It is great news. Keep spreading the word about the peat boycott.

This is great news. Nice to see our government doing something good for wildlife for a change.

Good news today from the Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside Wildlife trust.

Wildlife Trust joy over peat extraction ban. The Government has refused an appeal which would have allowed peat extraction to continue on Chat Moss for another 15 years.
And the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire Manchester and North Merseyside welcomed the announcement by Eric Pickles (Secretary of State for communities and Local Government) that he had refused to allow William Sinclair Horticulture Ltd to extract any more peat from Chat Moss, to the west of Manchester.
Both Salford and Wigan Councils had refused planning permission in the summer of 2011, but Sinclairs appealed against the refusal and a Public Inquiry was held in March 2012.
Anne Selby, the Chief Executive of the Trust, said The Secretary of State has today made absolutely the right decision and we congratulate him. This government is now leading the way in Europe against the environmentally damaging and unnecessary practice of peat extraction.
This historic decision will be a major step towards meeting the Governments targets to reduce peat usage in the amateur sector to zero by 2020, and will pave the way for similar decisions across Europe in the coming months and years.
We now look to William Sinclair to honour the planning conditions contained in local Section 106 Agreements. Their responsibility is to agree suitable restoration plans with Salford and Wigan Councils. The overwhelming view is that the plans should restore the site to lowland raised bog .
Rather than importing peat from Scotland, Ireland or further afield, we urge Sinclairs to develop their excellent brands of peat free composts, which have already been shown in independent tests to perform better than peat itself.
The Wildlife Trusts will continue to campaign against this damaging practice across the country. Where we can get the resources to do so - as at the neighbouring Little Woolden Moss site - we will buy up peat extraction sites and restore them.

Is this it?

LWT News item about Chat Moss being featured on BBC Countryfile.

I love new technology

The matter is currently 'in hand' and in the likely event of requiring support from county birders I will ask and appreciate any assistance

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It would appear therefore that Sinclairs have effectively benefited from
the best part of a whole year's worth of extraction despite no longer
having planning permission to extract peat on this site.

Best wishes

Dave Crawshaw
Lancashire Wildlife Trust

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Can they be prosecuted for this?

Thanks James.

It is likely however that the digger is loading peat which has been extracted previously and has been piled up, common practise on there, no doubt increased when they previously learned of current stoppage. If this is the case (and I believe it is) then they're entitled to carry this out I think.

You've obviously done the right thing though and it's good to know there are others out there keeping an eye on it as it certainly wouldn't be the first time they'd ignored such a stoppage to the actual extraction on peat . Will be interesting to hear of your reply.

As the vast majority of the site is situated in Salford its extremely likely that Wigan will follow Salfords lead and refuse any planning permission.
Could any birders who go on the moss keep their eyes open for any activity on this site,and if anything untoward is seen,report it immediately to Lancashire Wildlife Trust.It has happened in the past that peat has been taken without planning permission off sites down on the moss.
Thanks to everbody who took time to put in their objections,occasionally our voice is heard

-- Edited by pete berry on Friday 1st of July 2011 05:36:00 PM

Success on the Salford "side" ;-

http://www.lancswt.org.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=169&cntnt01returnid=15

Now for the Wigan "side" !?

I've 2 letters

One says 9:30 6th June - Civic Centre, Chorley Rd, Swinton

the other says 10:30 but no date

I see the RSPB put in an eloquent objection

Salford Website

Most Wildlife trust members will have received an email this morning concerning Salford Councils Case officers recommendation to refuse the continuing peat extraction on Chat moss to now deferring from making the final decision until the 6th of June after the applicant [ Sinclair's] submitted some 20 documents to support their bid at the last minute.

The new information should be put on the Councils website today but I've just had a quick look and it is still not available.

I have copied a part of the email which is shown below, it would help a great deal if people on this forum would read this new information submitted by Sinclair's [ when available]and leave your comments on the Council website.



The date for the deferred meeting is now confirmed as Monday 6th June (0930) and the new information will be available on the Salford website later today. Consultees will be invited to submit comments on the new information by Friday 3rd June at the latest, and an appendix to the case officer's report will be tabled at the meeting on 6th June which will presumably attempt to analyse the new information together with the consultees comments.

It seems to me that this is a very short time to do a proper job, and I have made this point to the Head of Planning, Chris Findley. However, the concern from the Salford Council viewpoint is that a decision should be made before the 28 day Stop Notice expires.


I therefore urge any of you who have previously submitted responses to Salford to look at the new evidence from Sinclair's and submit comments on it. Although there have been many twists and turns, it does seem that this really will be the end of this long process, and the last chance to influence the outcome. It is obviously important that any new points raised should be properly responded to, and this is what the Trust will be doing.

Thanks

I buy peat free grow bags and compost for my green house/veg patch.

It is now cheaper to buy these products the peat based, so there is now no excuse whatsoever to continue this trade!!

Some depressing news

They are now extracting peat without permission

BBC News

Re submitted

Henry Cook wrote:

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Objection re-submitted.

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I have also re-submitted my objection.

Although I can't confirm it for sure I think the variation is the insertion of the restoration clause,This was a bone of contention by LWT I think.

Mike

-- Edited by Mike hirst on Monday 10th of January 2011 02:53:20 PM

I got a letter too. I am trying to find out from a guy called David Crawshaw, who is employed by Lancs WT to deal with this, what the "Variation of Condition 2" of p/a 97/37333 is - does anyone know? I can't find the p/a 97/37333 on the Salford CC website - obviously it's 13 years old. Presumably it's to allow extraction until 2025?

Just to be clear here, there are three applications to remove peat on 12 yards road and I received 3 letters from Urban Vision (Salford council) this morning. Our objections should cover all 3 applications, the nos being 1058824/FULEIA, 1058825/FULEIA 1058826/FULEIA. Its also likely we may get similar notification from Wigan B.C. as there was a similar request made to them for mossland under their jurisdiction.

Mike

I received one in the post this morning too, so will go through the process again.

Chat Moss peat extraction featured in an article in The Guardian today. They are starting a website called Piece by piece which is aimed at highlighting the stealthy erosion of Britian's countryside www.guardian.co.uk/pbp

Many thanks to everyone who's took the time to object,I've been told that the date for objections has now passed,I'll post when I find out Salfords decision,fingers crossed they see sense.
Pete Berry

Objection posted
Chris H

Mine's added too.