Introducing the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)

Introducing the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)
Background history: CPRE were formed in 1926, as the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, by pioneering planner Sir Patrick Abercrombie. The initial aims of the organisation were twofold: firstly to represent the wide range of early ‘green groups’ – the amenity societies of the early 20th century who were aiming to preserve the beauty and distinctiveness of their local area, and the organisations who had formed to address a specific national concern (e.g.. Societies who worked nationally on matters like protecting ancient buildings, controlling advertising and encouraging cycling). All these various groups came together for the first time under the CPRE banner – giving the fledgling environment movement a powerful and coordinated voice for the first time. The initial success was partly thanks to the political and media influence of the early CPRE leadership of Abercrombie (who later provided the plan for rebuilding London after WWII), Lord Crawford (a political heavyweight and trustee of the National Portrait Gallery) and Clough Williams Ellis (architect of Portmeirion – the set of ‘The Prisoner’). The second early aim of CPRE was to introduce Patrick Abercrombie’s idea of ‘rural planning’ – extending Town Planning to cover the country too, ensuring that all new development would take account of the landscape to truly enhance the country. This was very important in the 1920s when speculative building – known as ribbon development – was sprawling along main roads leading out of cities, like the tentacles of an octopus, as Williams Ellis put it. The founders of CPRE were also acutely aware that the coming wave of industrial progress, such as motorways (to cope with the growing popularity of the car), and the national grid (to provide power to homes and factories), could wreck the countryside for ever if not planned properly – with CPRE making the case for the countryside. These two early functions still give CPRE its unique strength today: because we started as a coalition of various groups, we still retain the widest remit of any environmental organisation, covering every single issue concerning the countryside. We also retain the unparalleled expertise in planning housing and infrastructure in a way that can improve lives without sacrificing the landscape. Our founding fathers were able to ensure huge publicity and influence for CPRE, something which also continues today – In 1929, the leaders of the three political parties endorsed CPRE’s aims and called for support. This happened again in 1997, and also in spring 2010, when the three main party leaders pledged to do their utmost to meet the challenge of CPRE’s Manifesto for the Countryside in interviews with our President, Bill Bryson. The combination of this expertise and influence helps us get the best possible use of land in town and country to protect and enhance the beauty, tranquillity and local distinctiveness of our countryside. Formed in 1926 United early green groups Introduced ‘rural planning’ Political and media influence Unique planning expertise

Imagine an England without…
National Parks Green Belts Local foods Food webs Green farming Hedgerows Urban regeneration AONBs Best Kept Villages Local distinctiveness Community forests Country parks The Country Code Planning permission Tranquillity Dark skies Reuse and recycle Keep Britain Tidy Energy efficiency Countryside clutter (Photo: An East Sussex meadow) Achievements and historic campaigns: CPRE has a track record of over 83 years of campaigning successes. Here are some highlights which were either CPRE innovations, or longstanding campaigns where CPRE have taken the lead. Try to imagine an England without the following: National Parks: All of our National Parks were first put forward by CPRE in 1929 – then a radical policy aimed at nationalising land for the good of the urban population – in detailed evidence to the Prime Minister, which led to the formation of the National Parks Committee and the National Parks Act in The South Downs took another 60 years of hard campaigning but CPRE played the key role in securing 8 extensions to the original boundary. Our national parks now receive over 100 million visits a year and generate £2bn for the exchequer. Green Belts: CPRE played the leading role in campaigning for open land on the edge of towns to prevent sprawl and provide food and recreation, resulting in the London Green Belt Act of After this, CPRE helped set up voluntary Green Belts in Sheffield and Birmingham until in 1955, CPRE lobbying led to powers for all local authorities to create and protect their own Green Belts. Local Food: In 2002 CPRE came up with a local food definition in an attempt to reduce food miles and promote English produce. We challenged supermarkets to source 5% of stock from produce that had been grown and processed within a 30 mile radius. The definition has been adopted by the wider food industry and we continue to challenge supermarkets to stock as much local food as possible. Food webs: In 2006, CPRE Vice-President Caroline Cranbrook introduced the concept of Food Webs, proving that a network of small independent shops were better for the local economy than supermarkets - providing jobs, fresh produce and fair prices for farmers. Green farming: Since the 1970s CPRE have led the campaign to save farm habitats by securing legal protection for hedgerows and payments for farmers’ conservation work. In 1974, CPRE took the campaign to reduce pesticide use to the European Parliament in an attempt to reverse damage done to wildlife and habitats. Urban regeneration: CPRE’s campaign to regenerate derelict sites in towns has eased pressure on green belts, while making cities better places to live. London’s Southwark, home of CPRE’s national office, is just one area to be transformed from dereliction since CPRE helped lead the Government’s Urban Taskforce in the 1990’s. Every home built on a brownfield site, saves a piece of a green field. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Created alongside National Parks, CPRE helped achieve special protection for these smaller but equally beautiful places. Best Kept Village awards were started by CPRE in 1953 as an initiative to tidy up villages in preparation for the Coronation events. Now often known as ‘Village of the Year’ awards, the judging criteria rewards a sense of community, sustainability, rural business initiatives and wildlife schemes, as well as attractiveness. Local distinctiveness: CPRE’s panels of architectural experts advised local councils on appropriate local materials and building styles back in the 1920’s. CPRE has campaigned ever since for local character, in town and country, to be valued and protected through Landscape Character Assessments and Village Plans. Our work to protect local independent shops is also aimed at reversing the trend for ‘clone towns’ - where every high street has the same chain stores. Community Forests and Country Parks: Two of the success stories of green belts, creating leisure opportunities for city dwellers. The Country Code: First proposed and implemented by CPRE as a ‘Code of Courtesy for the Countryside’, aimed at ensuring maximum enjoyment and safety for new visitors to the countryside. Planning permission: We don’t always appreciate it, but the Planning system established as a direct result of CPRE’s campaign means we all have a democratic right to know what will be built near us, and a voice to do something about it. CPRE is constantly battling to uphold these rights against developers who would rather they could do what they liked. We are currently engaged in a major campaign against plans by the coalition government to weaken the planning system to allow development on unprotected green fields (this will be covered in more detail further on in the presentation.) Tranquillity: CPRE’s research has helped quantify ‘tranquillity’ as something tangible and measurable that can lead to health and quality of life benefits. This is gradually gaining acceptance as something to be protected by law and as a measure of quality of life. Dark skies: CPRE’s monitoring of light pollution, with NASA data, led to light pollution becoming a statutory nuisance in 2006 and paved they way for less polluting energy efficient lighting. CPRE are working with local councils across the country to introduce new lighting technology. Reuse and recycle: Advocated through CPRE’s anti-litter campaigning since the 1920’s, real progress is currently being made towards a UK bottle deposit scheme. As far back as 1972, CPRE were calling for a reduction in packaging, and for all packaging to be fully recyclable. Keep Britain Tidy: CPRE helped form Keep Britain Tidy in 1950, in partnership with the Womens’ Institutes, and still work closely with the organisation today - through our Stop The Drop campaign - to help fund parish litter wardens and supply volunteers with litter picking equipment. Energy efficiency: CPRE has been advocating energy efficiency and a decentralised ‘smart-grid’ since the 1970s – a smart-grid uses small-scale energy generation from renewables to reduce the need for a national grid of pylons; where pylons have to connect remote areas they are buried underground to prevent them ‘industrialising the countryside’. Fighting Climate Change has been one of our major campaigns since 1993, and other environmental groups are now acknowledging our longstanding call for energy efficiency as the cheapest and quickest way to tackle climate change effectively. Clutter: This is the one thing we don’t want to see!! Unfortunately, CPRE has had to persist with its campaign against the unnecessary road signs and inappropriate advertising that dominates our rural roads. Since Shell agreed to remove roadside garage advertising in the 1920’s there have been a number of successes as CPRE undertake clutter audits and challenge local authorities. The battle continues.

