The government is putting pressure on wildlife organisations to drop their opposition to its planning bill, the Guardian has learned.
Some of Britain’s biggest nature charities including the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust say the legislation risks widespread destruction of nature. The charities want a key section of the legislation, part 3, scrapped entirely because they say it is a “licence to kill nature”.
Leading figures from the organisations were summoned by the government to a meeting last Friday where officials put forward nine amendments to the language of the bill, which they say offer greater environmental protections. In return for accepting these, ministers want the nature groups to stop their campaign, the Guardian has established from several sources.