Wildlife and Countryside Link

In its current form The Planning and Infrastructure Bill would weaken environmental protections, risk species extinction & jeopardise the Government’s legal target to restore nature.   The Bill is a long way off delivering the benefits to building AND nature as promised by Government.   We’re calling on MPs to get support amendments that are #WilderByDesign to ensure our planning system helps to restore wildlife & protect our most cherished natural spaces.   Read more: https://lnkd.in/ehwJisSu

The Government has promised a win-win for nature & building through the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, but this is not the case. Without amendments to make the Bill #WilderByDesign we’re facing new levels of destruction of nature across England, with species pushed to extinction & habitats lost.   Read more in our letter to Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP: https://lnkd.in/eBhkniJQ

Delighted to have contributed to the first set of amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, representing Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) led by the brilliant team at Wildlife and Countryside Link. These amendments will provide important safeguards to our natural environment, at a time when we need them most! The priority amendments include: ☀️ Safeguarding the mitigation hierarchy – Ensuring the developer has taken reasonable steps to appropriately apply the mitigation hierarchy, including by seeking to avoid harm wherever possible to our most important biodiversity assets. 📜 Strengthening the ‘overall improvement test’ - so that conservation measures must significantly & measurably outweigh any negative impacts to improve the conservation status of identified features given the absence of the EPS legal tests. 🐍 Improving Environmental Delivery Plans- Ensuring that EDPs include an implementation schedule, to provide guarantees that conservation measures deliver benefits prior to the damage done to that protected species or habitat on a site. If you’re in support of these amendments, please do contact your MP and see if we can get these discussed for input via the committee stage! Link to amendments in the comments 👇 . #strongertogether #amendments #planningandinfrastructure #ecology Richard Benwell The Wildlife Trusts RSPB National Trust Picture credit: Suffolk Wildlife Trust

Yesterday saw the release of release of Dan Corry's review of the Defra regulatory landscape. In any reform, Defra must find strength with simplicity: all regulators & regulation must contribute to the urgent action needed to halt environmental decline by 2030. The Government's planning reforms fall far short of the win-win approach Ministers want & Corry seems to support. The risk to nature in new planning laws is high, with few of the safeguards needed to ensure environmental law isn't weakened. The promised benefits are wafer thin & don't yet justify the case for reform. We hope Parliament will recognise that natural infrastructure is the bedrock of the economy, and regulatory reform must deliver a simpler, stronger focus on environmental recovery. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eZ4dXSTE Full review here: https://lnkd.in/ezEZigDG

Today marks one full year of Biodiversity Net Gain being implemented for small sites. With the Government's planning reforms putting nature well & truly in the spotlight, now is the moment to reinforce, not weaken, this critical policy. Read our new blog from Philip Box to find out Government can get #WilderByDesign, & strengthen the scheme to make the most of the opportunity presented. https://lnkd.in/euWEqZsT Photo by Matt Pitts

We welcome proposals to ban burning on deep peat. When in good condition peatland is a valuable wildlife habitat, helps defend communities against flooding, & stores carbon. We also need this burning ban to come alongside schemes to rewet peatland & restore other nature habitats. https://lnkd.in/eE3YvaaK

Latest data shows an increase in the duration of sewage spills - up to 3.6m hours in 2024. There is no excuse for this. We need to see bonus bans coming into effect for the bosses of all water companies where spills have increased. And companies should consider voluntarily committing what they would have paid in bonuses into local river restoration projects. The Water Restoration Fund must also be made to work long-term to ensure fines from polluting businesses pay to clean-up the damage they have caused, and don't just end-up in Treasury coffers. And the ongoing review of the water sector must secure more funding for regulators to effectively monitor and prevent pollution, and to take strong enforcement action when companies cause damage to our environment. https://lnkd.in/eaAPgrHt

50 nature & farming groups have united in calling for Government to not cut the nature-friendly farming budget. Budget cuts would hurt struggling farming families, scupper climate action & cause further damage to polluted rivers, damaged hedgerows, farmland birds, bees & other pollinators. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e_Rh9SWs

With the Planning Bill back in Parliament today we’re calling on Government to build back trust around planning reforms. This means an end to the anti-nature talk from Keir Starmer that is making an unnecessary fight between nature & development. The Bill needs to be boosted with stronger protections for nature including a legal duty to avoid harm to protected wildlife. Read more via The Guardian: https://lnkd.in/e4C39wm5

Ahead of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill second reading later #today in the House of Commons, we have published a briefing alongside Wildlife and Countryside Link explaining why all planning authorities should have climate and nature statutory duties🌲 📜 🌍 Find out more below and see which other organisations are supporting this call too: https://lnkd.in/ehBw5j4g #Planning #Policy #ClimateAction #Environment #planningandinfrastructurebill