Under threat – why CPRE is needed more than ever
(Image: CPRE’s intrusion maps) Why CPRE is needed more than ever… Despite CPRE’s successes in protecting our finest landscapes from development and ensuring that any new building in the countryside has to go through a democratic planning system, the last 85 years have seen a nibbling away at our precious green space. CPRE’s efforts have slowed this loss of countryside, but the money to be made from building on green fields means that sadly, the bulldozers are often one step ahead – even the green belts around our towns and cities are still under pressure from sprawl, despite the known benefits of urban regeneration. England is a densely populated country, one of the most built up in the world. Its countryside, our most vital and valuable asset, is fragmenting and diminishing each year as roads, extensions to towns and major infrastructure alter its character irretrievably. CPRE’s intrusion maps show how the countryside is being fragmented by this increasing development. You hear people say that only 10% of the countryside is built up, but that figure refers only to surface area. A pylon may cover only tiny part of the surface of a 100 acre field, but of course, it is visible from any point in the field – the industrial world intruding on nature. These maps show the truth of how much industry and development has intruded on the countryside – not just visually, but through noise and air pollution. We can see the problem has got much worse over the last 40 years. In the early 1960’s, only a quarter of England was disturbed by the sights and sounds of industrialisation. That figure is now over 50%. In over half of the country – even in some of the most beautiful and remote places – it can be impossible to enjoy natural green space without seeing roads, buildings and pylons, hearing the roar of traffic and aeroplanes, or breathing in the pollution of industry and transport. At this rate of loss much of what remains could all but disappear in the next 80 years – within our children’s lifetimes. Where the countryside is relatively undisturbed by urban and industrial features it enables us to find peace and calm, to ‘get away from it all’, to recharge our batteries, National Parks do this to perfection but so can local familiar countryside on the doorsteps of towns and cities. Across England the character of countryside near and far, nationally or locally cherished, is threatened with the intrusion of new development. In the last decade, an area of greenfield land four and a half times the size of Manchester has been lost to development, much of it productive farmland. In the last decade, we've lost an area of greenfield land the size of Southampton to development each year on average. Without CPRE, this would have been much worse - The brownfield first approach was first introduced in 1995 [partly in response to CPRE campaigning]. Our recent research into brownfield found that over 143 square miles of brownfield land have been developed for housing since safeguarding large areas of Green Belt and other countryside across England. If this development had taken place on greenfield land, an area seven times the size of Southampton, or over 52,647 football pitches, would have been lost to new development. Some of the big issues CPRE are being called upon to deal with – now and in the future – could put massive demands on the limited land resource of our small and relatively crowded island as we attempt to provide homes, food, energy and quality of life for all, in a way that can be sustainable. In an increasingly uncertain global economy, a well-planned vision is needed to increase our food self sufficiency, energy security, and ability to house our population, without sacrificing the beauty and tranquillity that’s a vital part of our well-being. We’ll take a look at the two main threats (an unsustainable housing free-for-all on green belts and unprotected countryside; and major infrastructure developments) over the next two slides.

Threat: Attack on the planning system
We need affordable housing, but we need a strong planning system to deliver it where it is needed – in the best interests of communities, the environment and the economy. Instead, we have seen proposals from the coalition designed to benefit no one but big developers – in the misguided hope of kick-starting economic growth. The importance of brownfield first New housing uses up more countryside than any other kind of infrastructure – something like an area the size of Leicester is covered in houses every year. But it would be much worse without the ‘brownfield first’ policy which years of CPRE campaigning forced the government to introduce in Brownfield (or previously developed) land, now provides the sites for 80% of all new homes (up from under 60% before the policy was introduced), and developers have to prove there are no available brownfield sites before they can build on open countryside. A detailed CPRE study in 2011 revealed there are Brownfield sites currently available for building 1.5 million homes, and new sites come up constantly. Unfortunately greenfield sites in the countryside are favoured by developers who can make more profit - brownfield sites need clearing before building can begin. Recycling land enables vital regeneration to make towns and cities more attractive and vibrant places to live and for those already living there as well – look at London’s South Bank or parts of Manchester. In fact, the ‘brownfield first’ policy has saved an area of countryside twice the size of Manchester from being developed In the last decade. A presumption in favour of ‘sustainable’ development Incredibly, the coalition government has outlined it’s plans to scrap ‘brownfield first’ and introduce an assumption that any ‘sustainable’ development application should be approved. They say this relaxation of planning rules will lead to an expansion of housebuilding and stimulate economic growth, and that if local authorities haven’t set their housing targets in time, any development will automatically be approved. CPRE argue that by failing to give a clear definition of ‘sustainable’; advising local authorities that they must achieve economic growth from new development; not allowing time for democratic local plans to be drawn up, and removing the need to use brownfield sites first, the new system will only lead to an increase of the wrong houses in the wrong place. We need genuinely affordable homes – to rent as well as buy – across the country, not executive homes in the parts of the South East where developers hope to make most profit. The fact is that a strong democratic planning system is not a barrier to building homes – with the current system, 85% of all planning applications are successful and only the most inappropriate or environmentally damaging schemes are blocked. Even in these cases, developers, supermarkets for example, can often appeal again and again until they succeed – communities have no right of appeal against bad developments. Housing in the wrong place So what is slowing down the building of housing if it isn’t the planning system? Developers are sitting on plots with planning permission for 320,000 homes, but don’t want to build during a recession because there won’t be enough buyers. They are reluctant to consider those million brownfield plots because it is cheaper to build on a fresh green field. And they won’t build what is really needed – affordable homes for ordinary families – because it is more profitable to build executive homes and hope for another boom in prices. The economic downturn has changed the housing market and private housebuilders can increasingly only be persuaded to deliver affordable homes when pushed to when councils offer them incentives. Housebuilding has slowed partly because the developers want to concentrate on market housing and not as some assert, because the planning system is too slow. Labour’s Pathfinder ‘regeneration’ scheme was a classic case of good council homes being given to developers for demolition and profitable redevelopment - since the recession, developers have ceased building to replace the demolitions. Pathfinder has cost £2.2 billion to date. It has demolished four times more homes than it has built and the few homes it does build are often of worse quality than those that came down. Pathfinder has also created urban wastelands from once decent communities, and by failing to provide homes, has put even more pressure on green belts. CPRE knows the need for housing, especially rural affordable housing. We believe the best way to deliver these vital homes is through a strong planning system, which balances the need for economic growth with the need to protect the environment. Local authorities shouldn’t be forced to agree to every development, and communities should have the right to appeal against bad decisions. Good planning can build the homes we need without sacrificing farmland or seeing towns and villages, with special character and history, merge into indistinct housing estates. Growth at all costs? Any greenfield development will sacrifice vital farmland. This is not just a vital resource for growing crops and rearing livestock – and helping with our food security; agricultural land is also a precious habitat for wildlife, stores carbon in its soil, and helps reduce the risk of flooding. And of course, farmers are the caretakers of England’s beautiful and unique patchwork landscape Since the government proposed these changes, we have seen councils and developers allocate over 400,000 homes for green fields, including over 100,000 on Green Belt land – in many cases, these councils have been pressured by planning inspectors quoting the Government’s mantra that they