Bolton's plans for cuts in Environmental Services (including rangers and funding for other agencies) are on their website. Consultation period ends on 26th Nov. See http://www.bolton.gov.uk/website/pages/Environmentandplanning.aspx?bid=6
Jane Downall, the Biodiversity Officer for Oldham (formerly a ranger at Daisy Nook) hopes that all the centres in Oldham (Daisy Nook, Tandle Hill and Brownhills) will remain open, although the admin centre at Strinesdale has closed and the staff have moved to Alexandra Park.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Councils have to keep the statutory services going - ie those mandatory services governed by Acts of Parliament - so they get priority. Ranger services are an optional extra, perhaps H&S issues that are urgent might be addressed. Elsewhere on this forum John Rowland reports that the Chadkirk initiative's funding has been halted by a withdrawal of funds by Natural England. David Dutton in Bury reports that they are not as badly hit as Bolton, but the BTCV office at Whitefield, funded largely by Bury, might be closed.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
Think with hospital funding,police,etc,trying to fight to keep countryside ranger jobs,will be an impossible task,has in council priority,they are right down the list,look locally at penny,theres used to be a visitors centre manned by 2 people at all times,about 4 perminent rangers,and seasonal staff on top of that.Now no visitors centre,1 ranger doing more than one area at times. Its the same everywere,even Martin mere and places as such the actual staff working on reserves have been cut to a bare minimum. Also with health and safety laws,these days being a countryside ranger like the police force is bogged down by red tape and paperwork,but in priorities I daupt when the cuts come most will vote for losing countryside funding rather than nurses,doctors,police or firemen,its just a fact of life,and someone voted this government into power
Don't know how this will impact locally, but I have been reliably informed that Natural England will lose at least 30%, maybe up to 50%, of their staff.
We're all in this together Unless you're a banker of course
I've just heard tonight that it's likely that Bolton MBC have cut their funding to Bolton Wildlife Project by 100% (hope it's not the case; perhaps someone out there knows differently?) and I thought it might be useful to start a thread where people can report what they hear is happening in their areas from local papers etc. as bad news like this is not reported on the councils' websites! We can then get a clear picture of what's happening. I've also heard that Rock Hall at Moses Gate CP is closing completely. In Rochdale 7 of 11 ranger posts are going and the running of the Hollingworth Lake VC will be undertaken by an outside body (Friends of Hollingworth Lake is one of the organisations which is interested). Once upon a time we might have found out about cuts like these through the Greater Manchester Wildlife Working Group - where the voluntary sector came into contact with the professionals in each of the boroughs. Sadly, since Anne GreatRex left, this has been discontinued. Cuts in the police announced today might also mean that there will be less Wildlife Liaison Officers.
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Judith Smith
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Lightshaw hall Flash is sacrosanct - NO paths please!
