Under the EU’s environmental crime directive there will be tougher penalties for the most serious cases of ecosystem destruction.

That’s wonderful news for everyone who has been campaigning for years for criminals who knowingly destroy the environment to be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, in the UK, instead of trying to bring in similar standards of care for the environment, the Tories are actively trying to undermine nature protections. A Bill, proposed by a Tory MP this week, aims to strip the environmental regulator Natural England of its powers to designate Sites of Special Scientific Interest nature reserves and give that role to ministers.

How can we trust government ministers to do this vital role when they so often bow to the interests of wealthy landowners?

There could not be a greater contrast between the Conservatives’ approach to nature protection and that of the Green MP Caroline Lucas, whose Climate and Ecology Bill requires the United Kingdom to achieve climate and nature targets.

With campaigns aiming to protect public access and nature at local beauty spots like Verney Fields, Juniper Hill and The Heavens currently on the minds of residents in the Stroud area, it is only right to wonder what our MP Siobhan Baillie makes of her government’s plans to erode environmental protection.

Will she side with the landed gentry who think legal protections for land infringe their property rights?

Or will she side with residents of Stroud, where the Ecocide movement originally started, and support making the EU’s welcome legislation part of British law?

Lucas Schoemaker,

Green district councillor, Trinity ward, Stroud