Sixty years on from the signing of documents that led to its formation, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is calling for financial support to help it continue standing up for nature in the face of what the charity sees as an unprecedented threat to the county’s wildlife and natural green spaces.

Whilst best known as the charity that cares for much loved wildlife areas including the Attenborough and Idle Valley Nature Reserves, the Trust’s roots are as a campaigning organisation established in the 1960s by local people no longer willing to stand by and watch as wild areas were damaged, degraded and destroyed. Six decades on, the Trust continues to give nature and the people who care about it, a voice within the planning system and to fight for better protection for nature across the country.

Speaking about the call for support, Head of Communications Erin McDaid said: “Many of our nature reserves would not exist if it were not for our campaigning work. Campaigning is in our charity’s DNA and as well as saving sites such as Attenborough Nature Reserve we have successful fought plans for everything from roads to incinerators where wildlife and natural greenspaces were at risk.”

Erin continues, “Whilst we’ve had many battles in the 30 years I’ve been with the Trust, I’ve never experienced anything like the threat to our wildlife and wild places posed by the dangerous deregulatory policies announced by the Government since the Summer.”

The charity has had a number of notable recent campaigning successes including securing a nature first approach to the redevelopment of the Broadmarsh area in Nottingham and shielding Mission Carr Nature Reserve, near Bawtry, from fracking. So far this year it has also responded to 150 planning applications due to concerns over impacts on wildlife.

However, the Trust views recent announcements linked to the Government’s Growth Plan as a direct threat to nature.  Whilst the subsequent change of Prime Minister has brought a softer tone to Government announcements, vague promises to protect the environment and a u-turn on a u-turn on fracking; the Trust is keen to highlight that much of the worrying, recently laid deregulatory architecture remains in place.

Erin explained: “For almost 60 years we have stood up for Nottinghamshire’s wildlife by fighting damaging planning proposals, challenging poor policies and demanding better protection for wildlife and the environment. We’ve had some tremendous success in fighting wildlife’s corner recently, especially where we’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with local campaigners - but the raft of potentially damaging deregulatory polices announced by the Government since the summer came as a real blow.”

Whilst many aspects of the Summer’s ‘mini budget’ have been scrapped or reversed, little has changed in terms of proposals which the Trust believes will undermine wildlife and environment protections and make it easier for developers to damage and destroy natural greenspaces. These include a Bill that could see up to 1000 environmental laws wiped from the statute books. The Bill also gives powers for Ministers to repeal, re-write or replace laws with little scrutiny by Parliament and contains a deregulatory ‘lock in’ which could make framing effective environmental regulations extremely difficult in future. If the Bill becomes law without significant change, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust believes that it will be harder than even to protect wild species and wild places from damaging development or impacts such as water pollution.

Erin added: “Those of us charged with maintaining the legacy of our founding members share their view that enough is enough. We cannot continue to allow nature to disappear. Against then backdrop of climate and ecological crises, we are often the last line of defence for nature. Our work within the planning system and supporting local campaigners is vital but if followed through, recent policy announcements could drastically undermine the framework we have relied on to fight nature’s corner.”

The Trust is frustrated that despite environmental issues consistently featuring near the top of lists of public concerns and explicit promises from Government to restore nature by 2030, policy decisions continue to undermine the chances of putting nature into recovery before it is too late.

Erin added: “Our reaction over the summer was one of anger and we remain angry, but we are determined to channel our concerns into continuing to fight wildlife’s corner. Our fight is not a party political one. We have always sought to stand up for nature regardless of who is in Government and will continue to do so. The public have already helped us send a clear message to Government that this attack on nature must be stopped and we’ve already seen major concessions - but we need to push back even harder and to do that we need more financial support.”