{"id":236188,"date":"2026-01-09T14:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236188\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T14:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:39:13","slug":"durham-wildlife-protection-consultation-extended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236188\/","title":{"rendered":"Durham wildlife protection consultation extended"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jonny ManningNorth East and Cumbria<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/789b0010-ec9d-11f0-be98-fd0ce9c3379d.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Durham County Council A large pink elephant hawk moth drinking nectar from a flower. The moth is covered mostly pink but has light brown patches.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Durham County Council<\/p>\n<p>Durham County Council wants more views on how it should protect wildlife in its area<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">People have been given more time to share their views on plans to protect wildlife such as bumblebees, red squirrels and adders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Durham County Council&#8217;s Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) aims to identify which habitats and species need support and introduce measures to help them thrive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The last in a series of consultations on the strategy opened in November but the deadline for comments has now been pushed back until 18 January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A spokesperson for the council said the consultation gave people the chance to have their say on how it &#8220;prioritised species, landscapes and habitats&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">&#8220;This last consultation is a further opportunity to look at our draft plans and provide feedback, before it&#8217;s sent to our decision makers for approval and publication,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The council said farmers, landowners and specialist organisations had already been contacted to offer their opinions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/df02dfd0-eca2-11f0-9e5c-5102a53212cf.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Durham County Council A large light coloured butterfly resting on a flower. It has beige and green wings which are decorated with black and orange spots.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>Durham County Council<\/p>\n<p>Butterflies and moths are among the insects the council wishes to prioritise<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The draft proposals sets out a number of priorities for the LNRS including protecting local wildlife sites, connecting species-rich grassland and restoring rivers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">It also has specific plans for urban areas, such as creating community woodlands and installing nesting boxes for birds and bats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">A number of animals have also been highlighted for protection such as butterflies, moths, bumblebees, adders and slow worms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Efforts will be made to support water voles and red squirrels by managing their habitats and controlling invasive mink and grey squirrel populations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The online consultation page includes an interactive map which highlights areas in the county where measures could be taken to provide the greatest benefit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Those wishing to provide feedback on the strategy can comment directly on the map or on the council&#8217;s Statement of Priorities document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonny ManningNorth East and Cumbria Durham County Council Durham County Council wants more views on how it should&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-236188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}