BRITAIN’S biggest conservation charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, has hit out against cuts in the budget of the environmental department DEFRA which, it claims, will damage efforts to save once common in the Yorkshire Dales like skylarks and lapwings.

The Defra budget, announced last week, will leave a shortfall of some £300million in projects to halt the decline and these birds and even rarer species like the stone-curlew and damage rare habitats like hay-meadows, which bodies like the Yorkshire Dales National Park are trying to restore.

Dales hay meadows, apart from being home to many traditional wildflowers, were once the normal habitat of the yellow wagtail, which is under the threat of extinction because of the widespread silage production.

This in turn has led to all-green “mono-culture” of grass over thousands of acres of Dales farmland, changing the once multi-coloured landscape famous throughout the world. Graham Wynne, RSPB Chief Executive, said: “Extra money for measures to tackle climate change is welcome. But funds for Natural England’s were already low and this budget does little to improve that. Wildlife could now suffer because Natural England’s resources are being over-stretched.