In July 1989, Nicholas Ridley – in one of his last acts as Secretary of State for the Environment – announced plans to split the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) into three separate bodies covering England, Wales and Scotland (Branson 1989). He gave his reasons in a parliamentary written answer: 'The government is concerned to improve the way we handle the conservation of wild fauna and flora and the countryside. There are great differences between the circumstances and needs of England, Scotland and Wales in this respect….