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Statutory Protection for Trees and Parks

Ancient tree

Occasionally we come across things which we know are not right. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has stated that protected trees are only protected if the local authority wishes that to be the case and the local authority can withdraw protected tree status when it best suits them.

Grade listed parks are in name only and they have no protection. This was the case when The London Borough of Tower Hamlets approved the private development within a grade II listed park in the borough.

There must be protection afforded to the environment like that of grade listed buildings. It seems damaging to the status of protection if it does not mean what it says. The East London Garden Society therefore raised a national petition for greater protection of our environment. The following is the Government's response to the petition.

The Environmental Audit Committee has published its report on UK Biodiversity: Bloom or Bust, which calls for the Government to conserve and restore UK biodiversity and ecosystems. The report is published amid grave concern that of the G7 countries, the UK has the lowest level of biodiversity remaining.

The MPs on the Committee found that existing Government policy and targets were inadequate to address plummeting biodiversity loss. This is made worse by nature policy not being joined up across Government, nor is nature protection consistently factored into policy making.

Some key recommendations made by the Committee include:

What happens next?

The Government now must respond to the Committee's report, which was published on 30 June 2021, within two months. The Committee will publish the Government’s response.

What is the Environmental Audit Committee?

The Environmental Audit Committee is a cross-party group of non-Government MPs who look into how Government policies and departments contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development.

You can follow the Committee’s updates on Twitter.