Campaigners are urging the UK Government to strengthen legislation on community ownership, warning that the current proposals working their way through Westminster fall short of what is needed to empower local people to protect and restore England’s natural landscapes. Provisions for a new Community Right to Buy, part of the English […]

DAERA has published its first Peatland Strategy, a 15-year plan to conserve and restore some of Northern Ireland’s most threatened landscapes.Launched by Andrew Muir, the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, the strategy has been endorsed by the Stormont Executive and will run until 2040. It is designed to tackle the […]

The government has introduced a significant extension of its ban on the burning of heather on deep peat, in a move hailed as a landmark step for conservation and climate action. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed that the restrictions will now cover 676,628 hectares of upland […]

England is running dry. Not in a vague, distant-future sort of way, but now – this year, this summer. The Government has this week warned of a “nationally significant” water shortfall. Experts have warned it could last until mid-autumn, possibly longer. Water companies are reaching for the familiar levers: hosepipe bans, […]

England’s fragile peatlands are to be afforded stronger protections under new government plans, which will extend the existing partial ban on heather burning across vast swathes of the uplands. In a move hailed as a major step forward for conservation, the area of peatland where burning is prohibited will be increased […]