From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…….From ‘Wild Justice’……
by Bernie Bell - 09:09 on 13 May 2025
From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…….
by Nick Hunt
Nick Hunt traverses the spine of the Curonian Spit in the Baltic Sea, and learns how its sands—anchored by forest roots for millennia—began to move rapidly and swallow villages in the eighteenth century when woodlands and sacred groves were systematically clear-cut for timber. Though halted through engineering and reforestation, the dunes are now eroding under human footsteps, and spilling into the lagoon they border. As he witnesses how quickly landscapes are changed by our own hands, Nick asks if the challenge is not in reversing the damage we’ve done, but in remembering humility before the forces of the Earth.
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From ‘Wild Justice’…..
“A new legal challenge: We recently slammed the Government’s new Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB), after commissioning a legal opinion which concluded the bill in its current format would weaken existing levels of environmental protection (if you missed it – click here to read it).
We are so concerned about this that Wild Justice has now begun legal proceedings against the Government. Last Friday we sent a Pre-Action Protocol (PAP) letter to Angela Rayner – the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
When introducing the bill, Ms Rayner stated on the parliamentary record that the bill would not result in a weakening of environmental protection offered by current regulations. We now believe, thanks to the legal opinion we commissioned, that this statement is factually and legally incorrect – or, as the opinion put it, ‘obviously wrong as a matter of law’.
And we’re not alone in our opinion. Our conclusion was supported by the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), who stated that the bill in its current form would be a ‘regression’ of environmental protections. Incidentally, the OEP has also confirmed to Wild Justice that the government didn’t seek its advice before introducing the new bill.
If the Bill was to be enacted in its current form, we believe it would have catastrophic consequences for wildlife in future housing developments. The planning system is already failing nature (read our Lost Nature report – click here) and we believe the new levy system proposed in the PIB would make things worse. Now it seems the government is gaslighting the public, portraying the new bill as a ‘win-win’ for nature and people.
In our PAP letter we ask the Secretary of State to correct the parliamentary record, making it clear her statement about the bill’s environmental implications was wrong. We think this is important to ensure that MPs are not misled when they come to vote on the bill.
We also laid out our intention to bring a claim for judicial review if Angela Rayner does not correct her statement.
You can read the press release about our PAP letter on our blog – click here.
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Thank you,
Bob, Ruth and Chris
Wild Justice (CEO: Bob Elliot. Directors: Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).”
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