Nature is facing a serious threat. The government’s new Planning & Infrastructure Bill could lead to the destruction of protected wildlife sites and the loss of vital environmental protections. 

At Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, we believe these changes go against the promises made to restore nature and protect our countryside. Our CEO, Andrew McLaughlin, has written to Gloucestershire’s seven local MPs to express his deep concern — and we’re encouraging you to do the same. 

Here is Andrew’s letter: 

Dear MP, 

I hope that you are keeping well. I writing to you because I am deeply concerned that the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, in its current form, represents a betrayal of the Government’s promises to protect and restore nature. 

As this article from yesterday’s Guardian highlights (Revealed: 5,000 English nature sites at risk under Labour’s planning proposals),  the current form of the Bill is an egregious attack on nature that threatens to overturn hard-won protections for communities and wildlife. 

The Government is attempting to bounce this Bill through parliament with misleading claims about its benefits for wildlife and significant misunderstandings about the protections that are being lost.  

Please can you ask Ministers to remove Part 3 of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill so we can make sure that the Government’s planning reforms deliver the growth and developments that people need, whilst also benefitting wildlife and wild places of Gloucestershire.   

Part 3 of the Bill replaces key environmental protections with a weaker substitute, described by the Government’s own nature watchdog as ‘environmentally regressive’ and which puts irreplaceable habitats and threatened species at risk. The Government say this will resolve development delays, but they have been unable to provide the evidence for this. 

The false claims that nature is a 'blocker' to economic growth, made repeatedly by the Chancellor, are based on a failure to understand how nature underpins our economy, and boosts people’s health. This contempt for nature is evident in wider Treasury decisions, including threats to cut support for nature-friendly farming and money raised from water company fines to restore polluted rivers instead earmarked for general Treasury funds.  

There is still time to change course. Please ask the Government to remove Part 3 of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill to prevent environmental regression - which will harm the natural world, people and the economy itself. 

People thrive with nature nearby, and the benefits are felt in our economy and our society. The Government had committed to ‘save Britain’s beautiful countryside and reverse the tide of destruction of the natural environment’, but the current approach led by the Chancellor leaves this promise in tatters and betrays millions of people. 

Yours sincerely, 

Andrew McLaughlin CEO, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust 

How you can help  

• Tweet(X)/Facebook your MP Let them know this issue matters to you. A short message can go a long way.
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• Write to your MP Use our action page to send an email and ask them to oppose Part 3 of the Bill. 

Nature can’t speak for itself — but we can. Now is the time to stand up for our wild places. 

Find out more: gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/planning-and-infrastructure-bill 

Fix the Planning Bill now! Email your MP