Town & Country

Clear up the chaos

LAST week, leading rural organisations called on Defra Secretary George Eustice to return the wildlife-licensing system back to central Government control. Wildlife licences, currently run by Natural England, are required to enable land managers to ‘undertake work to conserve species and habitats’, say the organisations, which have labelled the current system as ‘chaotic’.

A new paper, titled Wildlife Licensing in England: Chaos, Crisis and Cure, catalogues what its authors describe as a ‘litany of errors and delays by Natural England, brought about by an unwieldly wildlife-licensing system that must change to become more efficient, effective and cheaper’. The paper was written jointly by the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, the Moorland Association and the Countryside Alliance. The authors say it includes examples of flawed licences issued by Natural England, how Defra policy is interpreted incorrectly or ignored and details of delays to licences that have resulted in direct damage to some of England’s most precious wildlife sites.

‘Wildlife licences are a cog