must approve development to create economic growth. If the changes are pushed through, our research shows that within a decade, a new urban area comfortably larger than Manchester would be built on greenfield sites which would not be built on with the current system. Worst case scenario The Government chooses to pursue their publicly stated aim for 200,000 new homes a year ( and fails to utilise brownfield land, does nothing about empty homes and second homes etc) The percentage of those built on greenfield sites falls back to 48% - the rate before the 'brownfield first' principle was introduced The density of houses built on greenfield sites falls back to 21dph - the rate before 'brownfield first' Under these conditions, if Government stick to their 200,000 target and force through their changes to the planning system we would be looking at 96,000 homes a year being built on greenfield sites, bringing the amount of greenfield land consumed each year by new housing to 4,571 hectares - or a new Oxford or Bournemouth each year. Over ten years we would be looking at 4 new Manchesters on greenfields. By 2033, we'd have built homes on 96,000 hectares of greenfield, or an area the size of the Norfolk Broads and Exmoor National Parks combined, or the combined area of Liverpool, Manchester, the County of Rutland and the Isle of Wight! That is why it is vital that we retain the brownfield first principle and ensure that planning takes into account the environment. We must also let local communities decide local housing targets based on real need, not out-of-date national projections. An end to brownfield targets A presumption that applications are approved Housing in the wrong place Growth at all costs – including to the environment

Threat: Major infrastructure
Energy infrastructure CPRE continues to lobby hard on energy policy – we want the government to maintain a focus on energy efficiency, and a mix of renewables that don’t wreck landscapes. We also want to see a reduction in damaging fossil fuel practices like opencast mining, which causes long-term environmental destruction for relatively small amounts of polluting energy. Wind turbines can play a part in creating low-carbon energy, but only when they don’t destroy the environment they should be protecting. For this reason, CPRE has supported some wind turbine proposals in already developed areas and in less important landscapes, and when there are no damaging impacts for local communities. However, we support the recent policy of expanding off-shore wind – where winds are stronger and more reliable, and there is less impact on landscape and communities. However, carbon emissions targets could lead to plans for intrusive wind turbines across our landscapes, and even off-shore turbines need to be connected to the national grid via a massive new network of electricity pylons, of which 1000 are set to criss-cross National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In total, there are currently plans for 300 miles of new pylons in England. We are campaigning hard for pylons to be buried under ground in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and for any new electricity lines to be routed outside these areas. Undergrounding is undoubtedly more expensive than pylons but we believe that consumers would be willing to pay an extra pound on their energy bills, and energy companies should be encouraged to use some of their massive profits to preserve some of the landscapes they would otherwise exploit. In the long-term, CPRE is calling for a ‘Smart grid’, including a mix of all renewable technologies (with a much greater emphasis on decentralised and small scale energy networks) and good planning to mitigate impacts on the landscape. Of course, all environmental groups agree that ‘energy efficiency’ is the ‘low hanging fruit’ in the fight against climate change, and CPRE were the forerunners in this having called for better conservation of energy since the mid-1970s. Smart-grids will only work if we take those easy steps to reduce our energy consumption. Transport infrastructure Regional airport expansion seems likely in the near future after the Chancellor George Osbourne’s Autumn Statement identified airport capacity as important for economic growth. Because the High Court ruled that Heathrow expansion was at odds with climate change legislation, and the Coalition pledged not to build a third runway, they are less likely to block plans to expand smaller airports around the country - threatening towns and countryside (including National Parks) with more noise and pollution. The Autumn Statement also included a raft of new road building plans - which will lead to countryside being lost to tarmac, and generate more traffic and more carbon emissions. CPRE advocate something closer to the French investment plan, where just a fifteenth of transport spending goes on roads, with most of the rest going to rail and local public transport schemes. CPRE is advocate of taking travellers of roads and runways, and onto rail. A new high speed rail network could help do this by reducing car journeys and internal flights, and thus greatly reducing carbon emissions. The proposed High Speed 2 (HS2) route would also free-up much needed capacity on local lines and rebalance the economy away from the overheating South East. However, HS2 presents its own problems for the landscape with the route travelling through the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, many acres of productive farmland and numerous heritage and wildlife sites. The speed of the line will also impact of rural tranquillity. Because of CPRE’s strong lobbying, we have already seen the Government announce more tunnelling through the Chilterns, and we will be pushing for further route changes to protect local landscapes. In particular, CPRE would like to see flexibility on the maximum design speed to allow more sensitive routing with greater curvature of the track. This will allow for necessary alterations following further local consultation. We also strongly believe that high speed rail must be planned as part of a wider transport strategy to reducing car-dependency and road-building, improve access to public transport in the countryside and encouraging cycling and walking. Renewable energy A new wave of pylons New roads and runways High speed rail

Better Planning Localism – giving people a voice Design and density
(Image – brownfield eco-homes in Petersfield, Hampshire) We’ve already heard how a weakened planning system could unleash a new wave of housing across the country. It is worth looking at the positive alternatives and solutions, which with a strong and fair planning system, would allow us to build the homes we need without destroying the countryside and communities. Localism CPRE have long been calling for the kind of neighbourhood planning powers for communities intended by the new Localism Act. Local people need to have a say on what get’s built in their area. As Simon Jenkins says, “determining the pattern of land-use is a classic community duty and removing it the mark of authoritarianism”. However, we believe the community powers of the Act are seriously undermined by overall Government policy which means that communities will only be able to say ‘yes’ to development, or put forward develop which could be seen to promote economic growth. Effectively, neighbourhoods will not be able to say “no” to excessive, damaging or inappropriate development – even when large-scale developments are approved that go against a locally-agreed plan. Fair rights of appeal for third parties (members of the public) to appeal inappropriate or environmentally-damaging developments have been are vital to make localism work. Together with partners like the Environmental Law Foundation, we are campaigning for the UK to meet its commitment to the UN Aarhus Convention, which states that the public must be able to access the decision-making process and be able to challenge developers to ensure due environmental consideration is given. Design and density CPRE believes the best possible place for new homes is in existing settlements – the 1.5 million housing plots in brownfield sites, if used for housing could revitalise run-down parts of towns, minimise the growth in car travel, maximise public transport, cycling and walking opportunities and put the new homes closest to existing jobs and services. Urban regeneration and quality brownfield housing developments are already beginning to reinvigorate our cities, thanks in part for CPRE’s campaign for an Urban Renaissance in the 1990’s. By tapping into the potential of derelict space in cities, like disused car-parks and industrial areas, we can create desirable higher-density communities. Of course, high density housing in cities also saves our countryside, and with good design, can create very attractive housing with plenty of green space. The Georgians and Victorians managed it with their squares and terraces typically built at 80 dwellings per hectare and now some of the most sought after housing (the suburban ‘norm’ is around 30dph). Modern architects are starting to match their creativity and ingenuity for quality design within small spaces. Most tower block housing estates are actually quite low density as they tend to have large areas of empty space between the blocks – this often becomes a ‘no-go’ wasteland as it is so disconnected from people’s homes. In contrast, a central square provides valued shared space. The Labour government’s policy on increasing housing density been a huge success, safeguarding swathes of countryside and enabling urban renewal. We were dismayed by the Coalition’s abolition of density targets - before the national guidance was instituted, the average housing