Badgers still under threat despite government’s Planning Bill Amendments
Badger Trust, alongside other leading NGOs, has been in talks with the government seeking critical amendments to the proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill. As a result, the government has proposed a series of amendments it claims will strengthen safeguards for nature in the Bill.
However, whilst some look positive, none address our primary and urgent concern: the weakening of the Protection of Badgers Act.These amendments would still permit the killing of badgers and the destruction of their setts for development or in the interest of an undefined term, ‘overriding public interest’, which is destined to be problematic and contentious.
Even the positive-sounding amendments turn out not to be legally binding on the Government, so nature organisations and we suspect Ministers, have once again been misled.
None of the amendments will prevent bulldozers from destroying the habitats or the Badgers, Bats, Birds, or any other wild animals that call them home, and there will certainly be no requirement to save them
As a result, Badger Trust has not signed up to support these amendments.
“We will never sign any agreements that reduce Badgers’ legal protections, which remain critical with the threats they face from this government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill. This is a greater threat than the cruel and ineffective Badger culls that have devastated Badger populations for over a decade.”
Badger Trust Chief Executive, Nigel Palmer.
