Britain's embattled wildlife faces further survival struggles following lukewarm government responses to protests from nature bodies and a screeching handbrake turn from the woman expected to protect it.

Environment secretary Therese Coffey is considering an about turn on a government promise to shield otters, fish, amphibians and birds from poisoning.

Wildlife protection organisations were horrified when the government began unravelling EU nature safety regulations before passing new laws after Brexit.

They expressed huge concern particularly over the dangers to aquatic wildlife from sewage discharged into rivers and seas. Last year ministers moved to head off criticism by proposing huge increases in fines to a maximum £250million for water companies persistently flouting discharge rules.

Wild Things: It's time for birds to go courting

But now Ms Coffey is thought to be considering cancelling big increases in fines. The current maximum fine is £250,000 on water companies capable of paying £1.9billion in dividends.

Of course a week is a long time in politics as Ms Coffee's chum Liz Truss discovered and the picture may have changed by the time you read this. But the fact that dropping proposals for increases have even been considered will worry conservationists.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds led an outcry when government plans to unpick many of the 570 EU environmental laws first surfaced last September. The usually staid and mostly silent RSPB declared themselves "angry" and called the plans "an unprecedented attack on nature." They claimed these regulations are more important than ever as they defend not only wildlife but clean water, air, beaches, rivers and our green spaces.

Two further blows followed. Investment Zones to be created across England will, it was said, enjoy favourable planning rules with relaxed environmental protection. And to make matters worse, talks began on scrapping the Environmental Land Management scheme which helps farmers and landowners restore habitats and use their land to absorb carbon.

On November 17 came a partial about-turn from a government which obviously has no clear policy towards wildlife or plan to protect it. Are you still following all this ?

You'd think sorting the mess would be a priority given stark figures available in the last State of the Nature Report in 2019. It revealed almost half of UK species studied have declined. One in every seven UK species is at risk of extinction.

Ms Coffee attempted to regain some credibility in early February. She announced that the government Environment Improvement Programme aims to leave no UK citizen more than 15 minutes walk from green space or water. Sounds great. But green space could be defined as a football ground, school playing field or private golf course while water may simply mean that stagnant mini-pond strewn with shopping trolleys and old bicycles. Not so great for public access or wildlife. Is the government proposing to rehouse people near parks or water ? Good luck with that. It can't be the other way round because politicians have been discussing for years methods of bringing water from the damp north west to the parched and overcrowded south east without any result.

Wild Things: Birds can turn up anywhere!

Other parts of the Environment Improvement Programme include laudable efforts to create woodland, wetlands and parks and to restore hedgerows. Just how this will fit with the exploding requirement for new housing has yet to be explained.

Fortunately there is something we can all do to convince our elected representatives they should take environmental issues more seriously. Local elections are around the corner. It will not be long before another general election looms.

So why not contact your MP(or councillor) to tell him/her you don't fancy having a load of excrement dumped in your local river and larger fines must be applied for misconduct, you want the government to follow through on promises made in the Environment Improvement Programme and that new legislation protecting wildlife must be passed before existing EU measures are scrapped.

Visit: writetothem.com and enter your postcode. Click and you should be taken to your local MP's website with space to make your point.

Britain is already one of Europe's most wildlife-impoverished nations. Time to act before the situation gets worse.