Bernie's Blog

A few hours later RSPB apologised for the eye-catching image but we thought it was so good that we've adopted it as our Twitter profile image for a while - click here. The RSPB tweet has had over 10 million views so far (and hasn't been taken down). What's all the fuss about? Why are environmental organisations so riled by what the Westminster government is doing? Here's a blog by Wild Justice's Mark Avery that explains what has been happening - click here.

Our own Chris Packham was on BBC Radio 4's Today show yesterday at 07:33 setting out the results of a BBC investigation - you can listen to what he said, and what the water industry said, on BBC Sounds - click here.

Wild Justice launched a legal challenge on the issue of sewage discharges in June 2022 - see here - and we were refused permission to go to court. We appealed - and were refused again. This result hurt - see here - and to be honest it still hurts as we were raising many of the key issues that are still in the headlines.

Our friends in River Action have a petition calling for Britain's rivers to be rescued - we support its aims fully. The petition has over 91,000 signatures already and we think that Wild Justice supporters could get it pretty close to the 100,000 total in the next few days. This is the hot policy topic of the moment, and is likely to form a part of the next general election campaign, so now is a very good time to stand up and be counted in telling politicians to do their jobs, keep their promises and Rescue Our Rivers - please see if you can sign - click here. Thank you!

Bad news, and no news, from Northern Ireland: we supported a legal challenge in Northern Ireland - click here - with a donation of £5000. We're sorry to learn that the challenge has been unsuccessful and that the local campaigners are now looking at next steps. We know what that's like - most legal challenges for judicial review are unsuccessful (our track record is good!) and if you have put your cash, time and emotional effort into mounting a challenge then such knock-backs are hard to take. But we know that the folk in Northern Ireland are regrouping and not giving up - good luck to them!

We are still waiting for a judgment in our own challenge against the legality of the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ plans for a Badger cull - the court hearing was on 21 November - click here for details. We really should hear soon - fingers crossed.

Gwent Levels under threat again: the Gwent Levels is a site of great importance for wildlife and was recently threatened by a massive road scheme which, wisely, the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, turned down. But developers view any green area, near a large town, and near a motorway, as prime real estate. The Gwent Wildlife Trust is campaigning against development of this area with a petition - please see if you can sign it, especially (but not solely) if you live in Wales - click here.

Plymouth City Council and trees: this is another judicial review brought by a local group, STRAW Plymouth, to save urban trees. We've donated £2500 to help fund this case - the fundraiser runs for five more days - perhaps you might be able to top up the fighting fund - see here for details. Thank you.

That's it for now but we'll be back - probably next week with news on a consultation on English hedgerows.

Thank you,

Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).

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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/09/15/wheres-the-excitement/

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