density was around 25 dwellings per hectare (dpha), compared with 46 dpha now. This figure will slide back down to the previous figure now that local councils aren’t compelled to aim for higher density. Together with ‘brownfield first’, we need the planning system to reinstate density targets to save countryside and get the most out of our cities. Good urban design is also vital to create ‘liveable’ cities. Cities are the most sustainable places for people to live, but if they are unpleasant to live in – dominated by traffic, pollution, litter and anti-social behaviour – it is no wonder that people want to move to the country for a better lifestyle. We need cities to be designed with people in mind, with plenty of shared community space and green areas. Urban renaissance is good for the countryside too. Empty homes There are 700,000 empty homes in England, and more than half have been empty for well over 6 months. Everything possible, from government funding to tax incentives, must be done to get these refurbished (where needed) and back into use before new houses are even considered for greenfield sites. The same goes for schemes to convert empty office buildings to housing. Two simple but effective changes could give individuals and communities the power to take on Britain's empties and the resources to get them back into use: 1. A law change to give communities and individuals the power to turn abandoned properties in their local area into homes for people who need them. 2. Access to low-cost loan funds for people who need financial help to get empty properties back into use. Alternatives to the market CPRE has faced criticism from the pro-housing lobby led by government economist Kate Barker. This has seen an attempt to deflect attention from the unfairness of the present housing market – inflated prices, second homes, empty homes, buy-to-let – by insisting that the only solution to housing affordability is to flood the market with newly built homes by relaxing controls over green field development. We have already seen that during a recession, the housing market struggles to function as developers have little incentives to build homes. There are alternatives to the market – housing associations are very important for utilising small plots of brownfield land which are never attractive to big developers, but they do need funding. We need more social and council housing, refurbishment of council properties, and financial changes to make it disadvantageous for big landlords to keep houses empty. The state has previously been a major housebuilder in difficult times – more than a million council homes built between the wars – and perhaps we need a revival of this tradition. Of course, rural affordable housing is vital for keeping villages alive, and local councils and housing agencies need support to provide this. All of these changes will help take the focus away from the obsession of the ‘housing ladder’ and make houses valued as homes, not investments. Better planning case studies: CPRE Hampshire have been doing their bit to highlight the kind of good practice in brownfield regeneration that councils across the country could learn from. The Branch have endorsed a development by Drum Housing Association at Privett Green, Petersfield (see photo). The scheme managed to replace 58 “temporary” and difficult to heat concrete houses with 148 low carbon houses on a brownfield site in centre of the town. With good design and input from residents, it was possible to improve the amount of shared space and create a real sense of community in what was not previously a welcoming environment. A walk around the development - which preserves an existing meadow and stream, and incorporates wildlife boxes and open play areas - confirms CPRE’s belief that the development is an blueprint for the South East, where there is such demand for housing, but so little space. Privett Green has proved that with good design and consultation, affordable housing can be financially viable, in tune with the needs of residents, and good for the environment. Drum even engaged the school children in the consultation process, and it’s this level of involvement that perhaps explains why one year on, the estate is pristine, not one piece of litter or graffiti to be found – all in all a worthy recipient of CPRE Hampshire’s 2009 design award. A new rural affordable housing development commissioned by CPRE Suffolk set out to meet the criteria of being visually stunning while enhancing the village of Elmswell. The development was also designed to have a sense of place and community. The homes themselves took inspiration from traditional Suffolk barns, while the communal space included a football pitch, allotment plots, meadow, orchard, and regular clearings connecting the village to the farmed landscape of Suffolk. In Somerset, the CPRE branch were involved in a new development that has utilised a listed derelict warehouse, and cleaned up an old oil depot beside the River Parrett. Great Bow Yard is now a thriving brownfield development of housing and local enterprises which has actually enhanced the local countryside. Great Bow Yard in Somerset. As well as being intrinsically low carbon by using a brownfield site and utilising some existing buildings, the development uses local and recycled materials where possible, solar panels and wood pellet stoves, with toilets flushed by rainwater. As you can see, it is even possible to commute to work by canoe – that’s if you don’t work within the community, in the bistro or offices that form part of the restored warehouse. The development was the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Awards project of the year for 2008 and also won the regeneration and sustainability categories. The Elmswell development in Suffolk we’ve already mentioned also made a feature of energy efficiency and carbon reducing technologies, being described by the Architects Journal as “as close to zero carbon as any multi-unit residential project completed to date in the UK, but there are no solar panels or wind turbines here." In 2009, CPRE nominated ‘Sustainable Youlgrave’ in the Peak District for funding from the government’s Low Carbon Challenge; one of the leaders of the project is former CPRE campaigner John Youatt. The villagers of Youlgrave are leading their own drive towards a local, sustainable energy system, with the intention of reducing the community’s reliance on fossil fuels by exploiting five types of renewable energy – wind, water, sun, biomass and methane – on a local scale. There is a second aim to provide an income stream to fund other non-profit-making activities, such as energy conservation and environmental education. They also aim to improve the sustainability of the local economy and to increase the efficiency of water services, with a range of small-scale renewables which the villagers hope to exploit to be less dependent on the National Grid and provide clean, green energy for nearly 600 homes. The National Park Authority is funding the group’s feasibility study into using animal waste from nearby farms to provide power from biogas, and the village is also running feasibility studies in small scale wind power and hydro-electric power generation. The next move will be for Youlgrave to establish its very own Community Green Energy Company and a community charity, so that if any profits are generated (rather literally), a percentage would be held in trust for the community. Localism – giving people a voice Design and density Getting empty homes back into use Alternatives to the market

Landscape protection Secure new protected landscapes
(Image – The South Downs) Protecting landscapes from development, habitat loss and pollution Recent successes: CPRE made a public call for more funding for wave and tidal power instead of coal, highlighting disparities between Government policy and actual funding. Our supporters sent almost 1,000 s to ministers on the matter. Weeks later, the Government announced extra funding for renewable marine energy. * We gave evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee on the Government’s energy policy. CPRE called for environmental impacts to be properly and fairly considered in planning major infrastructure projects. CPRE lobbied alongside other environmental groups to convince the Government to give local communities a fair say on renewable energy schemes, to ensure they are delivered in a landscape-sensitive way. An alliance led by CPRE called for a long-term plan to dismantle three powerlines owned by the National Grid that run through our National Parks and to replace them with underground or undersea cables, or re-route them. CPRE launched a new policy on onshore wind energy in 2009, enabling us to support appropriate wind farm developments as part of our longstanding commitment to renewables. Early in the year, CPRE South Yorkshire supported wind turbines next to an existing development near Barnsley, which would have added five megawatts of clean energy without significant landscape impacts. A more damaging application with the South Downs National Park was dropped after CPRE Hampshire mobilised public opposition and cited comments by then Energy Minister Ed Miliband, on CPRE’s blog, that wind farms were unsuitable for important sites as National Parks and AONBs. The South Downs was confirmed as England’s 10th National Park in early 2009, the culmination of an 80-year CPRE campaign. We played a key role in ensuring the National Park’s boundaries were as wide as possible – all eight extra areas of land CPRE recommended were included. Margaret Paren of CPRE Hampshire was elected as the first chair of the inaugural South Downs National Park Authority in early 2010. CPRE responded to Government consultations on coastal change policy, emphasising the value of protecting England’s coastline from development. We pressed for the planning system to help coasts adapt to the effects of climate change and needs of agriculture while protecting the benefits of public access. Our lobbying also helped ensure that the Marine and Coastal Access Act secured a coastal access corridor all around the English coastline, while highlighting the importance of the 'seascapes' adjoining protected areas on land. More than four out of five people (83%) have their view of the night sky affected by light pollution, half find their sleep affected, and most are unable to study the stars. These are some of the findings from a survey of almost 1,400 people that CPRE carried out with the British Astronomical Association’s Campaign for Dark Skies to find out how light pollution is affecting people’s lives. The evidence helps us in our lobbying of the Government for long-awaited planning guidance to control lighting. Also in 2009, CPRE’s Emma Marrington won an award from the British Astronomical Association for her work to highlight the damage done by light pollution. CPRE has successfully lobbied for green payments for hedgerow management and this year launched a scheme to train the next generation of hedgelayers. Thanks to funding from a generous bequest from a CPRE member, their legacy, and the latest initiative in CPRE’s 40-year campaign, has literally taken root in the heart of the idyllic Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. CPRE South Cotswolds, used the legacy to replant 1.5 km of mixed-species hedgerow on Dartley Farm by recruiting the local community to help with the planting, including pupils from the village primary school and students from the nearby Royal Agricultural College. The students are monitoring the effects of the hedges on biodiversity and the landowner has seen the landscape benefits of hedgerows and is now planning to restore them across his estate. CPRE in Norfolk and Surrey has been fighting to reduce light pollution and energy waste by working with the county council, police and property owners to ensure that unintrusive and energy efficient lighting is applied to all new developments and street lighting replacement schemes. The branch has also been monitoring planning applications across Norfolk for lighting and work closely with parish councils on lighting issues. CPRE’s policy to see a reliable renewables mix, including wind turbines in the right place, that reduces carbon without wrecking our most precious landscapes.’ CPRE’s campaigners in the Peak District and Lake District National Parks have been hard at work identifying powerlines that intrude most upon the countryside and could be fairly easily buried underground. Working with the regulator, Ofgem, and electricity companies they have helped set up long-term programmes which are making our two favourite national parks a little wilder each year. Another part of the renewable energy mix involves making the most of our fast flowing rivers and streams. The Peak District’s the perfect place for small scale hydro power with plenty of rain and fast flowing rivers running down from the hills. A major survey by CPRE Friends of the Lake District has highlighted the potential for hydro-power in the National Park. Because there is a relatively low demand for energy there, without major industry, a hydro scheme can often provide most of the energy needs for the nearest village – one of the case studies looked at was Alport, where 70% of the village’s electricity consumption comes from a hydro turbine fitted within a historic mill – saving 100 tonnes of carbon emissions a year. Our National Parks often have the best resources of potential renewable energy. They also have sensitive landscapes enjoyed by thousands of us for their wildness and tranquillity, generating millions of pounds from the tourist economy. ‘Micro-hydro’ is the kind of small scale renewable energy that can harness this reserve of natural power without ruining landscapes. It can actually help preserve our heritage too – like Alport, most of the sites studied were old watermills that have fallen into disuse. They are now absolutely ripe for redeveloping, a fitting revival of our rich legacy of water power. CPRE launched a new policy on onshore wind energy in 2009, enabling us to confidently approve appropriate wind farm developments – as part of our long history of support for renewable energy - in areas where they would not harm important landscapes, damage communities or shatter tranquillity. Early in the year, CPRE South Yorkshire supported 5 wind turbines next to an existing development at Royd Moor, near Barnsley, which by standing on lower ground added a further five megawatts of clean energy, without significant landscape impacts. Bob Barfoot of CPRE Devon led a 2009 campaign against wind farm applications close to the boundary of Exmoor National Park, engaging expert opinion from an independent landscape consultant, and proving that the wind farms would have breached existing landscape protection and planning policy. At the public inquiry in November 2009, as part of the Rural Exmoor Alliance, CPRE presented evidence that the national Exmoor is a national treasure whose tranquillity, dark skies and unique landscape would have been industrialised by the wind farms - which would have been illuminated at the insistence of the Ministry of Defence. Early in 2010, all Bob’s efforts were vindicated when the government’s Planning Inspector dismissed appeals from wind power companies seeking to build the wind farms. Campaigners at CPRE Hampshire mobilised public opposition against proposals to erect two huge wind turbines on top of the downland at East Meon in the middle of the South Downs National Park. If the project had been approved, it would have set a national precedent for wind turbines in all other National Parks and AONBs. CPRE lead a coalition with the Campaign for National Parks, the Open Spaces Society, the Ramblers and the South Downs Society, and coordinated with a local action group set up by villagers. It distributed a leaflet to local residents in surrounding villages in response to a leaflet distributed by the developer, and published a briefing and critique about the turbines, which set out detailed planning and legal arguments against the proposal. Parish councils were given briefings. Opposition was so strong that the proposals were abandoned in August Volkswind, the company concerned, were understood to have dropped the proposal in the light of the high level of public opposition they had encountered and a statement by Energy Minister Ed Miliband, on CPRE’s blog, that wind farms should not be built in National Parks and AONBs. Truly green energy will also involve cutting back on our use of fossil fuels. Our biggest concern by far is the most polluting form, coal, and the most environmentally destructive means of mining it – opencasting (or ‘surface mining’). Not only do opencast mines wreck some of our finest landscapes and shatter tranquillity, they have a devastating effect on nearby communities and wildlife, while hindering efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. We hope that the ‘presumption against opencast coal’ which CPRE campaigned for 30 years to be part of official minerals policy, should be strongly upheld on the grounds that the damage to landscapes, quality of life, communities, and the wider environment – which cannot be outweighed by the benefits of the relatively small amounts of coal gained. Secure new protected landscapes Protect and plant hedgerows Minimise noise and light pollution Protection for ‘ordinary’ countryside

Green Belts Preventing urban sprawl Providing health and leisure
(Image – Reigate Hill in the Metropolitan Green Belt) Green Belts are the crowning achievement of CPRE’s campaign for planning to protect the countryside, but there is still work to be done. The joint CPRE/Natural England report on the state of our Green Belts in 2010 recognised that action is needed to ‘green’ the green belt – to make them more attractive, more varied, richer in wildlife, and more tranquil. Funding for regeneration and landscape enhancement will help build on successes like Community Forests and Country Parks, while tackling litter and offering incentives for green farming will improve the urban fringe. These improvements will help green belts survive intact, and even expand in places, partly because their quality and utility has greatly increased and partly because they continue to play an important, well understood role in planning policy. CPRE’s major 2010 Green Belt report produced in conjunction with the Government agency Natural England has produced the following headlines: Health and leisure Green Belts serve 88% of the population (45 million people) living in urban areas within Green Belt boundaries. New surveys for this report show that 95% of people value the beauty of the green belt and 58% have visited for leisure in the past 12 months. Planning Green Belts have driven urban regeneration by directing new developments to brownfield sites. Green Belts have helped preserve the character of historic towns and maintained the landscape setting of World Heritage sites like Bath and Saltaire. Only 21% of the public would justify building on the countryside to expand towns and create jobs. Food and farming Green Belt has an equivalent amount of Grade 1 and 2 agricultural land to the rest of England, and are ideally placed to provide local produce to cities, reduce food miles and develop more self-sufficiency, food security and healthier diets. 80% of the public are interested in buying food produced locally in the Green Belt, and 78% would like to farmland used to grow food for the cities and towns it surrounds. 