On 12 December 2022, wealthy landowner and hedge fund manager, Alexander Darwall and his wife, brought a case to the High Court to overturn the enshrined right to wild camp on Dartmoor National Park – the only place in England and Wales where it was legal. In January, he appeared to have won, but his […]
Dartmoor is one of England’s most treasured landscapes and important wildlife havens. Just as the brooding hills, hidden valleys and spectacular tors delight visitors year-round, the oak woodlands, heath, bog and mires are home to many species that are vanishing elsewhere – including golden plover, curlew, high brown fritillary and countless rare insects, plants and […]
The lawn is a terribly British thing: Wimbledon, picnics, making daisy chains. For me summer starts when I’m hit by the scent of cut grass and then it’s that bit of green that remains into the winter months after the trees have lost their leaves. So why are so many gardens in the UK being […]
On Saturday September 30, around 300 people gathered at Princetown to show their passion for creating a wilder Dartmoor. The “March for Wild Dartmoor” was organised by Wildcard, a growing grassroots movement of ordinary people, campaigners and experts who want to put pressure on the country’s biggest landowners to commit to ambitious rewilding projects as […]
Dear Editor On September 10,2023, activists from Extinction Rebellion Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (XR BCP) held a protest against the illegal dumping of sewage into Dorset’s waterways by Wessex Water at their Ringwood water recycling centre. In the week that a BBC report revealed that in 2022 Wessex Water was responsible for 215 dry spills […]
Signs were put up across the 4,000 acre Spitchwick Estate on Dartmoor this summer forbidding swimming along 17km of the River Dart, including at popular beauty spots. Forty right to roam campaigners held a ‘protest swim’ at Spitchwick on Sunday 10 September in defiance of the ban. Groups included Right to Roam, The Stars Are […]
Nature is in decline on Dartmoor – like in most of our National Parks. [Please see video in Twitter post below in which Guy talks to Tom Heap Media about how bad things are. Ed] So the government’s Dartmoor review, underway now, could help turn things around – or make things even worse. Here’s how […]
We have had enough! Our rivers are full of poo because water companies haven’t updated ageing sewage systems. They prefer to pay millions to shareholders and in bonuses to directors. The government says water companies must reduce the dumping of raw sewage, and of course customers must pay, so our bills could go up by […]
On a visit to Cornwall at the weekend, the Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer slammed Michael Gove’s plan to tear up the rules preventing water pollution by property developers. Speaking alongside Green Party Truro City councillors beside the Truro River, opposite the Newham Road pumping station that dumped untreated sewage into the river 28 times […]
Hello South-westerners, My name is M I Birtwhistle, retired secret service officer, and I live in a small Somerset village where I’ve kept my neighbours up to date on government thinking almost every month for the last fifteen years. By a strange quirk of family history I recently found I was entitled to a place […]
Dear Editor, A pair of ringed plovers has raised two chicks in the fenced area at the tip of Mudeford Sandbank, on Christchurch Harbour, for the first time since 1984. The fenced area was created in 2020 by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council and Christchurch Harbour Ornithological Group (CHOG), after oystercatchers bred there in 2019. […]
What follows is information from event organisers, Wild Card. There are details of a zoom to explore the strategy and plans for the day at the end of the article. Ed Dartmoor is dying, its wildlife is declining and disappearing, and the time to do something is now. Will you be a voice for nature? […]
On Sunday 13 August, Extinction Rebellion held a ‘Dirty Water’ protest at Dawlish seafront in Devon. [What follows is an edited version of their press release.] This is part of ‘Wave Four’ of an ongoing Extinction Rebellion campaign running throughout 2023. Through a combination of theatrics and public engagement, protestors yet again peacefully highlighted the fact […]
Campaigners are celebrating today’s decision to overturn the controversial ruling earlier this year that made camping illegal on Dartmoor without landowner permission. Lewis Winks, a campaigner with The Stars Are For Everyone, said: “A permission is not the same as a right – and today the court has seen sense and re-established people’s right to […]
Where to start with the recent Farmers Weekly piece on the right to roam (RTR)? It seems to have no idea what is being proposed and bemoans the loss of opportunities to “monetise partnerships with healthcare providers as solutions to the UK’s health and wellbeing crisis”. Firstly, the RTR proposals are not an “all-access approach”. […]
