Sunday, 16 November 2025
Calder Valley MP has "lost his way" on how to protect Walshaw Moor
Calder Valley environmental groups are asking their MP Josh Fenton-Glynn to explain his vote against two crucial House of Lords' nature protection amendments to the contentious Planning and Infrastructure Bill on Thursday
Bede Mullen, a founder and former Chair of the Calderdale natural flood management charity Slow The Flow, said, "Labour appears to have lost its way on how to protect the environment. The cowardly act of whipping MPs to oppose amendments to the Planning & Infrastructure Bill which would have helped to protect peatland such as Walshaw Moor from big wind farm development, has lost my future vote and I suspect that of many more people who are concerned about the impact of development on protected peatland.
"We get that the government want to signal to developers that the planning process will be quicker and easier for big clean power projects, but sending that signal to Calderdale Energy Park developers who want to put a huge windfarm on protected peatland is going to harm the green transition, not help it.
"A recent poll by Hope not Hate, using the same modelling method that successfully predicted the big win for Boris Johnson's government in 2019, shows Reform taking Calder Valley with 35% of the vote at the next election. If Josh Fenton-Glynn wants to retain his job he'll need to start distancing himself from some of Labour's crazy policies and start supporting his constituents on key local issues like the Windfarm."
Photo: Peatland Alliance
Peatland Alliance campaigner Jenny Shepherd said, "Two of the amendments that Josh Fenton-Glynn voted against are crucial for the protection of Walshaw Moor's irreplaceable blanket bog.
"The government's alternatives to the Lords' amendments that the Minister for Housing and Planning announced in the House of Commons on Thursday seem a bit pathetic and are hard to understand.
"So we would like our MP to explain his reasoning, particularly since rejecting these amendments would have negative consequences for Walshaw Moor's irreplaceable blanket bog if the House of Lords were now to back down."
" 'We understand the pressure Josh is under from the whips to toe the party line,' added a fellow campaigner who wishes to remain anonymous. "But even so, other Labour MPs stood up for nature and challenged the Government's alternatives to crucial nature protection amendments. And when it came to the vote, they abstained. So why didn't Josh do likewise for Calderdale's blanket bog?
"We hope our MP can explain what he's voted for. It matters to Calder Valley, because Peatland Alliance has been seeking a blanket bog protection amendment that is very similar to the Lords' chalk stream protection amendment that he voted against.
"We have encouraged the Peers to stand firm and not budge on their amendments."
The campaigners understand the Peers will now ping pong the Bill and will meet with Ministers to try and get them to see the reasons why the government should agree to Lords' amendments. As it is, the Minister's proposed alternative to the irreplaceable chalk streams amendment is seen as a minor concession.
The Peatland Alliance say that as far as they can make out, the Minister seems to have promised a National Development Management Policy for chalk streams. This would function as a 'set chapter' across all local plans, alongside locally specific chapters. It could see the first national level planning protection for chalk streams.
But what have Local Plans got to do with Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, Peatland Alliance asks.
The government put a hardline whip on Labour MPs to vote against all House of Lords nature protection amendments. This emerged when Pendle and Clitheroe Labour MP Jonathan Hinder's leave of absence from Parliament to attend to constituency matters was cancelled. The reason given was that the government needed to overturn Lords' amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill with the largest possible majority , in the belief that this would make it more likely that the Lords will subsequently back down.
Another environmental group that is close to what goes on in Parliament told Peatland Alliance that this was no surprise, as the government wanted the Commons to vote down the Lords amendments so it could introduce its own to make it look good.
Along with environmental groups across the country, Calder Valley's Peatland Alliance groups have been campaigning for months to amend the contentious Planning and Infrastructure Bill so as to protect nature from environmental deregulation. The government claim environmental protections slow down the planning process when they want to crack on with mass housebuilding, big clean energy generation developments and other infrastructure.
Upper Calderdale Wildlife Network coordinator Penny Bennett said, "The professional body for ecologists have been unable to meet with ministers to discuss the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, meanwhile Rachel Reeves and Matthew Pennycook have met dozens of developers, indicating the scale of lobbying against protections for nature. It comes as no surprise then that the government has ignored pleas for wildlife and habitats protections to be incorporated into the Planning and Infrastructure Bill."
Peatland Alliance campaign supporter Paul Cotton said, "As the government has voted against the Lords' nature protection amendments, it's going to be very hard to ever vote for Labour again."
The Peatland Alliance groups' aim has been to gain the support of the Calder Valley MP, Josh Fenton-Glynn, for their proposed amendments to the Bill that would rule out protected peatland as a permissible site for onshore windfarms, and would require the restoration of irreplaceable blanket bog and protected heathland to favourable conservation status.
This call has been supported by thousands of Calder Valley constituents who have signed petitions and letters calling for a ban on windfarms on protected peatland.
Last weekend, inspired by the Peatland Alliance example, scores of Calder Valley constituents wrote to Josh Fenton-Glynn MP, asking him to vote for two key House of Lords amendments to the Bill when it came back to the House of Commons from the Lords on Thursday.
Campaigners say the modest amendments would not prevent the government from meeting its mass housebuilding and big insfrastructure construction targets, including for clean power. But they would provide real protection for irreplaceable habitats -whether chalk streams or blanket bog - whose many benefits we desperately need to restore. This is a key priority in the West Yorkshire Local Nature Recovery Scheme Consultation. So why isn't the government joining the dots? campaigners ask.
One of the rejected House of Lords amendments would provide statutory protection for irreplaceable chalk streams. The other would have given effect to a commitment to MPs that the Housing and Planning Minister made back in May: that damage from infrastructure development to blanket bog and other habitats and species cannot be compensated for elsewhere on another site through payment into a new nature restoration fund.
In addition, the Peatland Alliance groups asked the Housing and Planning Minister to add a government amendment to the Bill that would provide the same protection to irreplaceable blanket bog that one of the House of Lords amendments provides for irreplaceable chalk streams.
In the event, the Parliamentary record shows that the Calder Valley MP did not bother to speak in the debate and voted against both House of Lords amendments that constituents, and blanket bog protection campaigners, had asked him to support.
Useful links:
- Save and Restore Walshaw Moor
- Calderdale wind (developer): Calderdale Wind Farm - Calderdale Wind Farm
- Stop Calderdale Energy Park:
- Guardian: What do Saudi developers know of Heathcliff? Brontë country up in arms over windfarm plan (Jan 2024)
Previously on the HebWeb
HebWeb Forum: Windfarms on protected peatland
HebWeb Forum: Calderdale Wind Farm (May- June 2025)
HebWeb News: Legal challenge to massive windfarm proposal (June 25)
HebWeb News: Report: Walshaw Windfarm community assembly
HebWeb Forum: Large Windfarm proposal (Oct 24 - Feb 25)