Last week’s spell of hot, dry weather brought a predictable spate of moorland fires, most notably at Tintwhistle Moor in Derbyshire where 500 acres of moorland burned over two days. 

There is not much that can be done, in the short term at least, about our warming climate. Education is making no difference to the prevalence of fires. That leaves management and it is here that ideology is blinding some people to reality.

The Countryside Alliance held its annual ‘Rural Oscars’ awards ceremony on Wednesday 8 July at the House of Lords in London, kindly hosted by Lord Hart of Tenby. The event was attended by both MPs and Peers, as rural businesses from across the UK were crowned champions across a range of categories, including best local food and drink, best butcher, best pub, best rural enterprise, and best village shop or post office.

MPs from across the political spectrum used a Westminster Hall debate on fly-tipping to underline many of the concerns and recommendations recently set out in the report produced by the Countryside Alliance for Future Countryside and the National Rural Crime Network, Breaking the Cycle: Tackling Fly-Tipping and Waste Crime in the UK.

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