23% of undeveloped land in the Green Belt is not registered for agricultural use, partly because it is used for paddocks and large gardens, and partly because Green Belt farming can be seen as a marginal activity due to additional problems like fly-tipping, trespass and vandalism (so there is room for improvement here.) Climate change Undeveloped Green Belt land naturally tackles climate change through carbon storage, cooling the heat island effect of cities and providing flood protection. Our research of Green Belts has given many examples of their importance as wildlife habitats. The return of red kites to Gateshead’s Green Belt has inspired projects in local schools and new walking-for-fitness programmes. On the other side of the Pennines, food produced in the Green Belt reaches the residents of Manchester and St Helens courtesy of the Unicorn Grocery. In the East of England, major environmental restoration and improvement is happening at Rainham Marshes and Cambridge, and the Woodland Trust is planting 600,000 trees at St Albans. The London Green Belt is a major resource of parkland and open space, but also has a growing range of businesses and facilities such as the ‘care farm’ for rehabilitation of offenders at Chigwell and local food growing at Colne Valley Regional Park. CPRE Oxfordshire’s Gordon Garraway received a prestigious ‘Volunteer of the Year 2009’ award for his work creating the Oxford Green Belt Way, a 50-mile circular walk around Oxford. One of the reasons for the success of the walk is that the Green Belt has preserved the historic landscape setting of Oxford – providing the best views of the famous dreaming spires by protecting the open character of the countryside on the edge of the city. Gordon's walk has also helped highlight the equally important role of the Green Belt as a place for free recreation and enjoyment. It’s not just about restricting sprawl – it is vital in supporting wildlife and providing a place to exercise, explore and find much needed peace and quiet – all on the doorstep. Preventing urban sprawl Providing health and leisure Helping urban regeneration Growing food on the Green Belt Tackling climate change

Stop the Drop: litter and fly-tipping
(Image – litter picking in Dorset) Flagship campaign – Litter Recent successes: Our Litterbugs report has had a wide-reaching impact within the waste sector. It proposed the introduction of a bottle deposit scheme to encourage recycling, and suggestions for improving the design of products and packaging to reduce litter. * Our LitterAction website is now an online community of 6,000 activists aged 3 to 87. Over 300 litter groups all around the country have picked up over 40,000 sacks of litter between them in just two years. They work with all sections of the community, from schoolchildren to farmers, landlords to businesses, housing associations to young offenders. CPRE received £25,000 from the charity Keep Britain Tidy to support our branches’ work on litter – 20 CPRE groups were given much-needed litter picking equipment. Keep Britain Tidy gave a further £10,000 to help branches work with parish councils. We’re using this to appoint 20 dedicated parish litter wardens around the country. In Westminster, a Stop the Drop exhibition was held in the Houses of Parliament raising awareness and cross-party support for our campaign against litter and fly-tipping. CPRE also met with Environment Minister Hilary Benn to arrange an unprecedented round-table summit in early 2010 for representatives of Government, Keep Britain Tidy and major businesses concerned about litter. CPRE Dorset’s litter activists have been at the forefront of this community outreach, tackling one of the most common forms of litter – cigarette butts. The smoking ban resulted in up to 25 tonnes of extra cigarette rubbish being dumped on Britain’s streets every day, but Dorchester had practically no suitable provision for the safe disposal of cigarette ends. They littered the pavements and streets in their thousands every day. The Dorchester Stop The Drop group saw that to have a really sustained impact, only a coordinated effort from the whole town would get rid of a major cause of the litter that costs the country £2.1m a day to clear up. The group put in hundreds of hours visiting 70 different organisations and writing to 27 head offices. Donations from CPRE Dorset, the town council and the Business Improvement District, together with an offer from the district council for their refuse teams to empty the butt bins, meant the group could offer all businesses a package deal that made sense. 47 businesses bought a total of 69 bins and every pub agreed to have at least one bin installed. The group even found a locally-made bin that was so well-designed it received immediate planning approval from the council’s conservation and design officer – a major achievement in a historic town like Dorchester which has the most listed buildings of any English high street. Dorchester residents are now noticeably more careful with all forms of litter – the publicity gained by the project has made everyone realise how sad it is to see such a special town covered in rubbish. Encouragingly, in early 2010, major tobacco companies were already looking at rolling out the scheme across the country. Another form of litter all too common in our towns is of the ‘fast food’ variety. CPRE Craven campaigners noticed that polystyrene boxes were beginning to clog up the streets of Skipton in North Yorkshire and set about addressing the issue of takeaway litter by converting businesses to ‘bioboxes’ made of sugar cane which break down in days. The group went door-to-door to get customers and businesses alike interested, aware and anxious to protect the environment. The campaign has been noted across the county; parks and streets are no longer strewn with polystyrene, and even the most reluctant shops now encouraging customers to use the new packaging. Ecological and personal responsibility is all part of Stop the Drop’s educational message about litter and waste management. Litter education, of course, also has to target the next generation. CPRE and The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust have produced a new creative education pack for schools revealing how litter can easily hurt or even kill wildlife, and putting into sharp focus the wider damage litter has on our environment. In Wiltshire, Derry Hill Primary School’s Eco-Committee – formed by pupils aged 4 to 11 – launched the pack with a presentation on the environmental work carried out at their school. Younger pupils decorated the main hall with litter and other waste materials, while older children acted out a version of the litter pack’s storybook wearing costumes made entirely from waste materials gathered from the local Scrap store. Other children played musical instruments made from waste materials to accompany a song they have written about living in a more sustainable way. The Department for Children, Schools and Families, welcomed the initiative, saying: ‘A litter-free school (and of course litter-free routes to school) is a good indicator of a school’s commitment to caring for the environment.’ Litter education is a fundamental part of looking after our environment. If we can change behaviour so that people take responsibility for their own waste, and make less to begin with, then there is hope that they will be better equipped to make bigger lifestyle choices that will protect he countryside and wider environment. CPRE Hampshire helped get this message across at a local junior school in Liss, as part of a ‘Health and Citizenship’ week linked to the national curriculum, using the schools pack to create projects and activities. The school’s headmaster said the pack provided "a wonderful opportunity for the school to learn about the impact of litter in the environment and for the children to share their work with the community. As the school is now part of the South Downs National Park it is more important than ever that our pupils learn about respecting and protecting our Rural England." In some regions, issues such as proposals for incinerator and landfill sites are the priority. Campaigners against such proposals work together to fight for more appropriate locations for these facilities, or better still to aim to avoid as much waste as possible. CPRE Sussex have been leading calls for the county council to reverse its waste policy of tipping waste on green fields. The council proposes a "Land raise" - building a hill out of waste on a greenfield site. CPRE believe that there would be no need for ‘landraise’ if the council applied a ‘waste hierarchy’ which concentrates on avoiding waste, re-use and recycling, or even incinerating waste for heat and energy. CPRE Sussex believe tipping waste should be the absolute last resort, and hope that like litter and fly-tipping in CPRE’s Vision, by 2026, no waste will be tolerated. Reducing packaging waste and litter Encouraging reuse and recycling Working with councils, schools and farmers Bringing government and business together

Food and farming Promoting local food and small shops
