Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely highlighted the importance of the Island’s natural heritage and called for Island-wide environmental protections during a recent Parliamentary debate on Public Access to Nature.
He pointed out during the debate, which was held last Thursday (18th May), that the Government has committed to protecting 30% of Britain’s land by 2030 and urged the Minister to consider an ‘Island Park’ designation to protect the Island.
Bob explained:
“There is a very strong case for introducing an Island designation in our landscape protection, and I believe it should be introduced first in the Isle of Wight because of the uniqueness of our environment, the uniqueness of our habitats, the uniqueness of our wildlife and the uniqueness of our geology.”
“In UK designations, more than half our land is an AONB, which I believe is wrongly parcelled into different areas. If we are to treat one bit of countryside as a unified entity, surely it should be an island, and therefore it should surely be the Isle of Wight.”
“An Island park designation would see the Island as a single ecological and environmental entity. Access to nature would be provided wherever necessary, respecting the law, but it would primarily function for the benefit of the nature recovery plan.”
In his speech, Bob discussed the importance and diversity of the Island’s flora, fauna and habitats.
“Our landscape and seascape include: broad-leaf mixed and yew woodland; maritime cliff and slope; lowland calcareous grassland; coastal and floodplain grazing marsh; lowland meadows; reedbeds; lowland dry acidic grassland; fens; lowland heathland; the chalk downs that provide the spine of the Island, from Bembridge on one side to the Needles all the way over in the west; saline lagoons; mudflats; coastal sand dunes, and coastal vegetated shingle.”
Article continues below this advertisement “We are also home to many different species, some of which are unique to the Isle of Wight. Importantly, we have species on the Island, some of them flourishing, that are near-extinct in other parts of the United Kingdom. Those include red squirrels, dormice and water voles, because we do not have grey squirrels or lots of escaped mink.”
“Our specialised flora includes early gentian, which is found in Wiltshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight; field cow-wheat, which is present in only a few locations in the country; and wood calamint, which we have in a single dry chalk valley on the Island. For insects, the Island is the sole British location of the Glanville fritillary butterfly and the reddish buff moth. About a decade ago, we rediscovered the bee hawk-moth in part of the Island.”
Bat species on the Island which are relatively rare in the UK include Bechstein’s bat, grey long-eared bat and greater horseshoe bat. The Island’s shores and marine conservation zones support populations of spiny seahorse, short-snouted seahorse, native oyster, peacock’s tail and stalked jellyfish.
Bob discussed the Island’s cultural heritage and named a number of important historical figures whose work was inspired by the natural beauty of the Island, including Lord Tennyson, John Keats, and J. M. W. Turner.
Addressing the Minister for Natural Environment and Land Use, Trudy Harrison MP, Bob outlined the need to protect the Island’s landscape, permitting homes primarily for Islanders, and ruling out large-scale, unsustainable housing developments on greenfield land.
Concluding the debate, Minister Trudy Harrison MP said:
“The Isle of Wight is perhaps the winner here today for the promotion of nature.”
If this means environmental disasters like the proposed Penny Feathers development will be stopped then lets hope Bob actually achieves success this time!
Could Bob actually stop a Bus at a Bus Stop.
Come on Bob say it properly. The island should be a National Park. The developers won’t like it but they can go hang themselves.
Bob,stop talking a load of shite.
You should be ensuring that the ferry services to & from the IOW are fair & realistic & also ensuring the capital town Newport has a post office & then you can feast with your Tory friends in Seaview over a full sausage.without breaking any rules or being fined for doing so which you should have been having consumed only ‘half a sausage’
Not sure why people down voted this so much? It all seems like fair stuff he should be doing.
Is this the same Bob Seely that voted in favour of allowing water companies to continue dumping raw sewage into our waterways? Surely not …
Yes, the same thats been busy trying to protect big cats for his friends at Sandown Zoo, rather than focus on lack of health or dental care for his human constituents.
Bungling Bob, saying the words but doing sod all. I think you might find that it is not the wildlife that are eligable to vote but the people of the island, not matter how animal like they are. Start by doing something about the hospital and the over inflated managers inside it, running like it is there “holiday talkshop” the council who are corrupt and on the take every chance they get, and the rip off ferry companies, but no that will never happen will it Bob.
Ahh, old Half Sausage Seely,.. found another ‘cause’ to try to achieve some recognition from….
I’m sure his representations will, as usual, be a useful as a chocolate fire-guard…
Mind you, he does, at least, seem to try somewhat harder than his predecessor,..
even if his is just as misguided and useless….
I totally support this. We need to stop the plebs from crawling all over our countryside. They just bring their own savers ice creams, drop litter and let their dogs poop everywhere.
I also propose we build a batcave for the bats and charge entry. We could employ a Batman to look after them. He could fight crime on his days off.