Staff and volunteers from Lancashire, Cumbria, Cheshire and the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts met MPs and their representatives in Portcullis House, in London.

In attendance was Katherine Fletcher - MP for South Ribble, Andrew Stephenson - MP for Pendle. There were representatives of Rt Rev Prof David Walker - The Bishop of Manchester,  Cat Smith - MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, Ian Byrne - MP for Liverpool West Derby, and Mark Menzies - MP for Fylde. The event was kindly sponsored by Rt Hon Nigel Evans - MP for Ribble Valley. 

Representatives of Lancashire Wildlife Trust included:

Chief Executive - Dr Tom Burditt

Director of Conservation - Tim Mitcham

Policy and Advocacy Officer - Dave Dunlop

Youth Voice Officer - Izzy Cook

Youth Council members - Hannah Brodie, Caitlin Sanderson and Rose Huish-Neave 

Communications Manager -  Alan Wright 

Communications and Campaigns assistant - Amy Shakeshaft 

Student - Flora Burditt 

Whilst discussions were wide-ranging, they focused on Wildlife Trust work and issues within the MP's constituencies. Topics included wetter farming and other work on the peatlands, carbon offsetting, biodiversity net gain, and our five “asks” for #VoteWildlife in next year’s General Election. MPs were also presented with a variety of knitted creatures sent in by nature lovers across the UK to take away from the event.

Tom said: “It was a successful day where we able to meet some of our local representatives in the Houses of Parliament. This is the start of our campaign to lift wildlife up the political agenda for the next election, and we will be attempting to speak to all of our MPs and prospective MPs over the next few months to stress the importance of the natural world.”

Follow ups

Some MPs that were unable to attend our reception have still arranged to meet with us.

Peter Dowd, MP for Bootle

On 10th November our Senior Conservation Officer for Policy & Advocacy, Dave, and Nextdoor Nature Officer, Fiona, visited Peter Dowd, MP for Bootle.

Peter was unable to make the parliamentary reception but was still keen to meet with us. Dave and Fiona discussed projects such as Nextdoor Nature, which takes place within Peter's constituency, as well as general policies on access to nature for locals.

Find out more about our Next Door Nature project here.

Katherine Fletcher, MP for South Ribble

On 22nd March 2024, Katherine visited our planned peat restoration project at Manor Farm/National Trust Rufford Old Hall to find out more about the planned work.

Sarah Johnson, our Head of Peatland Nature Recovery, said: "It was great to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing peatlands in Katherine’s constituency; we stressed the need for long term policy and funding for peatlands.

"Our region boasts a large swathe of irreplaceable peat soils which, in a healthy state, can help us to mitigate the twin climate and biodiversity crises, and support regional livelihoods.

"The caretakers of those peat soils need to be given confidence that further, long-term, policy and funding support is forthcoming, to enable them to manage our peat appropriately, for this and future generations."