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Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, in her ‘Opinion’ in the autumn issue of Open Space, urges the government to recognise that nature cannot exist without people.
‘I have the best job in government’ declared environment minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter MP to the Wild Summit on 9 September, in her first speech in her new role. We agree: what could be better than a brief which embraces access to nature, protected landscapes, and much more? (Unfortunately, she didn’t mention access—but she was new in post.)
She spoke about ‘30 by 30’, the target that 30 per cent of land and sea will be protected by 2030. But, as we said when the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published its delivery plan in July, you can’t protect nature without people: they must know it in order to want to fight for it.
Heat waves
Having just experienced five heat waves, with more predicted, the government must realise that green and watery spaces are more vital than ever, for cool and shade. And it’s those who most need those spaces, because they are cooped up in airless flats with no gardens, who have the fewest opportunities to visit them.
The government’s Environmental Improvement Plan’s aim that ‘everyone has access to green or blue spaces within a 15-minute walk from home’, seems as far from realisation as ever. And the latest version of the National Planning Policy Framework doesn’t mention it at all. Moreover, government has removed consultee status from the Gardens Trust, and has reduced the influence of Historic England and the Sports Council because they might get in the way of ‘growth’. Both moves put parks and green spaces at risk.
Yet equality is Andy Burnham’s watchword: ‘Nowhere forgotten, everywhere feeling heard, everyone with a sense that their place can be more than it is today,’ he said on 24 July. By improving and creating paths and green spaces for all we start to address inequalities. And much can be achieved by ensuring that local authorities can fund these essentials.
Repeal
Time is getting short for this government. It has yet to repeal the 2031 cut-off for claiming paths for definitive maps, promised 21 months ago, and we shall hold it to that. Also, with other outdoor organisations, we have a list of improvements for paths and spaces which can be achieved without legislation.
But the government must accept that permissive access for its vaunted river-walks and national forests is not enough. The 30-year access agreements in the midlands National Forest were fatally short-sighted, because much of that access vanished when the money stopped. New access must be by right.
Recently Defra ministers celebrated ‘Back British Farming Day’. Let’s have ‘Back Access to Nature Day’. It’s as much a part of Defra’s brief as agriculture, and will contribute significantly to the 30 by 30 target because it will enable us all to enjoy nature.
Header image: Veronica White