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RSPB Old Moor Wetlands Centre

My hon. Friend makes a valid point, and I shall come to the role of volunteers shortly. Their role is vital. Not only does it improve the quality of life of the volunteer, but it enhances the quality of life of those whom the volunteering helps. In all, the reserve employs 24 people and has increased the viability of local businesses by adopting a local sourcing policy. Wildlife tourism is big business. People travel to see natural spectacles, and spend money at local shops and other businesses. The total number of visitors expected by the centre in this financial year is 65,000. The RSPB has created a number of wildlife viewing opportunities for the local community and has demonstrated that rare species can be an asset for the local economy. For example, in the year after the foot and mouth outbreak, 70,000 people visited an osprey viewing site in the Lake district, demonstrating that the attraction of wildlife can draw people back to the countryside. Osprey watching at the nine sites in Britain managed by the RSPB is worth a staggering £2.5 million to local economies. The phenomenon is not restricted to birds of prey. Marine mammals tourism generates £8 million a year for the west coast of Scotland. On the education front, about 4,000 schoolchildren a year enjoy visits to experience and see renewable technologies through the Old Moor reserve’s field teaching programme. Nationally, nearly 50,000 children benefit from RSPB facilities. The society believes that all children should be able to benefit from out-of-classroom learning, because all our modern technology and sophisticated teaching practices and living are no substitute for a child getting out of the classroom to experience nature and culture at first hand—getting their hands dirty, as we say in Yorkshire. That can link to, and help to achieve, many Government objectives, such as those on children’s health, citizenship, social inclusion and the reduction of deprivation, crime and unemployment. The site’s award-winning, energy-efficient visitor centre makes use of renewable energy technologies; it has a biofuel burner, solar panels, a wind turbine and a solar water heater. On the health front, physical inactivity costs the national health service about £8 billion a year. Sport is not always the best way for the majority of people to get fit, and research suggests that sociable walking in green space can be the best way to get people moving. It also suggests that if the primary purpose of exercise is contact with a high-quality environment people are more likely to sustain their activity and thus accrue more benefits. Health walks, such as those organised by Old Moor, and volunteering can provide people with the motivation to become active. One in six, or 18 per cent., of the RSPB’s 13,000 volunteers were inactive before they started work for the RSPB, and that 18 per cent. are prepared to continue volunteering, which emphasises the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor). More than 350 health walks in the UK are organised by more than 10,000 volunteers, led by the British Heart Foundation and the Countryside Agency. Throughout England, the RSPB is an effective delivery agent and partner in the Government’s sustainable communities programme and it has plans to extend the model to help to develop a bold and innovative vision to regenerate the lower Aire valley in west Yorkshire, which includes part of the Pontefract and Castleford constituency of my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning. The RSPB believes that, as a society, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build sustainable communities such as those in the Dearne and lower Aire valleys. We must make the right choices to provide the homes and jobs that people need, without jeopardising their quality of life now or in the future. Sustainable communities need wise planning, for which we must meet four crucial challenges. First, we must deliver a green infrastructure. Wildlife-rich spaces in and around new communities play an important role in people’s quality of life. We believe that green infrastructure, such as that created at Old Moor, is as vital to us as the traditional infrastructure of roads, hospitals and schools. There should be no difference between hard infrastructure and green infrastructure. Secondly, we must respect environmental capacity. Even if green infrastructure is fully designed into new communities, there will still be serious questions about the overall environmental impact of development. We believe that much more needs to be done to assess, and if necessary avoid, the impact, of national and regional planning. To do that, and thirdly, we need a national spatial strategy subject to robust strategic environmental assessment. Fourthly, we need to conserve natural resources. Creating sustainable communities inevitably has implications for the consumption of natural resources such as fossil fuels and water. Climate change is a crucial issue, both for biodiversity and communities. To build a new home with water and energy saving measures to the eco-homes excellent standard costs as little as £160. Building on research carried out for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the water industry and the Housing Corporation have estimated that society could save billions of pounds on new water resources infrastructure and reduce carbon emissions. The proposed code for sustainable homes must be both rigorous and mandatory, not left to the whims of house builders. Finally, we need to protect and enhance wildlife, which should go without saying. The RSPB also believes that sustainable community development must protect and enhance the best bits of biodiversity. That is the test of genuine sustainable development. If we cannot protect and enhance sites such as Old Moor, we will certainly not pass our environment on to future generations in the state that they would wish. In conclusion, as I am sure that the Minister will know, the RSPB’s mission statement is simply, ““For birds, for people, for ever””. I believe that that mission statement could also form part of the Government’s sustainable communities mission statement, and I commend the Old Moor wetlands centre to the Minister and, indeed, the House.