Nurturing nature

Yet, while Britain’s changing demographics will threaten, still further, areas of open space around the region’s major towns and cities, the value – and importance – of the natural environment needs to be recognised by planners.

This is borne out by Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman’s commendable plans to put the environment, and a desire to nurture wildlife, at the heart of the policy framework – a decision that coincides with fresh concerns about the decline of the cuckoo population.

A day out in the countryside is both refreshing and reinvigorating. So, too, are trips to the local park – or placing feeders in the garden to attract birds. As this White Paper shows, individuals have it within their power to encourage natural habitats. Equally, however, there must be an onus on the Government, and local planners, to ensure that measures to encourage the natural environment are championed at all times.