BACK TO HOME PAGE     BACK TO CONTENTS     GO TO UPDATES

SAVE PENWITH MOORS

(updated 19/11/2011)

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE STAND FOR

At the beginning of July 2008 a small group of concerned local residents came together under the name of Save Penwith Moors [SPM] to encourage and co-ordinate opposition to plans by Natural England to install barbed wire fencing, gates and cattle grids on previously unobstructed open access local moorland under the HEATH Project, prior to introducing grazing animals as part of a Higher Level Stewardship [HLS] ‘conservation grazing’ scheme, both of these schemes involving large sums of money.

But Save Penwith Moors does not campaign against all new fencing and grazing. We limited ourselves to a few specific areas that were all well known to us for many decades and that constitute the physical and spiritual heartland of the Land's End Peninsula with its many prehistoric sites - areas that are amongst the most popular recreational 'wilderness' areas of moorland for both locals and tourists on whom so much of the local economy depends.

Initially we concerned ourselves with Carnyorth Common (1), Nine Maidens Common (5), Men-an-Tol & Lanyon Quoit Crofts (6), and Carn Galva (4) but later, after the Nine Maidens commoners decided not the join the HEATH Project, we added the National Trust property of Watch Croft/Trevean (3). Now that new information has come to hand we have also added Higher/Chun Downs (2).

These areas amount to about 2.5% of the Natural England HLS target area for Penwith – we do not feel this is an unreasonable request.

The spring, summer and autumn of 2008 saw protests grow dramatically with St Just Town Council voting against the fencing of Carnyorth Common and, after major stock proofing works began in early November, a Heathlands Forum was initiated by the former Penwith District Council (after representations from SPM) to open discussions between interested parties.

During 2009 it became obvious that several HEATH Project stock proofing works might be unlawful or, at least, unacceptable and after complaints by SPM these had to be remedied. We then complained to the Heritage Lottery Fund (one of the HEATH fund providers; the other larger one being the European Regional Development Fund) that money had, allegedly, been wasted.

We also complained to NE and various government ministers that local communities in West Penwith had never been consulted over HEATH Project intentions, even though Natural England [NE] had been the Lead Partner in what was a multi-euro publicly funded project with partners in the UK, France and Holland.

Following a failure to resolve this issue  we submitted a complaint in July 2010 to the Parliamentary Ombudsman [PO] through our local MP. This alleged maladministration by Natural England that could brings the lawfulness of HEATH Project works into question. NE attempted to resolve these issues but a response received at the end of January proved to be totally unsatisfactory and the issue was returned to the Ombudsman for assessment but they did not find in our favour. The issue has now been progressed to a Review of the Ombudsman's decision.

We now campaign for:

CARNYORTH COMMON

  1. Permanent removal of grazing animals.

  2. Removal of all HEATH Project stock proofing as well as old redundant fencing dating from mid-1980’s.

  3. Replacement of current HLS agreement with an agri-environment scheme that excludes grazing animals.

WATCH CROFT

  1. Removal of all HEATH Project stock proofing.

  2. Any new agri-environmental scheme to exclude grazing animals.

CARN GALVA

  1. Removal of all HEATH Project stock proofing.

  2. Any new agri-environmental scheme to exclude grazing animals.

LANYON FARM (Men-an-Tol and Lanyon Quoit Crofts)

  1. Removal of all HEATH Project stock proofing as well as old redundant fencing dating from c.1970’s.

  2. Any new agri-environmental scheme to exclude grazing animals.

HIGHER/CHUN DOWNS: No new stock proofing or grazing.

 

CLICK HERE for 'WHAT IS THE PROBLEM'

CLICK HERE for 'WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP'