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'Green' watchdog for NI ruled out | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Northern Ireland will not have an independent 'green' watchdog, Minister Arlene Foster has said. | |
Instead, the Environmental Heritage Service (EHS) will be rebranded, she told the Assembly on Tuesday. | |
It will be reorganised and will be launched in July with the mission of protecting the built heritage and natural environment, she said. | |
Environmental campaigners, Friends of the Earth, warned they might go to the European Commission over the decision. | |
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK and Ireland that does not have an independent body. | |
"If Northern Ireland isn't prepared to take its own environment seriously, there is one body that will, that is the European Commission. They will enforce to the letter of the European law," John Woods, director of Friends of the Earth, said. | "If Northern Ireland isn't prepared to take its own environment seriously, there is one body that will, that is the European Commission. They will enforce to the letter of the European law," John Woods, director of Friends of the Earth, said. |
"Far better we regulate ourselves, do it our way, in our own time and do it properly." | "Far better we regulate ourselves, do it our way, in our own time and do it properly." |