Derbyshire Times news bulletin 30th January 2025

Derbyshire Times news bulletin with editor Phil Bramley

Transcript

00:00Here's today's Derbyshire Times video bulletin.

00:03Campaigners are calling on the East Midlands Mayor to help them bring

00:06Derbyshire's buses back into public ownership. The coalition group Better Buses East Midlands

00:12will gather outside the Chesterfield office of the East Midlands Mayor, Clare Ward,

00:16at 11am on Saturday. The group, which is part of the wider East Midlands Combined Authority

00:22Coalition, claims that bus services across the East Midlands, including in Derbyshire,

00:27are in crisis. Lisa Hopkinson from Better Buses East Midlands said,

00:32Now, finally, we have the chance to turn this around.

00:35Mayors of combined authorities can take our buses back into public control,

00:40and the next few years are crucial. The government has committed to making

00:43re-regulation of buses easier for mayors.

00:49A nine-mile fence is set to be installed on Derbyshire Moorland

00:53as part of a huge re-wilding project. The National Trust wants to enclose more than

00:584,000 acres of moorland in the Upper Derwent Valley, to the east of the Derwent and Howden

01:02Reservoirs. The aim is to keep out sheep and to allow a bigger mix of plants to grow.

01:08The project is set to start this August and will last for up to three years.

01:12However, concerns about whether it will work and its impact on the environment

01:16have been raised by Rambler's Group. John Harker of the Peak and Northern

01:20Footpath Society said there was concern over footpath access and the very principle of fencing

01:25in a wild environment. He added,

01:29Regeneration of the damage done to the moorland by the human race is to be commended. However,

01:34it is a high price to pay, and without it being part of a national re-wilding and regeneration

01:39strategy, which this government is not providing, it's questionable how effective it's going to be

01:45in the longer term. A National Trust spokesperson

01:48said the fence would be around four feet high and designed to blend in with the landscape.

01:53They added that there would be access for people that's maintained and crossing points

01:57would be installed at regular intervals along the line of the fencing.