Horseytalk.net/Hoofbeat EXCLUSIVE
RIGHTS OF WAY WATCH

click here to read more

Campaign grows against Natural England

It's not just riders who are against it

Ian Liddell-Granger, Conservative MP for BridgwaterA Westcountry MP has just launched a withering attack on the conservation quango Natural England - labelling it an invention "Dr Frankenstein would be proud of".

Ian Liddell-Granger, Conservative MP for Bridgwater, has called for the body to be radically scaled back, arguing that it has been "let loose" on "many sensitive environmental issues".

He said: "Natural England cares more about weeds than the welfare of country folk. It believes that butterflies and bats come before people".

Mr Liddell-Granger, who was speaking in a Parliamentary debate he initiated, was critical of Natural England's handling of EU grants to farmers for maintaining landscapes.

He said farmers in Withypool on Exmoor were having to do "precisely what Natural England wants", despite maintaining common land for centuries.

He said: "Natural England wants more cattle to graze on the common, and has put on the frighteners. "It wants 48 cows to graze a bit of land that would barely support half that number. For generations, Withypool Common has been known as a sheep common and, in 1950, there were more than 2,000 sheep on the hill.

"There is nothing natural about Natural England. From the word go it was a cumbersome creature, cobbled together in haste.

"Dr Frankenstein would have been proud of it."

Hear. Hear.

Do you think Natural England should go

Tell us what you think

Says Maureen Comber

"Ian Liddel-Granger is quite right. There are far too many conservationist quangos and all of them seem to be anti horse.

The commons are being inclosed because no-one wants to pick up a sickle and get bushwacking. Neither do they want to fork out for horse friendly gates. People are considered less than worms and yet it is we that pay for all this. Talk about Alice's Wonderland!!"

Do you agree with Maureen ?

Please let us know what you think of Natural England.


Email this to a friend !!

Enter recipient's e-mail: