Malcolm Tait

Thank you to everyone at the @thetcpa.bsky.social who helped with this event, especially Hugh Ellis and Jeanette Aves. We had a packed room, eager to talk about renewing the purpose for planning. We're looking forward to taking the purpose we created out to the wider world!

🥾 Just shy of 200 people joined us up at Moscar Moor today to mark the start of the shooting season and united around our call for this huge grouse shooting estate in the Peak District to be taken into community ownership.

And lovely to see the data and code available under a CC0 licence too! doi.org/10.5061/drya...

Completely agree - a garden is never going to replicate specialised habitats. I guess the message of providing as wide a mix as possible of plants, shrubs, and habitats is good tho, and gets us beyond the argument that all insects require is a patch of Rudbeckia!

Gardeners urged to collaborate to help moths and hover flies thrive in cities Researchers found moths and hover flies are more negatively affected by urbanisation than bees

Fascinating research from colleagues at @sheffielduni.bsky.social on impact of urbanization on moth and hoverfly populations

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

For thousands of years, we have been parasitised, exploited and destroyed by elites. Our survival depends on overthrowing them.
Fascinating article by @dpcarrington.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

And another example from the French Alps where the marmots gamble, but where there aren't meadows full of Monarch butterflies!

Chapman, K. & Tait, M., (2025) “Commodification, labor, abstraction: Three key concepts to understand the many-headed hydra of biodiversity offsetting”, Journal of Political Ecology 32(1): 6186. doi: doi.org/10.2458/jpe....

@pollenetwork.bsky.social

Really looking forward to it!

I am looking forward to discussing why the UK is so crap at looking after #biodiversity at the Byline Festival with Alexa Culver, @kitstoner.bsky.social, @malcolmtait.bsky.social and @carexnigra.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social
Visit the website to find out more: lnkd.in/eXfAnf3k

Our response to Defra’s consultation on improving the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain for minor, medium and brownfield development Read our response to the consultation here

Read our response to Defra's consultation on improving the implementation of #Biodiversity Net Gain for minor, medium and Brownfield development.

@skomerisland.bsky.social just put a BRILLIANT gay birds post up on Facebook, in celebration of Pride. And they are copping hate for it in the comments.

So please lets show them some love on here by dropping them a follow and a supportive tweet!

Mine truly captures the majesty of these creatures. Let's see who wins!

Michael Chessum | Uggly Fences ‘Can’t you ping elsewhere?’ The question, daubed on the twelve-foot green fences encircling much of Brockwell Park...

"the struggle between local residents and festivalgoers deserves less scrutiny than the tensions between austerity, profit and urban public space." @michaelchessum.bsky.social on Brockwell Park and YIMBYism

Uggly Fences www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...

Battleship grey of the battleship of a moth - the Poplar Hawk-moth

I thought at the time of the Spring Statement that the OBR estimates on housebuilding were extremely optimistic...

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Triangular shaped moth with light brown and green camouflage markings resting on stone.

Triangular moth with green-brown and pink markings resting on stone

A nice couple of moths yesterday: Lime Hawkmoth and Elephant Hawkmoth. Both relatively common, but nonetheless very beautiful

It was great to speak on this great podcast. Excellent hosting from @itsbethperry.bsky.social and @goodfellowtom.bsky.social - we covered a lot in a short time, including the problematic way that the government is talking about newts and bats blocking development!

A new kind of gentrification is spreading through London – and emptying out schools | Anna Minton Thanks to ‘placemaking’, thriving communities are hollowing out, to be replaced by luxury apartments and expensive restaurants, says author Anna Minton

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

At Urban Radar @malcolmtait.bsky.social & @kierachapman.bsky.social in conversation with Tom Goodfellow and Beth Perry talk about their recent report on biodiversity and planning, and why it's so important to rethink our planning approaches if we want to turn things around.

lnkd.in/enVHKU6g

And no mention in the working paper about local authority housing targets being raised in the current system if housebuilders fail to build speedily...

Developers face fines as Rayner steps up plans to speed up UK housebuilding Councils will get powers to impose ‘delayed home penalty’ under latest government proposals

A rather belated admission from Government that housebuilders benefit from building slowly. Reheating quite a few existing ideas, and a lot rests on councils and housebuilders agreeing build out rates.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Best discussion on housing, planning and nature that I've heard in a long time.

Thanks for mentioning our research on housebuilders failing to put in ecological features - given the news on swift bricks, I think we need to continue to shout about this failure!

Very frustrating news! Despite our research showing that 75% of bird boxes were not installed, despite being required in planning consents, apparently this isn't enough to move towards mandatory provision of swift bricks

Fascinating study - would be interesting to compare with the building of the 'Dutch roundabout' in Sheffield

Labour has denounced me as ‘deeply misleading’ on its planning reform. I wish that were true | George Monbiot Even it now admits that brick by brick, these proposals will wreck habitats. This could be Starmer’s most damaging mistake yet, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social goes ballistic on Labour's planning reforms, and quite rightly so. They give licence to trash nature, diminish democratic rights in planning decisions, and also won't work in building the 1.8m homes the government wants.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Our Lost Nature report for the @rtpiplanners.bsky.social
is now written up in the @newscientist.com! A really good article and insightful comments from Natalie Duffus and Tom Oliver.

www.newscientist.com/article/2480...

A small slender sedge with male flowers above (with a couple of anthers still present) and 2 lots of female flowers below (stigmas still visible).

I managed a jaunt to Lindrick Common this morning to check on the Rare Spring Sedge. This SSSI golf course is fairly sympathetically managed for it's interesting plants.

The last record for this site was 2008, so good to refind it. A fellow @sorbynathissoc.bsky.social found another patch last month

So Angela Rayner just issued a judgement based on the new Planning Policy Guidance about the greenbelt - and it's a sign of seismic change to come in the countryside.

So there used to be 5 purposes to the greenbelt. But these were recently been reduced by Labour to three.

1/?

Wild Justice starts legal proceedings against Government’s controversial Planning and Infrastructure Bill - Wild Justice Conservation campaign group Wild Justice has written to the government calling on it to correct a statement made in Parliament […]

Govt is portraying the new #PlanningBill as 'win-win' for nature & people. This is false. Sec of State needs to amend this statement so as not to mislead MPs' votes. We will apply for judicial review if correction not forthcoming ⚖️

wildjustice.org.uk/general/wild...