Our CEO Stephen Trotter responds to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and asks MPs, and Cumbrians, to intervene now, for nature:

“Part 3 of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will remove vital protections for our critical species and important wildlife habitats across Cumbria. It risks trashing many hundreds of sites in Cumbria and we're urging MPs to scrap the proposals.  

"The Government promised nature’s green recovery but now all we seem to be getting is concrete. They’re breaking the promises that were made less than a year ago. Surely we can’t allow Cumbria’s natural beauty and our precious wildlife to be trashed unnecessarily for short-term and unsustainable ends?

"We’re calling on people in Cumbria to email their MP, asking them to intervene. We’ve made it quick and easy to do this, just click here and every email you send will also be copied in the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

"You’ll need to hurry though – we only have till June 9, when the Bill goes to the next stage. Please contact your MP before then, and ask them to intervene.”

"Cumbria Wildlife Trust is strongly in favour of sustainable development.  Development that’s well-designed, is in the right place, at an appropriate scale and works with nature and its recovery, is really important.  

"Once wild places have gone, they're gone forever… along with the food, shelter and homes for countless birds, butterflies and hedgehogs.  

"Let’s not forget that these relatively wild places whether they’re in Barrow, Carlisle or Kendal are also vital spaces for the health and wellbeing of local communities - not to mention their role in producing food and providing the foundation for Cumbria’s economy.  

"But under the new rules, planners would be required to disregard the special and irreplaceable wildlife and habitats that might be in the way – and local people will have much less ability to have their say on decisions which affect their greenspace in their own areas.  

"One example is the threat to nationally-important wildlife sites at Sandscale Haws and Morecambe Bay from proposed new holiday park developments at Roanhead near Barrow. There’s a lot at stake here. Currently, the only basis on which these proposals could safely go ahead is if the developer is required to meet high environmental standards to avoid damaging the wildlife interest of adjacent sites. If the current proposals can’t be achieved safely, then it may require the proposed camp to be relocated and redesigned, to ensure it avoids destroying and/or damaging the internationally critical wildlife interest.  

"But in future if this Bill is passed – wildlife and the current protections simply won’t count in the decision. So, it’s a wildlife disaster in the making.  

"We urge our Cumbrian MPs to use their influence to scrap Part 3 of the Bill before it’s too late. Our MPs also need to know that the people of Cumbria care and won’t accept their neighbourhoods being trashed in the name of fake growth.

"Thank you for your support for Cumbria’s wildlife and wild places."