Archived press release

Peat-cutting to continue on top wildlife site despite 17 million Government deal

7 October 2005

Peat extraction is set to continue on one of the country's top wildlife sites, despite assurances that peat-cutting would cease in 2004 following a £17 million Government deal, Friends of the Earth has learnt. The news comes as Environment Minister Elliot Morley visits the site, Hatfield Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Protection Area (SPA) and Special Area of Conservation (SAC), near Doncaster, to celebrate the success of the deal [1].

On the 27 February 2002, English Nature announced [2] that "the Scotts Company has agreed the early handover of the largest ever area of UK peatland to English Nature for regeneration". Following the deal, English Nature agreed to pay Scotts £17 million of tax-payers money for the company's interests at three sites: Thorne Moors, South Yorkshire and Wedholme Flow, Cumbria where work ceased immediately; and Hatfield Moors, where "extraction will cease on half of the moor with the remainder being handed over to English Nature by 2004".

But Friends of the Earth has learnt that under the deal Scotts retained ownership and peat extraction rights for around 30 hectares of the SSSI/SPA/SAC and has recently signaled its intention to commence peat cutting again [3].

Friends of the Earth habitat campaigner Craig Bennett said:

"Three years ago the Government and Scotts proudly told us that they had reached a £17 million agreement to end peat cutting on Hatfield Moor by the end of 2004. Now we discover that there is a big hole in that deal and that Scotts are about to drive a bulldozer right through it. This isn't the environmental victory we celebrated three years ago.

"It's outrageous that this American corporation, which has already taken £17.3m from the UK taxpayer, is set to continue digging up one of Britain's most precious wildlife sites. It is time this company walked away from Hatfield Moor for once and for all. And it is time that the UK Government stood up to businesses that benefit from destroying the environment."

Notes

1. www.defra.gov.uk/news/2005/051007a.htm

2. www.english-nature.org.uk/news/story.asp?ID=342

3. Doncaster Borough Council Planning Department. Contact Lois Astley in the PR department on 01302 734 015.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust