Friday 1 April 2011

Sheffield Moors Partnership

The career conservationists were out in numbers last night to attend the South West Community Assembly meeting at Tapton School. Primed by RSPB/Eastern Moors Partnership to be there to support their bid to expand onto the Sheffield Moors this was an effective show of force on the part of the conservation industry locally. The planning of the campaign has been pretty well orchestrated and there was little doubt that councillors would be easily persuaded. It is pretty rare anyway for our councillors to make anything of a go at scrutinising anything that's put to them. There may have been some achievement in our getting them to insist that a consultation should go on in which the people of Sheffield would be considered stakeholders. My impression is that the bird people were not too happy with this and would obviously have preferred a quick fix. There had been signs all the way through that attempts would be made to jump people into this decision. This is a tactic often used by officers to bounce elected members into making rash decisions characterised by the use of phrases like a "window of opportunity" and "unique chance"; I've even heard "once in a lifetime". It is then not long after that local people realise the implications of a decision that was not properly examined by those whose job should be to shine a sceptical light on every proposal. I remember SWT's clever wheeze eleven years ago when they told us that Heritage Lottery Fund had ring-fenced funds available for grants to wildlife trusts but Sheffield would have to hand over Blacka Moor and other places for the sites to get the benefit of the funds. HLF told me indignantly that any organisation including the council was eligible for that money. We now seem to have a new organisation called the Sheffield Moors Partnership. These conservation exploiters do like to stick together telling the same story of how the land has to be managed - Ah there's grants in them there hills.

3 comments:

Mark Fisher said...

It would seem the RSPB think its a done deal. The Sheffield RSPB group have a meeting on the 3rd November entitled "The Future of the Eastern Moors Estate" - by Danny Udall

Here is part of the blurb for the meeting:

The Partnership has been gathering the public’s views on the future of Sheffield Moors on behalf of Sheffield City Council. Danny Udall, of the Eastern Moors Partnership, said: 'These two massive areas of upland are amazing places, with awe-inspiring scenery, beautiful walks, breath-taking climbing edges and some pretty amazing wildlife – all on the fringes of Sheffield. We are committed to managing this land in such a way that it provides amazing benefits for people and the environment".

Neil said...

Thanks for this Mark. I'm sure they think SCC are an easy touch and there's plenty of evidence. How often does an officer go along to elected members with a scheme and get told it won't do? The answer is hardly ever. I can think of one councillor who is independent enough to make a difference by insisting on scrutinising properly. He makes a pretty decent job of chairing planning. (He was at the meeting on Thursday and insisted all Sheffield people should be considered stakeholders.) But the others do not seem to have a scepticism gene between them.

Geordierunner said...

You're probably right about this. I wasn't at the meeting and I don't know much about RSPB's approach to managing land. You could be right. But remember that the Eastern Moors Estate is the area of land further over to the South West, heading down towards Chatsworth, which RSPB and National Trust already manage. The RSPB local group meeting might be no more worrying than an opportunity to hear about what's already going on and already planned for the next bit over (and nothing to do with the moors closer to Sheffield).