(Image – A Devon farm near Totnes) Food and farming Recent successes: Our major 2009 Green Belt survey was the first to investigate the environmental state of Green Belt land and the benefits it provides for people and wildlife. Results published in early 2010 showed 80% of the public want to buy food produced on farmland in their local Green Belt. * CPRE’s work to map local food webs continued through Over 230 volunteers interviewed shoppers, retailers and food producers in 18 pilot areas. Food webs show the importance of local food within rural economies by tracing the links between farmers, shops and other businesses. We will publish the initial results in 2010, and are calling for support for people to produce, distribute and sell food locally. We took part in the Commission for Rural Communities inquiry into the future of the uplands. CPRE recommended policies that protect the social fabric and environment of upland areas, and pushed for support for hill farmers who do so much to conserve many of our best-loved landscapes. CPRE’s Ian Woodhurst chaired the farming and rural development work of the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of environmental organisations. As a result of the Link’s lobbying the Government set more stringent targets for its voluntary green farming scheme. This will help protect biodiversity through encouraging wildlife habitats on farmland. A scheme from CPRE Cheshire promotes local shops by creating an online database of local food retailers and farm shops, in conjunction with an annual award; the scheme is now being replicated by CPRE Northamptonshire and Durham. These initiatives are actively supporting CPRE’s goal that wherever you live, you should be able to walk into a shop, supermarket or restaurant and find a selection of high-quality, affordable local food that comes from the nearby countryside and is produced in a way that is good for the environment. Buying local food means that you are putting your money directly into the pockets of those who have grown and nurtured it. Not only is it great for the local economy, but it’s satisfying to know that the people who worked hardest to put food on our plates are benefiting, rather than the supermarkets. This is the main thrust of CPRE’s work to map local food networks across the country. CPRE has been mapping the connections between farmers, local food shops and consumers (‘food webs’). We hope the survey information will help protect the food webs we have, and make the case for all towns and cities to realise the economic, health and carbon-reducing benefits of a food web. If we can increase understanding of the significance of local food webs across the country, it is a much smaller step to then translate that into action. Practical policies can increase the opportunities for local food producers and small shops. We may even persuade supermarkets to work ‘alongside’ the food webs or become part of them, rather than crushing them completely. If not, we will have to hope that armed with our food mapping information, local councils and the supermarket ombudsman will have the courage to stand up to big business and save our local foods and farmers. CPRE Northamptonshire have even made sure that the local foods message is reaching the youngest audiences with their award-winning for their Food Miles Schools Pack to teach children the importance of local produce for healthy eating and reducing carbon. Their ‘Buy Local’ campaign also highlighted the thriving local food sectors we have a round the country that should provide inspiration to the rest of the country – the branch received public commendations from all over Northamptonshire nominating butchers and livestock breeders, farm shops and village stores, artisan bakeries and traditional piemakers. Others proposed cooperatives and cafés, box schemes and online food networks, chocolatiers and gastro-pubs – this gives a flavour of the diversity of the local food sector! The Branch were happy to be able to present an award to a farm-based, family business. Gerald Bailey's family process milk from a 100-strong herd on their Hardwick farm, and sell the bottled milk and cream to local shops, farm shops, corner shops and garden centres in the surrounding villages. At a time when the dairy sector is struggling it goes to show that there are viable local outlets other than supermarkets. One such CPRE Northamptonshire award-winning outlet, Sulgrave Community Store, celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2009, and is now turning over a small profit. The shop was a fantastic conversion of a derelict historic building into a real community hub, and proof that when a village store closes down, the community can step in. What’s even more impressive is the selection of local produce which means that villagers in a ten mile radius have access to the produce from the surrounding farms. CPRE Fylde in Lancashire led a major campaign with local community groups against an application for 264 houses on prime agricultural land in the Wesham. As well as highlighting the economic and policy arguments, the CPRE campaigners also made use of a Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) as a key part of their evidence. The LCA showed that Wesham was a historic medieval landscape with unparalleled views of Pendle Hill and the Bowland Fells, outstanding tranquillity (evidenced by CPRE’s tranquillity mapping) and important habitats. Early in 2010, all the hard work appeared to have paid off as the District Council refused the application, swayed by evidence from 20 speakers, including CPRE Fylde District Group. A site visit prior to the meeting helped convinced councillors that productive farmland can also be a beautiful part of living, local heritage. Cheshire CPRE believes local foods form an important part of the local economy, supporting jobs and rural services, keeping our villages and towns vibrant, and helping the farmers who look after the countryside we love. Buying food produced close to home from nearby shops, restaurants and other businesses also cuts down on polluting and fuel-hungry food miles, and means we eat food at its freshest and most nutritious. As part of their campaign to support local food, rural shops and services, the Cheshire group championed the ‘Buy Local’ food awards. Winners include farm shops, market traders, high street shops, vegetable box schemes, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants that are making significant efforts to provide genuinely local food, offering top quality produce, great local service, and benefiting the community and the environment. The CPRE encourages people to consume local food as opposed to food that has travelled miles to reach the shelf. We support local producers and suppliers. We have a team of people across England who are working to map local food webs so that we can see what happens to food from the moment it is produced to consumption. Mapping Local Food Webs is growing as a project and many volunteers work in the area of encouraging the public to eat food sourced locally. Events include local food education schemes, local food markets, local food awards and other events. The aim is to highlight local foods as a real alternative to importing. We want to see the Common Agricultural Policy, or whatever system of farm support emerges by 2026, become an environmental and social payment scheme rewarding farmers for conserving valued landscapes, and making them accessible. Budgets for green farming schemes should be matched to the true value to society of all that the countryside provides, ensuring that the countryside becomes more beautiful, more valued and richer in flora and fauna. Set at the right level, farm support payments could help support value added food production in areas where farmers find it hard to compete because of the distorting effects of global supply chains. These payments could also help farming practices adapt to meet the challenges arising from climate change. CPRE’s campaigning has already helped secure green farming payments and other incentives for farmers to maintain our vital green infrastructure. Our work with the NFU has also tried to put an economic value on the work farmers do as stewards of the countryside. CPRE chairs the farming and rural development work of the Wildlife and Countryside Link coalition of environmental organisations. As a result of Link’s lobbying the Government set more stringent targets for its voluntary green farming scheme ensuring the biodiversity of the countryside is protected through wildlife habitats on farm land, and helping us work towards our farming vision. Promoting local food and small shops Protecting agricultural land Rewarding farmers for conserving landscapes Encouraging farmers to protect wildlife Fair prices for produce

Rural communities Affordable housing keeping villages alive
