A disappointment on burning regulations

Earlier this week, we had a disappointment when the Court of Appeal did not give us permission to appeal the refusal of our case against the Westminster government on its feeble burning regulations.

We have taken this challenge as far as we can and we are very disappointed that, in this case, the courts have not been helpful in holding DEFRA to account. We still believe that we had a strong case (otherwise we would not have persevered with it) and that the decision that DEFRA made on limiting burning on blanket bogs was not only cowardly and feeble in its scope but unlawful in the way that it was made. But we haven’t persuaded the courts of our case.

Protecting upland habitats from damage, and protecting the carbon stored in peatlands, will remain an area of importance and interest to Wild Justice, as it is to many other environmental organisations. Greater limits to burning on peatland soils should be brought in, and we’ll be working with others to bring this about as soon as possible.