This is a short update and there will definitely be some more detailed news coming along soon. It's over three weeks since we sent out a newsletter and there is lots going on.
A further set-back on challenging DEFRA on its burning regulations: we believe that DEFRA's feeble burning regulations, which somewhat limit damaging burning of vegetation on upland blanket bogs, are just that - feeble. At a time of climate crisis and where DEFRA itself says that burning damages protected blanket bogs then the scope of the regulations is hopelessly weak. But we also believe that they have been made unlawfully without proper consideration of the relevant information.
We have sought judicial review of the DEFRA decision and been turned down once, and last week our appeal (it is called a request for renewal) was also turned down. We are seriously considering a further appeal.This is because we believe it is a serious matter which needs fighting, it's cheap to take the next step and also because of the details of the judge's judgment (which we watched and heard over the internet). Our decision will be made very soon and we'll let you know what it is.
A very nice surprise: Two Wild Justice supporters were lucky enough to be chosen by the brewery firm BrewDog as the recipients of a £5k donation to a good cause - and they chose Wild Justice! The money arrived in our bank account last week and we are very grateful to BrewDog and our supporters (who wish to remain anonymous) for this wonderful donation which came out of the blue for us.
The couple said 'We support everything that Wild Justice does. We're delighted to be able to hand over this sum from BrewDog'.
Sainsbury's game meat and its lead content: we recently received the results of the first batch of analyses of game meat from this season - all bought in Sainsbury's stores. We'll be telling you the results of those tests in the next few days.
Covid and emails: two people who give us very valuable admin support have tested positive for Covid recently and have felt unwell. Both are now recovering, and that's the main thing. But it does mean that we have fallen behind on reading and replying to emails - sorry. We get a very large number of emails and we read all of them, but we can only respond fully to a small proportion with the resources at our disposal. We're trying to catch up! Thank you for your patience.
General licences in Wales: we hear that there were over 600 responses to NRW's general licence consultation. If that is right then a high proportion of them will have been from Wild Justice supporters given the size of our mailbox on the subject. Thank you for responding in such numbers. We also understand that NRW is taking time to consider the responses (fair enough, but they ought to have issued the consultation sooner - they have been dragging their feet) and that they may renew the existing flawed licences for 'a short period' in the New Year. If this is the prelude to the introduction of much better general licences, as suggested by the consultation paper, then that is fine. We'll keep you updated.
General licences in Northern Ireland: in a previous newsletter (Wild Justice 83 in late October) we told you that we were pressing ahead with a legal challenge of the Northern Ireland general licences and that we were due a response from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in mid November. That response still has not arrived - that is very unusual indeed - and we are now promised a response this week. Well, we will have to issue court papers on Friday this weekwhether or not we receive a response from DAERA and the court may not be impressed by the less than prompt engagement by the Northern Ireland authorities.
DAERA's behaviour reminds us of nothing so much as Natural England's delayed response over our first ever challenge on general licences (in England) where deadlines were missed and then NE folded and withdrew the general licences rather than argue a hopeless case in court. We cannot tell what is going on in the DAERA corporate mind but thanks to your generosity, our crowdfunder was fully funded so we are ready and able to take this challenge all the way. It might be a bit of a scramble to get everything done by Friday afternoon but we will. Watch this space.
We expect to have updates on lead in game meat, legal action on burning regulations and Northern Irleand general licences over the next few days so you can expect another newsletter or two fairly soon.
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Thank you!
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
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