100 signatures reached
To: The Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson
Save Sites of Special Scientific Interest
Boris, Please keep your Word!
On 28th September The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, when giving a speech at the UN 'Leaders' Pledge for Nature' event: “The British Government is absolutely committed to tackling biodiversity loss, we need not just good intentions, but real action, and we must act now, right now!”
Why is this important?
Thousands of people watched the BBC1 Countryfile programme on Sunday 25th October when it gave this information:
Over 3,000 of our 7000 'Sites of Special Scientific Interest' across the UK, some 40% are in poor condition.
In England over 70% of these sites have not been checked in the last 6 years, it is 30% in Scotland, Wales have 'no comprehensive monitoring', and the Northern Ireland authority didn't respond to the request for information.
The budget of Natural England was £240M in 2010, but £100M in 2018 a dramatic fall necessitating a loss of a third of its staff.
The Environment Agency (also responsible for flood protection), has lost two thirds of its staff since 2010, and last year only 4% of reported pollution incidents and other potential breaches of regulations were even investigated.
We ask the Prime Minister to honour his pledge to tackle biodiversity loss and return the budgets of Natural England and the Environmental Agency to 2010 levels at the next budget, if not in his own words “now, right now!”, and to continue to fund Environmental Protection with increased and realistic budgets in the future, which meet the increasing environmental crisis.
