Sand dunes across England are set for a golden future following £4.3 million worth of funding to help restore and protect these at risk habitats.

The funding – awarded to a partnership led by Natural England as part of the European Union’s LIFE programme – will help deliver a major conservation project to explore how to re-establish the natural movement within dunes and create the conditions that some of our rarest wildlife relies upon.

Healthy sand dunes with moving sand are a sanctuary for endangered plants and animals like the natterjack toad, dune gentian and sand lizard. However these habitats are currently being smothered and fixed by a tide of invasive non-native plants turning it into scrubland. Sand dunes are now one of the most at risk habitats in Europe. Only 20,000 hectares remain across England and Wales – an area around half the size of the Isle of Wight.

The DuneLIFE project will help Natural England improve the condition of key sand dune sites in Lincolnshire, Dorset, Cornwall, Devon, Merseyside and Cumbria by tackling the root causes of decline. The scheme will:

• Deliver a programme of removal of invasive species to rebalance the natural processes of dune colonisation
• Restore sand dunes and dune slacks
• Create bare sand patches by turf stripping and sand scraping
• Encourage more people to access and enjoy dunes and take part in their conservation

Natural England are working in partnership with Plantlife, National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts to deliver this ambitious and innovative project.

Chairman of Natural England, Andrew Sells, said:

This is a wonderful project to help save our sand dunes and promote a better understanding of this fascinating landscape.

Sand dunes are a familiar backdrop to a day at the beach, but few people realise the serious threat they face across Europe. I am delighted that we have this exciting opportunity to work with our partners to safeguard these wildlife-rich habitats for future generations.

Marian Spain, Plantlife Chief Executive, said:

Nestling often undetected in the dunes are a treasure chest of wildflowers and wealth of wildlife jewels.

Re-enlivening sand dunes – much of them now suffocated under a blanket of thick grass and scrub – is urgent if we are to save dune flowers such as the plucky little fen orchid from extinction. Purple milk-vetch and dune gentian, two other rare dune gems, face an increasingly uncertain future without the help of this exciting project. And the really great news is that everybody who visits the dunes can make a difference: we know now that trampling feet is a great way to free up space for rare plants.

While millions either live in coastal communities or visit the seaside every year it is sadly little-known that dunes are listed as the habitat most at risk in Europe. This project can transform their future by inspiring and promoting a better understanding of their value to wildflowers, wildlife and people.

David Bullock, Head of Nature Conservation at the National Trust, said:

Sand dunes are amongst the most threatened landscapes in Europe because we have sought to stabilise them and also they have been invaded by non-native vegetation.

The windblown sand spaces that the special animals and plants need to survive are no longer there.

This project will create new open blown patches of sand and we hope not to just connect nature with nature; but people with nature and sand dunes as well.

Stephanie Hilborne OBE, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts, said:

Everyone should have the opportunity to experience the joy of standing amidst a sand dune. These are wild places and when you stand amongst the marram grass and sea holly, listening to the sound of the surf and the call of the stonechats you may look up to see a raven wheeling above.

Our sand dunes don’t just provide wildlife with a home, and us with such experiences but they act as a natural flood defence. So this partnership is an exciting new development given that so many of our dunes are in trouble.

We are looking forward to helping people breathe new life in to our dunes from Cumbria to Cornwall and across to Lincolnshire. Thanks to funding from the EU LIFE programme there is a great chance to help many people work together to change the natural world for the better.

This successful LIFE bid marks an important step towards a larger programme of sand dune conservation work around the coast of England and Wales which has already gained initial support for over £4 milllion of National Lottery funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Natural England are working in partnership with Natural Resources Wales, Plantlife, National Trust, and The Wildlife Trusts, to deliver this ambitious project.

The UK has invited independent technical experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog to travel to the UK to collect further samples.

The experts, from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), will return to the UK to continue their work to independently confirm the identity of the nerve agent, which resulted in the death of one British national in Amesbury, and left another seriously ill.

The UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the OPCW has written to the Organisation’s Director General, inviting them to assist the work already taking place – in accordance with Article VIII 38 (e) of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

During their visit, the OPCW’s experts will collect more samples to inform their work following their visit in July.

The samples will be analysed at highly reputable international laboratories designated by the OPCW.

The use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and contravenes international law. The UK remains committed to upholding the integrity of the OPCW as the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention overseeing the global ban on their use.

