Planning undermined
The society is deeply concerned about recent government announcements on planning, deregulation and growth. Our case officer Nicola Hodgson gives an update on the alarming situation. The government’s Growth Plan will damage the environment, public access, and local democracy. The new policies appear to conflict with the ambitions and targets of the Environment Act, and…
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Threat to farming funds for access
We are deeply concerned to learn that the government may renege on its commitment to use agricultural payments for environmental and access improvements. The recent statement from Defra gives us little comfort. With other organisations we have, for the last six years, pushed relentlessly for agricultural funding in the Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) to…
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Now is the time to give public access a leg up
‘The new agricultural-payment regimes in England and Wales provide a perfect opportunity for farmers and landowners to give public access a leg up.’ So declared our chairman, Phil Wadey, in his keynote speech to the society’s annual general meeting in London today (7 July). ‘The Westminster government and the Wales Senedd have agreed that farmers…
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What quantum shift?
Our general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, writes of the government’s failure to deliver on public access. Last July Natural England (NE) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) invited us to contribute to Lord Agnew’s ‘Commission on levelling-up access to the outdoors for all’. They wished to ‘gather views and consider the development…
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