Government is gaslighting us on planning bill and nature | Letter

Ben Kite says a large number of experts and organisations are concerned about the bill’s environmental impact, in response to a letter by the nature ministerI read with incredulity the letter (30 April) from the nature minister, Mary Creagh, rebutting George Monbiot’s article (Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime, 24 April). She says that “the planning and infrastructure bill is a win-win, for people and for nature recovery”.A vast chorus of alarmed NGOs, learned societies, professional bodies, ecologists, economists, scientists and legal professionals say the opposite. These include: 33 nature organisations, spearheaded by Wildlife and Countryside Link (an organisation representing 89 environmental groups); the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), which represents more than 8,000 ecologists and environmental managers; the current and every past living president of CIEEM, 40 renowned environmental economists and nature professionals, including Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta (author of The Economics of Biodiversity) and Prof Sir John Lawton (chair of the making space for nature review); a past deputy chair of Natural England and University of Oxford academics; and David Elvin KC. Continue reading...

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