UK government scraps plans for disposal of nature reserves
By Robert Mendick, Chief reporter
05 Feb 2011 Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has scrapped plans to dispose of publicly-owned national nature reserves following the furious backlash over the forest sell-off. Officials in her department had been in talks with Natural England, the quango which looks after 140 reserves, about transferring ownership. But in an indication that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) may be in disarray, Mrs Spelman first issued a statement to The Sunday Telegraph on Friday morning insisting that no consultations had taken place on a change of ownership and then altered her statement five and a half hours later to admit that officials had been “scoping a range of options.” In fact, Defra and Natural England had been in talks for several months with wildlife charities such as the RSPB about handing over control of some of the most precious wildlife sites in England, ranging from The Lizard in Cornwall to Lindisfarne in Northumberland. Charities have expressed concern that a transfer of ownership was unworkable unless it was “fully funded”. The reserves are considered the “jewels in the crown” of British nature conservation and include ancient woodland, heathland and wetlands which provide a habitat for rare species such as the red squirrel. The confusion in Defra will do little to ease fears that the forest sell-off is being conducted in a similarly haphazard manner. The decision to scrap any possible sell-off will delight campaigners. Defra is still pressing, however, for conservation groups to take over the running of sites. On Friday morning, Mrs Spelman said in an initial statement to The Sunday Telegraph: “We are not consulting on the ownership of the National Nature Reserves. Ministers are not consulting, and never have been, on sale or lease. “There are no plans to change the ownership of the National Nature Reserves, and they remain, and will remain, in public ownership.” In a subsequent statement sent by email at 5.08pm, she said: “There is no Consultation Paper on the ownership of the National Nature Reserves, and there will not be. “Officials at Natural England have been scoping a range of options as you would expect – but Ministers have decided that the National Nature Reserves will remain in public ownership.” … Insiders involved in discussions said the row over forests had “scared” the Government off the transfer. The source said: “The Government was certainly thinking about selling NNRs, as well as transferring the management.” …
Pity this didn't break more widely in the media. Given the growing opposition to the forest sell-off, this could've brought the public out onto the streets in full force.
And I don't think it's as dead as Spelman says it is. They'll just wait for the backlash from the forest privatisation to die down then it'll be sneaked back in. Those charities who were approached about this should've blown the whistle immediately, for I suspect that next time the government will avoid them and go direct to private business.