Conservatives challenge government estate donation

1 hour ago

Evie LakeNorth East and Cumbria

News image — Wildlife groups are fundraising £30m to buy the Rothbury Estate

Duncan Hutt Rolling hills with fields and blocks of forest form the background of a view taken from the top of a hill with large stones in the foreground. There is heather growing on the side of the rocks in the bottom-left corner. — Wildlife groups are fundraising £30m to buy the Rothbury Estate

Local Conservatives have challenged the government's £1.9m donation to help conservation groups buy a vast upland estate.

The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust are raising £30m to acquire the 9,500-acre Rothbury Estate in its entirety as part of plans to boost wildlife, restore bogs and promote nature-friendly farming.

But as the groups close in on the target, chairman of Northumberland Conservatives, Guy Renner-Thompson, said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) should instead focus its support on "our farmers and fishermen".

Nature minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter said purchase of the site would benefit local communities.

Earlier this year, tenant farmer Chris Armstrong, who oversees 1,000 acres (405 hectares) close to the Rothbury site, told the BBC local opinion was split with most of the farming community seeing it as a "folly".

Duncan Hutt The Simonside Hills are in the centre of the background, rising in a dome shape and covered with brown bracken. In the foreground is a stone with water gathering in holes. — The land includes the Simonside Hills in Northumberland

Renner-Thompson said the government had "its priorities wrong", referencing difficulties farmers had faced accessing sustainable farming incentive (SFI) funding.

"Defra should be focusing on its support of our farmers and fishermen, the people producing our food and sustaining Northumberland's rural and coastal communities," he said.

The Rothbury Estate sale has attracted support from the likes of Sir David Attenborough and the window for public donations is open until the end of the week.

If successful, the organisations claimed there would be the potential to develop a "40 mile nature recovery corridor stretching from the North East coast to Kielder on the central Scottish border".

Renner-Thompson challenged ministers to stipulate if any conditions would accompany the grant and how farmers and food production would be protected.

"We support investment that benefits nature and our communities," he said.

"But that does not put this particular purchase beyond scrutiny."

Riddell-Carpenter said: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure one of England's biggest and most wildlife-rich landscapes for nature recovery and for the benefit of local communities.

"That's why the government is stepping in to help The Wildlife Trusts secure the future of the Rothbury Estate, after thousands of members of the public pledged their support."

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