Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
Damien Moore raises concerns about the importance of urban green spaces for biodiversity and highlights a local issue regarding Sefton Council's plans to reduce vegetation along pavements.
What steps his Department is taking to support biodiversity and rewilding in local urban communities. Local urban communities such as Southport benefit enormously from trees, shrubbery and other green spaces that promote biodiversity and rewilding, but there are strong concerns among my constituents that Sefton Council is planning to cut back the greenery along Southport's pavements and replace it with concrete blocks for cycle lanes.
Through our local nature recovery strategies, we will identify local priorities for nature recovery including urban areas. We are investing £750 million through the nature for climate fund and urge my hon Friend to look at funding available like the local authority treescapes fund and the urban tree challenge fund.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific plan by Sefton Council was not addressed, and there is no commitment to support Moore's attempts to prevent nature destruction.
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
Sefton Council is considering replacing vegetation along Southport's pavements with concrete blocks, raising concerns among the local community about biodiversity loss.
Local urban communities such as Southport benefit enormously from trees, shrubbery and other green spaces that promote biodiversity and rewilding, but there are strong concerns among my constituents that Sefton Council is planning to cut back the greenery along Southport's pavements and replace it with concrete blocks for cycle lanes. So will my hon Friend support my attempts to fight this nature crime—a potential tree massacre—by Labour-controlled Sefton Council?
Through our Environment Act 2021, we have a strengthened duty on local authorities to assess what they can do to further conservation and biodiversity. We also have that world-leading target to halt the decline in nature. I urge my hon Friend to work with the council and get it to do more; it could replace those concrete blocks with hedges which would help tackle air pollution.
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Assessment & feedback
While encouraging engagement, there is no direct support for Moore's efforts or a commitment against replacing vegetation with concrete blocks.
Response accuracy
Q3
Partial Answer
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Context
The UN Biodiversity COP15 is imminent, focusing on halting global biodiversity loss.
How bio- diversity and renaturing is undertaken in the UK will be guided by the convention on biological diversity. Biodiversity has experienced a catastrophic collapse globally. The United Nations biodiversity COP15 is shortly to resume. What are the Government's strategic goals at COP15? What equivalent headline target is there to the net zero target at COP26, which is well understood in local urban communities and across the UK?
We have a strengthened duty on local authorities to assess what they can do to further conservation and biodiversity. The aim of the CBD is to get as many countries as possible to sign up to that.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific strategic goals at COP15 were not outlined, and there was no mention of a headline target equivalent to net zero.
Response accuracy