The Wildlife Trust
For Lancashire, Manchester
and North Merseyside
Green Laws Are Not Red Tape!
The UK Government is aiming to scrap as much regulation as it can and it is consulting the public online about what should go and what should stay. It says it will be up to Government Ministers to make the case for retaining any of it.
The Government has launched an online review it calls “The Red Tape Challenge”. Included under ‘red tape’ are 159 regulations that relate to biodiversity, wildlife management, landscape, countryside and recreation in the UK covering everything from National Parks and public rights of way to Sites of Special Scientific Interest, rare and endangered animals and plants, and marine protected areas.
These include almost all of the major legislation protecting wildlife and wild places in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and the Irish Sea that has been so hard fought for over the past 30 years and more; for example, the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 (as amended), the Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000 and the Natural Environment & Rural Communities Act 2006.
If you’re visiting this web site you’re probably already aware how valuable the natural world is and how fragile it can be in the face of ever-increasing demands society is placing on our land and sea.
There may be a case for consolidating some of this legislation into a smaller number of Acts and Regulations, but certainly not “on a whim” and not before careful consideration of the responses to the Government’s own White Paper on the Natural Environment, which is expected to be published at the end of May.
If you would like to help us to show the breadth of support for legislation protecting wildlife and wild places in our counties, and to encourage our MPs and the Government’s ministers in the Department for the Environment to make the case for continuing to safeguard our natural world, please make your views known by clicking here and adding your voice to the many individuals who have already expressed theirs.
Thank You!