Arms firm abandons plan to drop bombs on heritage site

An arms company has abandoned plans to detonate fragmentation bombs in the middle of the Flow Country world heritage site, the Guardian can reveal.

- Severin Carrell

The company, Overwatch, asked the Civil Aviation Authority this month for permission to carry out "live fire testing" of anti-personnel bombs dropped by drones on to land owned by the Liberal Democrat peer John Thurso.

The Flow Country became the first peat bog in the world to be granted world heritage site status by Unesco in July, in recognition of its rarity and its importance to conservation and combating the climate crisis.

The bomb tests have now been cancelled after the Guardian told Overwatch that the area earmarked for them included part of the Strathmore Peatlands site of special scientific interest, a heavily protected peat bog home to rare and threatened birds, such as dunlin, golden plover and greenshank.