Nature declaration

TAMWORTH Borough

Council has made a nature recovery declaration, declaring nature is in crisis and committing to its recovery, vowing to to “make a real difference locally”.

Members of Tamworth Borough Council’s cabinet unanimously voted in favour of the declaration.

Thomas Jay, acting leader of the council, said: “We are obviously experiencing a nature crisis. Data confirms that.

“Forty one per cent of wild species are in decline nationally and 15 per cent are actually facing extinction. The government has made legally binding commitments to end these declines and for nature to recover. This is important for nature’s own sake and for all the things we rely on nature for like clean water, food production et cetera.

“There is an act of government, the Environment Act 2021, which seeks to address the state of nature in the UK, seeking to halt its decline and offer a net gain of biodiversity towards nature recovery by 2050 and a further target to reverse the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030. Committing to this through a nature recovery declaration would obligate the council to undertake targeted actions to make a real difference locally.

“Bodies including the Wildlife Trust and Staffordshire Sustainability Board are keen for local authorities to make a commitment to nature’s recovery by implementing a nature recovery declaration and many authorities across Staffordshire have already made such a declaration.

“The recommendation tonight is simply that the borough council makes a nature recovery declaration. This went through scrutiny committee and was well received there.

“By declaring this tonight most responsible authorities would take between a year, a year and a half, to put together a strategy and publish it. So by March 2025 we would then have a strategy to put these things all together.”

FLOOD alerts are in place in and around Tamworth after heavy rainfall in recent days.

As we went to press four Environment Agency alerts were in place for Lower Tame, Middle Tame, River Anker and River Sence and Bourne Brook.

For the first it says: “River levels are forecast to rise at the Hopwas Bridge river gauge as a result of heavy rainfall. Consequently, flooding of roads and farmland is possible. We expect flooding to affect low-lying land and roads adjacent to the River Tame between Hopwas and the National Arboretum.

“We are closely monitoring the situation. Our incident response staff are actively checking river levels and the weather forecast and clearing weed screens.

“Please plan driving routes to avoid low lying roads near rivers, which may be flooded and avoid using low lying footpaths and bridges near local watercourses.”

On Middle Tame it says: “River levels have risen as forecast at the Water

Orton river gauge as a result of heavy rainfall. Consequently, the risk of flooding remains. Flooding is affecting low-lying land and roads between Water Orton and Tamworth including the Bourne Brook at Fazeley.

“Please avoid using low lying footpaths and bridges near local watercourses and stay aware in case further warnings are issued.”

The Anker warning says: “River levels have risen as forecast at the Temple Mill river gauge as a result of heavy rainfall. Consequently, the risk of