trades Council.

McLibel campaigner Helen Steel tells the story of ‘the spycops network’ and the women like herself who uncovered the shocking truth about shadowy undercover policing set up to to spy on protesters in mainly left-wing and progressive groups.

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Calderdale Council Climate Change Working Group to respond to Defra’s peat burning legislation

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Report on Calderdale Council Climate Change Working Party’s discussion of Defra’s legislation on the licensing of burning on peatlands in England on Wed 3rd March

Thanks to Hazel Draper’s question to the Calderdale Council Climate Change Working Group meeting on Wed 3rd March, Councillors agreed to seek clarity from Defra about their legislation on the licensing of burning on peatlands in England. (Hazel’s question is around 4min 50 sec into the recording of the meeting. )

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Lots of questions about proposed peatland burning legislation

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Ban the Burn is underwhelmed by Defra’s 29th January press release about proposed legislation to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats.

The UK government has been forced to legislate after it was clobbered by the EU Commission’s legal case – initiated by the RSPB and Ban the Burn back in 2012/13 – for not enforcing EU wildlife and habitats protection laws on Walshaw Moor Estate and other EU-protected uplands.

The UK government’s first response was to introduce a voluntary ban, to be signed by grouse moor owners and managers of EU-protected sites. Grouse moor owners and managers declined (including Richard Bannister, owner of Walshaw Moor Estate Ltd. HIs refusal to sign the voluntary ban caused Natural England to replace the existing land management agreement with the 2017-2042 Catchment Restoration Plan.)

So far information is sketchy. Apparently the detail of the proposed legislation in England will be published in April, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UK).

In the meantime, here are our immediate questions and comments.

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Only the public is monitoring Walshaw Moor Estate’s compliance – or not – with its legally binding Catchment Restoration Plan

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In October 2020, Ban the Burn made a formal complaint to Natural England about their failure to investigate 8 examples of Walshaw Moor Estate’s burning of sphagnum and apparently unconsented infrastructure construction that we’d first reported in June 2019, and supplemented in March 2020 with information about the Estate’s construction of 10 more new grouse butts that year.

Natural England has not acknowledged our complaint.

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Keighley Road A6033 closure update

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The A6033 from Hebden Bridge to Oxenhope will be open on Bank Holiday Monday (31 August). It will also continue to be open at weekends.

But road closures as part of work to improve its safety will continue throughout September 2020: the road will remain fully closed from Monday to Friday, between Hebden Bridge and Oxenhope with local access only between Hebden Bridge and Pecket Well.

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High Court challenge to Barclays’ sale of fracking company to offload clean-up costs onto public

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A Judge has ordered a full hearing into a government decision to allow the sale of the troubled fracking company Third Energy – the company that is licensed to frack in Ryedale, North Yorkshire.

At stake is whether the government properly considered the risk to the taxpayer that the new owners would not meet the clean up costs.

Ministerial correspondence has revealed a government department “worked with” Barclays on the “orderly disposal” of Third Energy. Continue reading →

Government’s new tree planting scheme boosts financial services trade in carbon

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Before we all go rarara about the Conservative government’s new scheme to boost tree planting, let’s just note that it’s based on the financialisation of the ecosystem – ie turning the natural environment into another set of markets for the financial services industry to get fat off.

Basically the new Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme is based on a trade in carbon, via Woodland Carbon Units. This is made clear on the Forest Trade website and the UK Woodland Carbon Code “Buy Carbon” webpage.

Plan hatched in 2011 by ConDem government

The Government’s new scheme is the fruition of the ConDem coalition government plan to create a market in so-called ecosystem services. This was laid out in its heavily business-oriented 2011 National Environment White Paper. Continue reading →

Farcical Villiers visit to flood-stricken Calder Valley

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Over the weekend, Calder Valley again suffered horrendous flooding – the fourth in eight years.

When Ban the Burn heard that Theresa Villiers, the Defra Sec of State, would be doing a walkabout in central Mytholmroyd on Wednesday between 9am and 10am, we called Craig Whittaker’s constituency office to say we would like to talk to her.

We wanted to ask when the government is bringing in promised legislation to ban peatland burning and to make sure it has no loopholes or exemptions that would allow burning to continue.

They agreed it would be appropriate for us to talk to her.

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Natural England to investigate grouse shooters’ unconsented burning and infrastructure construction on Walshaw Moor

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Natural England is to investigate a grouse-shooting estate’s recent burning of sphagnum moss and apparently unconsented construction of infrastructure on the highly-protected Natura 2000 site of Walshaw Moor, above Hebden Bridge.

Walshaw Moor Estate has undertaken these actions in order to intensify their industrial-scale grouse shooting business.

Natural England has agreed to investigate Walshaw Moor Estate’s:

  • apparent deepening and widening of ditches that they’ve been paid to block, on Heather Hill blanket bog
  • unconsented construction of steps up to newly constructed grouse shooting butts in deep peat/blanket bog adjacent to Hole Sike
  • apparently unconsented construction of a tarmac car park
  • burning which destroyed sphagnum moss
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