REVEALED: 18 Tory MPs have written to Environment Secretary @SteveBarclay urging him to gut @NaturalEngland’s powers to create nature reserves (SSSIs)
This latest #AttackOnNature must not succeed
(Thanks to @jgmarshallwrite for obtaining the letter)
Thread 1/
This latest #AttackOnNature must not succeed
(Thanks to @jgmarshallwrite for obtaining the letter)
Thread 1/
2/ The letter concerns Derek Thomas MP’s Bill, tabled last month, which would strip Natural England of its power to designate SSSIs.
As a 10-Minute Rule Bill, it stands little chance of passing – unless the Government gives the Bill its support.
As a 10-Minute Rule Bill, it stands little chance of passing – unless the Government gives the Bill its support.
https://x.com/guyshrubsole/status/1768346044205592929
3/ That’s why 18 Tory MPs have written to the Environment Secretary “to ask you to support the bill or otherwise enact its provisions"
They claim transferring Natural England’s power to create SSSIs to the SoS “would not cause any protections to be lost”
This is arrant nonsense
They claim transferring Natural England’s power to create SSSIs to the SoS “would not cause any protections to be lost”
This is arrant nonsense
4/ Since the foundation of the Nature Conservancy – Natural England’s predecessor body – in 1949, Tory politicians and landowners (often one and the same) have sought to undermine its powers.
5/ In 1955 the Tory minister responsible for the Nature Conservancy, the Marquess of Salisbury, was apoplectic at the NC’s plans to designate some land as an SSSI – which happened to belong to another landowning Tory MP. He pushed the NC to suppress its proposals.
6/ In the 1980s, what was now called the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) came under assault from then Tory Environment Secretary Nicholas Ridley, who blocked the NCC from buying more land for nature reserves.
7/ In the 2010s, David Cameron briefly tried to get Natural England to sell off its national nature reserves. After his parallel plans to privatise the Forestry Commission’s Public Forest Estate were met with a storm of protest, the sale was dropped.
8/ In other words, Tory Ministers and their landowning friends have long itched to reduce the powers of Natural England and its predecessors.
Any transfer of those powers to a politician would mean a reduction in nature protections – as fewer nature reserves would get created.
Any transfer of those powers to a politician would mean a reduction in nature protections – as fewer nature reserves would get created.
9/ There’s still time to stop this.
TWEET tagging any of these 18 MPs to expose this effort to gut Natural England.
WRITE to your MP urging them to speak against the Bill at its second reading on 26th April.
And tell @SteveBarclay to publicly oppose these plans.
TWEET tagging any of these 18 MPs to expose this effort to gut Natural England.
WRITE to your MP urging them to speak against the Bill at its second reading on 26th April.
And tell @SteveBarclay to publicly oppose these plans.
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