Quite a long rant for the.Independent along these lines:

English Nature, the Government's main conservation agency, has ruled
that this SSSI - like a majority of the peat bogs and moorland heaths
on the surrounding Pennine hills, is in very poor condition indeed.
These sites are of global importance, offering a unique type of high
moorland bog that are home to a particular combination of wading birds,
iconic and scarce birds of prey such as the hen harrier and the merlin,
or the minute orchids and lichens that Melling identified.

http://news.independent.co.uk/enviro...cle1218548.ece

I would have thought give a region an SSI was the same as giving it
protection from fools and asset strippers. Apparently not.