Fear of Being 'Structinised'

Officers and Managers are now so scared of being questioned face to face that they duck out of it completely. Consultation is something to be avoided or side-stepped.  Below is an email dating from 5th January this year from Annabelle Kennedy of Sheffield Wildlife Trust to Jenny Campbell of Natural England who had been pressing her for information on when SWT would have their application ready for the Higher Level Stewardship scheme. It was obtained using Freedom of Information. Annabelle’s name had been redacted but it couldn’t be anyone else. (If she chooses to contact me to say it was not her I’ll gladly change this!)

Hi - I have started the FEP as I wasn't anticipating consulting on that. I was aiming to get it done by spring (2012!). Though I haven't got into the meaty bits yet anhd to be honest, still getting my head around it!
This is a hard one. I was fully intending to have the HLS as good as finished as a draft this summer, and then cross-checking it with the management plan consultation results and tweaking accordingly if need be.
I was considering then possibly making the application available to the public for information (and comments welcome) rather than calling it for consultation if you see what I mean. I don;t think consulting on the HLS is appropriate. By consultation I mean discussions around it's formation which would not work.
This could mean we have an agreement in place for Oct but I was hoping there would be a bit more rein to allow some flexibility and so it gives the message that the management planning process has informed the HLS Agreement. I know this will be structinised.

Are the starting dates either 1st Oct or 1st April?

Are HLS agreements made avalable on line to the public anyway?

Annabelle had previously committed at a RAG meeting to a proper consultation on the management plan and the HLS. Since then there have been second thoughts. In this she’s no different to all the timid officers responsible for the supposed consultation on the SMP Master Plan who prefer to hide away from view and scrutiny (that’s the word) and just tell the public they can send comments in. That’s because they’ve discovered that it’s hard to cope with people who know what they are talking about. Rather a problem for those who don’t.

Is there any other reason for saying 'I know this will be structinised (sic)'  than that it would be easy to get away with something unjustifiable if it wasn't (scrutinised) ?

Remember, this is all about public money in the form of public grants relating to management of public land. The level of manipulation to get what they want is astonishing. We can only guess at the strategems they will use to get the management plan they want. We already know a few of them.

Processing the Moors

Who prefers processed food to the real article? The answer is some do but few admit to it. Among those who say they do are inevitably those engaged in the food processing industry. In business few ‘do a Ratner’.

So we should not expect the farming industry and the conservation industry to speak up against their own interests. It’s up to us.


The moors around Sheffield are processed nature and processed landscape. The vested interests spend our public money telling us that the landscape and its vegetation should be managed (read processed) and that it’s good for us that it is. They use specious slogans like ‘A Cherished and Working Landscape’ and misleading spin with words like ‘wild’ and wilderness to describe land that’s among the most managed and controlled in the country. They are shameless in pursuing what they want. A grouse moor described as a wilderness is brazen propaganda directed at the ignorant: In the same class as the marketing of processed food to the masses including children.

There are attractive managed landscapes but not here. Those need some artistry such as the landscape gardening attached to many stately homes.

Blacka Moor's advantage is that we can still find raw elements that feed our imagination.

There is only one week left to let Sheffield Moors partnership know what we think about their Master Plan to over-manage a large area of our countryside. If you’ve not done so do it now.

Muted

Minus the sun it could have been disappointing.

But the muted colours of autumn still appeal. This time it's in the eastern woods,

Webs in Trees

Some mornings the low shrubs of bilberry and heather are covered in webs. Different spiders may choose different days.

 It's true we only notice them when mist leaves beads of water on them. The elegant symmetrical webs that every child draws were not to be seen this morning.

The asymmetrical ones were and many of them in trees. So maybe a different species.

Eating

No time for relaxing. Mist creates an appetite.

Close up pictures show the food in their mouths. I can't identify it. It surely can't be brown dead bracken?

Relaxing

You can't be eating all the time.

Being Watched

All the photos posted yesterday were more than a year old. So something of a coincidence this morning. Once again most people would not have noticed this.

Normal view:

Zoomed view: