Letter: Letters: Plenty of peat

From IAIN RICHARDSON

I am writing to correct some of the inaccuracies which appeared in ‘Growing
alternatives to peat’ (3 August).

The discrepancy between the holdings of 7318 hectares and the 11 158
hectares quoted by the Peatlands Campaign is due to applications by non-members
of the Peat Producers Association for planning consents to cut fuel peat
during the coal strike in the 1980s. In most cases production was never
implemented and production has now virtually ceased on the few small-scale
areas which were worked.

PPA holdings of raised basin and blanket mire together comprise less
than 0.5 per cent of the 1.5 million hectares of peatland in Britain. Most
of these have been worked for many decades, if not for generations.

There are sufficient reserves in current workings to maintain supplies
for over 50 years. In addition, areas of little or no conservation value,
such as peatlands damaged by afforestation, could extend supplies further.

Given the above, it is inconceivable and irresponsible to suggest that
peat bogs in Britain will disappear as a result of peat extraction.

Iain Richardson The Peat Producers Association London