It is reported in The Daily Telegraph today that an elderly lady in Cheshire left the RSPB 20 acres in Cheshire. This land apparently is home to barn owls and lapwings, and her dying wish was that it should never be built upon.
RSPB is now trying to sell this land for £6 million in order for a company to build houses there. They claim it will help to increase biodiversity.
Surely if a charity is left a gift that is inappropriate or they are unable to fulfil the wishes of the person who left the gift, it should be passed on to, maybe another charity, who is willing and able to do so at a fair market price?
£6 million could buy lots of land from which to exclude the general public, maybe around the Broads? Or even, in the fullness of time, decide that building homes on this land would increase biodiversity or some such reason.