Meeting With Your MP About Biodiversity and the Environment
Our eNews of 18 March encouraged us to contact our MPs over the Planning and Infrastructure Bill that applies mainly to England and Wales and this item is on the website. CIEEM’s response to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is very useful background.
Writing to an MP is not the sort of thing most of us are used to doing. But it does allow us use our professional knowledge to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues. CIEEM has published a guide on how to do this and this is a real help. The UK Parliament website is very easy to use to find your MP with lots of details about their voting record, spoken contributions and written questions.
Recently, I had a meeting with my MP as a result of raising specific issues about bats and great crested newts because of the statement by Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she was interviewed on television and radio at the end of January. One sentence really caught my eye “The balance has gone too far in the direction of always protecting every bat and every newt.” This statement made me write the email that resulted in a ten minute online meeting with my MP.
I think it is best to raise no more than a couple of specific points with your MP that you can explain clearly because you have direct experience of a particular issue or project or species or habitat. It helps to identify as an example something which is in the constituency because both you and the MP have this in common. In my case, I have a lot of experience of GCNs and habitat restoration and translocation. I was able to point to the strategic district licence for GCNs that my local authority pioneered in 2020. This strategic licence has undoubtedly made it easier for developers in my constituency. At the same time, it has resulted in enhancements for the key GCN sites. My MP was aware of this district licence and I used this as example of how development and biodiversity and the environment could all be winners. My email was about 200 words long.
What was the outcome of the meeting? My MP has written to the Chancellor and I await the response. I have had a meeting with my MP who has written to the Chancellor. Each of these actions makes such people think about the environment and about biodiversity.
Go on. Have a go. Write to your MP.
About the author
John Box is a CIEEM Fellow and was President from 2012-2015. John chairs the Action 2030 working group which provides challenge and advice to CIEEM on the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis.
Contact John at john.box@knowlebox.co.uk
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