Following widespread recent coverage of threats to the countryside, wildlife and our rivers and beaches, DorsetCAN has sent a letter to the county’s MPs calling on them to keep in place environmental regulations and controls that the new government is promising to scrap.

The letter says that ‘…significant changes are being proposed by the Government which threaten serious harm to the environment and the future of our beautiful county’, adding ‘We are writing to ask for your help in three different areas where the most vital protections we have against pollution, degradation of the environmental and the loss of our county’s precious and diminishing wildlife have suddenly come under threat:’

Three threats are identified by DorsetCAN.

The first is a new Bill that will scrap ‘many of the regulations that currently protect the environment’.

Secondly, they welcome the homes and jobs offered by the Government’s new Investment Zones but point out that the zones unnecessarily sweep away planning and environmental controls.

Finally, they welcome recent government assurances that its ELMS scheme (which replaces the unpopular Common Agricultural Policy) will not be scrapped altogether. But they say that the current review of ELMS ‘… increases uncertainty, threatens to water down the scheme and delays a vital part of our country’s plans to regenerate wildlife and the countryside’.

The letter urges the MPs to call on government ministers and fellow MPs to ‘be more conservative … and keep essential controls and reforms that stand between us and reckless erosion of wildlife habitats and destruction of wildlife.’

DorsetCAN is a network of community groups, local organisations and individuals working for a clean, green, sustainable Dorset. DorsetCAN seeks to support Dorset Council to achieve their Climate and Ecological Strategy aims, including net zero by 2040.

You can read the full letter at www.dorsetcan.org/mpletter