Further information

Rushan Ahmed, 31 of Walsall, was the sole director of the company Four Brothers (Derby) Ltd and ran Moza Derby, an Indian Restaurant located on the Nottingham Road in Derby.

Following a visit from Derby City Council Food Safety Inspectors in February 2015, the restaurant was given a food hygiene rating of 1 and in July 2015 this was amended to zero as no action was taken to put things right.

Despite the low hygiene rating awarded to the restaurant, in the same year Rushan Ahmed placed three adverts in a local magazine, C & C of Oakwood, where he highlighted that the restaurant held a 5-star rating.

This resulted in the council’s trading standards team taking Four Brothers to court in April 2016, where Rushan Ahmed pleaded guilty to the charge that the company engaged in unfair commercial practices.

The company was fined £3,171, while Rushan Ahmed received a personal fine of £1,271, but as the restaurant was not making any profit, Rushan Ahmed decided to cease trading in September 2016.

After the main company – Four Brothers – closed down, the Insolvency Service looked into the conduct of Rushan Ahmed and on 28 June 2018 a disqualification order was made by District Judge John Preston Musgrave at Birmingham County Court against Rushan Ahmed for 5 years.

The judge also ordered that Rushan Ahmed pay costs of £4,231.62 and effective from 19 July 2018, Rushan Ahmed cannot directly or indirectly be involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Cllr Matthew Holmes, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Public Protection said:

The Food Hygiene Rating Scheme serves 2 important purposes. The first is to help consumers choose where to eat out or shop for food by giving information about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafés, takeaways, hotels and other places you eat, as well as supermarkets and other food shops. The second is to encourage businesses to work hard to improve hygiene standards and promote greater food safety.

This case shows that we will take action to protect consumers and the integrity of the scheme where businesses seek to gain an unfair advantage by misleadingly claiming a higher rating.

Dave Elliott of the Insolvency Service said:

A zero food hygiene rating should have rung alarm bells for Rushan Ahmed and forced him to get his house in order. But he decided to publish a bogus 5-star hygiene rating designed to draw in business by making a false representation for commercial gain.

This ban should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to engage in unfair commercial practices and if you abuse your duties you could be investigated by the Insolvency Service and lose the privilege of being a company director.

Rushan Ahmed is of Walsall and his date of birth is 30/01/1987. Company Four Brothers (Derby) Ltd (Company Reg no. 08524899).

The order was pronounced by DJ Musgrave in the Birmingham court. Ms Parsons appeared for the Insolvency Service and no one appeared for or on behalf of the defendant.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7673 6498

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Summary

Before dawn on Monday 22 January 2018, a passenger train travelling between Mallaig and Fort William in north-west Scotland struck a large landslip on a remote section of line near Glenfinnan. The leading coach of the 2-car train derailed to the left and came to a halt embedded in landslip debris. There were no injuries, but some diesel fuel escaped from the damaged train and was carried by flowing water into a lineside drainage channel. Due to the inaccessibility of the site, pollution control measures were not put in place until later the following day, and by this time some diesel fuel had entered nearby Loch Eilt.

The landslip originated from a natural hillside above the railway and was triggered by a combination of rainfall and snow melting during a rapid thaw. The ground may have been saturated before it froze. A protective fence, which had previously been installed near the railway to trap falling rocks was overwhelmed by the event.

The RAIB found that Network Rail’s processes for managing landslip risk did not take account of the hazard caused by rapidly melting snow. It is unlikely that a greater understanding of snowmelt risk would have avoided the accident at Loch Eilt, but it could avoid or mitigate an accident in other circumstances.

Recommendations

The RAIB has made one recommendation to Network Rail to promote the development of weather forecasting processes to take account of risk due to snowmelt and ground thaw. The RAIB has also made one learning point concerning the importance of having effective and verified arrangements in place for responding to environmental emergencies in remote and inaccessible areas.

Notes to editors

1. The sole purpose of RAIB investigations is to prevent future accidents and incidents and improve railway safety. RAIB does not establish blame, liability or carry out prosecutions.
2. RAIB operates, as far as possible, in an open and transparent manner. While our investigations are completely independent of the railway industry, we do maintain close liaison with railway companies and if we discover matters that may affect the safety of the railway, we make sure that information about them is circulated to the right people as soon as possible, and certainly long before publication of our final report.
3. For media enquiries, please call 01932 440015.

Newsdate: 7 August 2018