§ Mr. BeithI beg to move amendment No. 30, in page 70, line 2, at end insert, 'Calamint, Wood—Calamintha Sylvatica'.
938 I move the amendment on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Ross), who served on the Standing Committee and will resume his place in these proceedings on the second day but has to be involved in meetings in the Isle of Wight today. I suspect that those meetings will be over by now, unlike ours.
The amendment is peculiar to the Isle of Wight The wood calamint is confined to the Isle of Wight, to a single chalk valley in the centre of the island, where it was first recorded as new to this country in 1843. Within the valley the plant is restricted to a roadside stretch of woodland edge of some 10 metres, and less than 30 plants remain.
The site is kept open by volunteer conservation workers, and without this action and the co-operation of the landowner over many years the plant would almost certainly have disappeared completely. The area is included in an SSSI but this plant is obviously particularly vulnerable because of its tiny population, its attractive flowers and the obvious interest shown in an exclusively Isle of Wight plant. It does not take much imagination to think how a tourist might decide to take away a souvenir of something that grew only on the Isle of Wight. It is obviously potentially a very vulnerable plant indeed, and would seem an obvious candidate for conservation.
The Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society would like to see its efforts to conserve this plant backed by inclusion within the framework of the Bill. I hope that the Government will be sympathetic to that view.
§ Mr. MonroI would like to place on record my thanks to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Ross) for all his help in Committee. I certainly respond favourably to the amendment. This is a success story in a way , in that the owner of the site, Mr. Robert Clark, and the Isle of Wight Naturalist Trust have worked extremely hard to look after this rare plant, and have had success in increasing its numbers from about 20 to 100. Nevertheless, when one considers that there are only 100 plants, virtually in the world, one realises that it is a small number.
The trust, the owner and Dr. Pope, the conservation officer in the Isle of Wight, and the natural history and archaeological society have all worked extremely hard, and it is right that this plant should receive protection in recognition of their good work. We wish them well in the future and hope that they will continue to increase the number of plants in this unique area of the Isle of Wight. I therefore have pleasure in accepting the amendment.
§ Amendment agreed to.