We are currently living under a regime which is happily removing rights willy-nilly and, in most cases, appearing to get away with it. It seems that most people are quite relaxed about the fact that a child born in England (specifically) today has fewer rights than one born 13 years ago. That should bother all […]
Nature in Dartmoor National Park is in a poor state. A new piece of legislation being debated this week in the House of Lords could help change that – and put nature’s recovery at the heart of the purpose of all our National Parks and AONBs. But will the Government do the right thing? Dartmoor […]
We’re well into Plastic Free July and here’s another area where you can cut your plastic usage and help stop the blockages in our sewers and the pollution in our waterways. Wet wipes – why are we so addicted to them? Surface wipes, face cleansing wipes, floor wipes, make-up remover wipes, baby wipes, personal hygiene […]
On Friday 14 July at 19:15, we will be hosting a panel event to be live-streamed from the Byline Festival, which is being held for the first time at Dartington Hall. The theme? Dartmoor’s future from political, agricultural, societal and environmental perspectives. Your panel for the evening: Caroline Voaden: the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for […]
I have just finished reading Professor Dave Goulson’s gripping, disturbing but ultimately inspirational book – Silent Earth. Averting the Insect Apocalypse. I cannot be alone in noticing that insects seem to have almost vanished from our gardens, parks and countryside, particularly this summer. No more walking through fields kicking up a squadron of grasshoppers. No […]
Vote for the Changemaker of the Year Award! Voting is open from 12 June to 17 June. ‘The Changemaker of the Year Award celebrates devoted volunteers, individuals or groups who have gone above and beyond their role working in National Parks. Their passion is unmatched and their dedication to a future where National Parks and […]
A group of Green Party campaigners including Baroness Jenny Jones gathered outside the office of Cherilyn Mackrory MP in Truro on Saturday to present a bottle of ‘Chateau Sewage’ as a reminder that South West Water is continuing to pollute Cornwall’s rivers and beaches on a massive scale. The bottle contained water taken from Swanpool […]
One of the easiest, cheapest and most visible means at new councillors’ disposal to prove that they are different, is to act like nature is a priority….because it should be! The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and the simple truth is that if we wipe out invertebrates, we not […]
When news broke of the destruction of some 136 mature trees in central Plymouth in March 2023, I was unimpressed by reports of local council plans to replace them with semi-mature trees and claims of an increase in local biodiversity as part of the new development. I’m not knowledgeable about trees or arboriculture, but I […]
People understand sewage. It stinks. So does the system that has allowed privatised water companies to make huge profits while failing to upgrade our sewage treatment system. Over the last eleven years the companies have paid out £16.8 billion in dividends while sewage discharges continue to be unacceptably high. Graphic pictures of raw sewage spilling […]
If you are incensed by the water companies pumping sewage into our rivers, waterways and seas and bitterly resent the fact that WE, the consumer, will be paying for them to clean it up, then join a protest! The water companies have been making huge profits, which they have partially distributed to shareholders, and paying […]
In the most significant leap forward for all of those campaigning for public access to nature, the Labour front bench committed to replace a ‘default of exclusion [to the countryside and nature] with a default of access.’ Reacting to this news, Right to Roam campaigner, Guy Shrubsole, tweeted: Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Caroline Lucas, […]
A number of local newspapers, including the Totnes Times and Ivybridge Today, published excerpts of a letter by the Stars are for Everyone (SAFE) campaign group to Totnes MP, Anthony Mangnall, complaining of bias and the “gaslighting of constituents” in his article published in the Totnes Times in February. SAFE invited Mr Magnall MP to […]
Reading Tony Whitehead’s piece in West Country Voices (‘Failing nature on Dartmoor‘ ) exploring some of the realities behind the outpouring of protest from the farming industry and lurid claims that Natural England has a secret (and no doubt cunning) plan to “rewild” Dartmoor, has enthused me sufficiently to write a blog. I don’t intend […]
There has been much heated debate over the past few weeks about the future of livestock farming on the Dartmoor commons. Tony Whitehead takes a closer look at the issues … all is not what it seems … Throughout this tale, one key thing must be borne in mind. A large proportion of the Dartmoor […]