Nature protests, green belts and fracking
As well as the latest on the river pollution campaigns and more
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update. As you’ve received this newsletter then either you subscribed, or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter, then you can click on this handy little button below.
“Building on grey or green belt doesn’t have to be detrimental to the environment. Developments can restore green spaces in a nature-friendly way.”
So argues Ben Mayfield, Lecturer in Law at Lancaster University who writes about the history of green belt designation and argues that the greenbelt isn’t actually that green any more in this piece for The Conversation. Any thoughts? Do feel free to comment below.
In other news
🏖️ Congratulations to the lovely town of Bamburgh! The Northumberland beauty spot beat more than 100 other beachfront destinations to win best seaside town for the fourth consecutive year, in a survey voted for by the public, reports Zoe Griffin from The Independent.
🌏 Stephen Lewis at the York Press was out and about to cover the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protest in York on Sunday - includes pictures of the many animal themed protestors who were calling for the restoration of nature.
🪶 Visitors to North East beaches are coming across a strange sight. Along the shoreline from Hartlepool down to Redcar’s South Gare, gangs of shellfish pickers scavenge the sands at low tide for mussels, cockles, kelp and undersized crabs. People living nearby are concerned about the loss of a vital food source for sea birds writes Julia Mazza at North East Bylines.
🚮 To remind people to dispose of their rubbish responsibly, parish and town councils will be displaying new weatherproof anti-littering posters in areas in their communities, writes Joe Willis at Richmondshire Today.
⛏️ A fossil fuels firm has unveiled a proposal to build a drilling rig and explore for gas using a “low volume fracking technique” close to highly protected coast and national park landscapes. Europa Oil and Gas has lodged planning documents with North Yorkshire Council over its ambition to drill a lateral borehole from a site near Burniston “for the purposes of conventional gas exploration”. Stuart Minting reports for the York Press.
🚙 Durham County Council is working with partners to identify an extra 250 charging locations across County Durham, reports Patrick Goldsbrough at The Northern Echo. With 40 per cent of residents in County Durham not having a driveway, according to the county council, the project aims to encourage those people to choose electric vehicles.
🦉 A man has been charged with killing two wild birds with an air rifle after police received reports of someone seen dumping a Tawny Owl and a Woodpigeon in a wheelie bin in Colne, Lancashire, in March reports Raptor Persecution UK.
River pollution latest
💦 Yorkshire rivers have among the highest phosphate levels nationally and Brian McHugh of Yorkshire Bylines has been looking more closely at the data. He has concluded that Yorkshire catchments with the highest average phosphate levels were the Swale, Ure, Nidd and Upper Ouse.
💦 Volunteers from Stop Ure Pollution (SUP) group will be turning citizen scientist to take samples from the river in August to test for pollution. The samples will then be sent to an independent laboratory for testing. The work, co-ordinated by Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust (YDRT), seeks to establish what sort of pollution there is in the river - sewage, agricultural run off, industrial etc. as we reported last week on the website and via the app.
💦 Everywhere I go, people express the same outrage about the way the water company bosses have behaved and now there’s a petition been created to demand a public inquiry into the water bosses’ bonuses. You can sign that here.
💦 A North Yorkshire farmer has revealed the "nightmare" of having human waste spilling onto his Skeeby farm for the last 10 months, causing him to lose thousands of pounds, reports Tom Burgess at the D&S.
💦 Save Our Swale is joining forces with other campaign groups such as Ilkley Clean River, Save Windermere, SOS Windrush and Fish Legal to discuss the key issues post election so that we can continue to put pressure on the new government and stop pollution for profit. The group is also reminding people wanting to have a say on Yorkshire Water's proposed price increase that they can attend Ofwat's Your Water, Your Say Zoom meeting this afternoon from 2pm. Click here to register.
🌞 A bit of personal news….I’ve just been awarded a Climate Fellowship by Arena for Journalism in Europe. As one of 15 journalists selected from across Europe, I intend to use the opportunity to further investigate the water industry with the international cohort later this year.
The three most clicked links from last week were:
Sad good bye to the QT
Sad to see independent publisher for the North East, The QT pack up. In typically straightforward style, editor Brian Aitken announced the decision last week:
“The 24th edition of The QT has been published and it will be our last. In simple, stark terms, we have run out of money to pay our quality storytellers to write any more stories for you.”
Sad to hear but completely understandable, it’s tough to cover the costs of journalism. Here at The Northern Eco we are yet to break even after almost a year of operating and need your support to keep going - every subscription here really does count. The QT was offering some welcome, in-depth, quality journalism including on environmental issues in the region such as the three I’ve linked to below for you to enjoy.
Plans for a solar farm in rural County Durham have attracted much controversy among residents. Marina Snyder finds a community which is angry and determined to fight on.
There’s a bright golden haze on Rainton Meadows Nature reserve boost as land-buy appeal smashes its target. Tony Henderson reports.
Twelve months after their release, David Whetstone finds out how the Northumberland beavers are settling in and aiding the eco-fightback
Before you go……
🐝 We’ve highlighted before the danger to bees from the use of neonicotinoids - a type of pesticide. Recently the investigative reporter Peter Geoghegan revealed the significant lobbying that led the last government to allow the substance to be used again. Now the Office of Environmental Protection (OEP) has launched an investigation of Defra’s decision-making on the issue.
The investigation is seeking to determine whether there were serious failures to comply with a number of environmental laws in relation to emergency authorisations granted for the use of Cruiser SB on sugar beet seeds.
Greenpeace has also launched a petition calling on the new environment secretary to act on this issue. You can sign that here.
🌼 Thank you for reading edition number 82 of The Northern Eco. This newsletter remains independent, free unless you want to pay, ad-free and proudly reader supported thanks to paying subscribers. The main newsletter is sent out at 7am every Tuesday and wouldn’t exist without paying subscribers. Please do subscribe to keep it going - I can’t do it without your support. Thanks!