Beef To Come

The highest parts this morning were about as cheery as a weekend in Scarborough with the wind off the north sea.

The path over Blacka Hill is only just beginning to get some green cover. It has taken this long for it to recover from the wear and tear caused by the cattle last year. They will be back within days to cause further damage. A notice has gone up at gateways:



The part I really like is this sentence:

"During 5 years of consultation and research a number of options to conserve the moorland have been investigated, and cattle grazing has been found to be the better option."

Now I have been critical of SWT in the past but you have to hand it to them. For sheer barefaced deviousness this takes the biscuit. In one sentence they have managed to illustrate just why people dislike them so much. Anyone who can lie so easily deserves to have a job in government. Some points:


1 SWT decided to put cattle on Blacka in 2001 and have never considered doing anything else.
2 Each time that a member of their consultation panel tried to get it discussed and alternatives considered SWT tried to avoid any discussion or serious scrutiny of their plans to graze with cattle. This they continued to do until 2005. There was never "5 years of consultation and research" or even one year, because they have admitted they never intended to do anything else.
3 Only in 2005 after a petition of 761 signatures was collected on the moor did they set up a new consultation process.
4 Even then they tried to prevent discussion of cattle grazing in this new (Icarus) consultation by manipulations behind the scenes.
5 They failed to prevent the Icarus consultation considering cattle grazing because of the strength of argument from those opposed.
6 They were told by members of the public that they should have a Grazing Impact Assessment. They had never heard of such a thing, despite it being standard practice in conservation! In some panic they commissioned one from an outside group making sure that it was understood it would have to support their plan!
7 The Icarus process showed a lot of support for the alternative from Friends of Blacka Moor whereupon SWT pulled the plug and ignored the Icarus recommendations.


These are the facts. I now suggest we all go back and read that sentence from the notice again:

"During 5 years of consultation and research a number of options to conserve the moorland have been investigated, and cattle grazing has been found to be the better option."