Dear All,

A couple of weeks or so ago I wrote to many of you requesting that you take
a look at a petition to the Prime Minister which had been put up on the
No.10 Website which asked the Government to consider setting a requirement
for Local Authorities to provide funding for a Local Biodiversity Record
Centre in their area.

The petition has done moderately well with over 1,600 signatures, so far.
But, it does need more if it is to be noticed by government officials and to
truly represent the feelings and interests of naturalists, ecologists and
all others involved with LRCs.

Today I find that the petition has made it into the British Wildlife
magazine (Volume 18, Number 4, April 2007) and is to be found on page 297
(in the Conservation News section) where it also mentions the ALGE paper
(Association of Local Government Ecologists) which outlines the biodiversity
information needs of Local Authorities if they are to meet their statutory
requirements and indicates that the best and most cost effective way of
managing biodiversity data is through the support of an LRC.

However, there is still a need to push for more signatures on the petition
and this means that I am asking 3 things of yourself:

1. Could you please check to see if you have signed the petition - I know
some people think that they have done so BUT their names have not appeared
in the list. It transpires that people sign up but then have not noticed the
response e-mail which comes back from the PM's site (sometimes it goes into
Junk or Trash). If you do not reply to this response e-mail by clicking on
the link at the middle of it then you are NOT added to the petition. Please,
if you think you have signed up before, could I ask you to check that your
name is in the list on the site and if not, could you please sign up again.
Thank you. The site is at:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/LRC-Funding/

Please Note: If you cannot sign up from work then please do consider signing
up from home.

2. Could I please ask that you send this e-mail on to as many people as you
can, especially naturalists, ecologists, conservationists and anyone with an
interest in natural history. Sending beyond that would also be useful to
family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, etc., etc. Thank you.

3. Could I ask you to please add the following lines to the bottom of each of your outgoing e-mails as a part of your signature:

Please support your Local Record Centre by signing the petition to the Prime
Minister regarding future funding for Local Biodiversity Record Centres
(LRCs): http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/LRC-Funding/

Many thanks

Cheers and take care.

Steve.
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Steve J. McWilliam
rECOrd Manager
rECOrd, Oakfield House, Chester Zoo,
Caughall Road, Upton, Chester, CH2 1LH
Tel.: 01244 383749  -  Fax: 01244 383749
E-mail: info@rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
Web: www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
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