(Image – Elmswell affordable homes in Suffolk) Rural communities Recent successes: CPRE joined five other national organisations to launch the Rural Coalition. The Coalition wants to see a more sustainable future for rural communities and a bigger say for local people in what happens in their area – partly through more powers for elected parish councils. We worked with the Coalition to make recommendations to the Government to encourage affordable rural housing and investment in rural public transport, shops and essential services. * CPRE is working to improve rural bus services to reduce car dependency and rural isolation. We’ve led calls for fairer ticketing schemes and investment in small rural bus operators. We’ve also campaigned for car-sharing schemes and taxi-buses. CPRE and the National Hedgelaying Society launched an accreditation scheme in October 2009 to attract a new generation of hedgelayers and pass on traditional skills needed to build new hedgerows. As well as reviving England’s hedgerows for the benefit of wildlife and the landscape, the scheme will help reverse the decline in rural crafts and make this a valued rural trade once more. CPRE groups contributed over half the responses to the Government's consultation on its new road safety strategy, calling for protection for rural walkers and cyclists. Thanks to this pressure, the Government changed its guidance on speed limits, committed to trialling new 40mph zones on rural roads, and to make it easier to introduce 20mph zones in villages without increasing street sign clutter. CPRE Devon have recently started a debate on rural railways by calling for feasibility studies on the reopening of closed branch lines. CPRE recognise that a crucial part of maintaining vibrant villages is to ensure that there is affordable housing available for young people in the countryside. With pressures from second homes, retirees and urban to rural migration, it is more important than ever to ensure that villages don’t become mere dormitories for commuters, or ghost villages that only come alive when the holiday makers arrive. This quandary was at the heart of CPRE Suffolk’s decision to launch a competition inviting designs to meet their commission for a truly affordable, high density, low carbon development of 26 homes on a hectare of scrubland in the village of Elmswell. If that wasn't challenging enough, the brief insisted the development had to look stunning and yet in keeping with its surroundings, and most importantly, must be reserved for families with a connection to the village. Rural housing In recent years there has continued to be a net exodus from towns and cities to more rural areas – and this urban exodus has been highly socially selective. This concerns us. We do not want to see an increasingly polarised countryside. So we want more homes in market towns and villages, but believe that most of these should be affordable in perpetuity so that local people on lower incomes can rent or part-own them. People in lower paid rural jobs should be able to find decent, affordable homes close to their work. Rural crafts and jobs CPRE and the National Hedgelaying Society launched an accreditation scheme in October 2009 to attract a new generation of hedgelayers and pass on the ancient skills needed to build new hedgerows. As well as reviving England’s hedgerow tradition for the benefit of wildlife and the landscape, CPRE hopes the scheme will help reverse the declining trend for rural crafts and make this a valued and viable rural trade once more. Tourism As well as more people living in the countryside and working locally, we want to see more people taking holidays there, which will entail a major growth in visitor accommodation. B&B’s and guest houses are a massive part of the rural economy, and farm stays increasingly offer a great avenue for diversification for farmers. Many of our members live in villages and market towns, and care for their communities, even those for whom the countryside means beautiful places to visit for holidays and day trips instinctively dislike the idea that villages have become museums without any organic life. Decent services within the countryside also cut down on the disruption – and carbon impacts – of car travel. We are campaigning with the aim of getting people walking more in Only 26% of trips in the UK are now made on foot or cycle, compared with 35% in Germany and 40% in Holland. The dense network of rights of way etched across the landscape reverberates with history and is a treasured part of the English countryside. A reduction in road motor traffic, particularly fast road traffic, would help walking and cycling, as would the development of a comprehensive network of safe and convenient routes (which we are constantly lobbying for). Communications CPRE Durham is engaging with local councils and development agencies to drive home the message that investment in broadband internet for isolated rural areas is a key pillar of rural development. Rural areas can feel isolated from the mainstream, but the internet is a great equaliser. Parts of rural England are already lucky enough to have decent internet speeds, but our hope is that well before 2026, the countryside will be on a level playing field with the cities, allowing rural business to thrive and help keep communities alive. Affordable housing keeping villages alive Rural public transport to connect the countryside Tourism to boost the rural economy Supporting rural shops and businesses

How we work Challenging the Government: improving national policy
(Image: CPRE Durham and local cubs) How we work: This picture illustrates the way CPRE works with all ages and community groups – in this case Cub Scouts - on hands-on activities like litter picking. At the opposite end of the scale, we have regular meetings with the Government to present our own research and policy ideas in order change laws to benefit the countryside. CPRE is continuing the fight on all its historic campaigns, but we now have two powerful tools to ensure our influence and achievement continues to protect the countryside for the benefit of all of us: A ‘Manifesto for the Countryside’ is helping us challenge the new government to embrace the best future for the Countryside, and our ‘Vision for the Countryside’ of 2026 (our centenerary year), is helping us engage the public in our long term goals. We are changing attitudes, encouraging people to embrace the beauty of England’s landscapes and enjoy the wonderful green, open spaces on their doorstep. Through grassroots campaigning and national lobbying, CPRE urges people to support the countryside and promote urban renewal. Each year, our network of county branches and district groups stick up for their local countryside by assessing planning applications, raising the alarm when the countryside is threatened and campaigning to enhance local landscapes. On a national level, we press the Government to recognise the value of the countryside and the benefits it brings through supporting a reinvigorated, democratic planning system, safeguarding precious green spaces, promoting tranquillity, and tackling the blight and expense of litter and fly-tipping. This unique combination gives us real influence from Parish to Parliament. Challenging the Government: improving national policy Engaging the public Grass roots campaigning Proven influence from parish to parliament

Our vision A countryside valued by all Green towns and cities
(Image: Peak District) Our Vision By 2026, our centenary year, we want: To change attitudes – so that beauty, tranquillity, green spaces and local distinctiveness are valued by all, as something we all need for our quality of life - and of equal importance as financial prosperity, and so that homes are seen as places to live rather than investments. Because of this increased attachment to local environments and landscapes, anti-social crimes like littering and fly-tipping and noise pollution will be increasingly rare. Hopefully, this will mean that by 2026, the £2.4 million pounds A DAY spent clearing up litter will be spent on something far more constructive. Better planning will ensure we reinvigorate towns and cities by protecting green belts and making good use of derelict sites to create new eco-housing and green space, with people taking an active role in the decisions that shape their local environment. New life in the countryside, through affordable housing, jobs, services and transport in rural communities. Thriving English tourism and a culture of outdoor play and adventure for children will improve health and engage people with the benefits of relaxation and enjoyment in the countryside. Protected local food webs and a level playing field between small shops and supermarkets will see farmers thrive and healthy, fresh and seasonal food for us all. Farmland will be recognised as far too valuable to build on – for its beauty as well as its productivity - and we will be getting close to self-sufficiency in food, hugely reducing food miles. Our landscapes will have changed to incorporate wilderness, woodlands and wetlands, encouraging wildlife and allowing nature to become a barrier to climate change, storing water and carbon and protecting soils and habitats. Green energy will be truly green – that is in harmony with the landscape, through a mix of renewables, increasingly in small-scale networks to really benefit local communities and minimise damaging and inefficient grids. All buildings will be energy efficient and have close to zero-carbon emissions, while wasteful light pollution will be a thing of the past. Our Vice-President Nick Crane has set out how he thinks the Vision will help tackle climate change too: “All over the country, CPRE is engaged in projects that are already beacons of sustainability: proving that low carbon housing can make the best use of our brownfield sites; leaving our precious soil to store carbon and grow food; applying our thinking on eliminating litter to the task of minimising all waste and pollution; utilising our natural energy resources without damaging the landscapes we are ultimately trying to save; promoting the virtues of local produce to reduce food miles and keep rural communities alive. Nurturing and replanting hedgerows, aided by CPRE’s longstanding campaign for greener farming, is another way of making our landscape more resilient to the effects of climate change, and a more welcoming habitat for the species that will be vital in maintaining balance in our fragile ecosystems. We mustn’t forget too that the low-carbon, resilient nation of the future requires plenty of accessible green space for recreation, for sport and for the uncountable, life-affirming pleasures of the countryside.” You will find out how we are already on the way to achieving some of these ambitions as we look at our main campaigns. A countryside valued by all Green towns and cities Vibrant villages Thriving landscapes

Our ‘Manifesto for the Countryside’
(Image: Bill Bryson handing the South Downs petition to the Government) The Manifesto The year before a General Election is always a critical time for the countryside. Issues concerning the environment, rural communities and the landscape can be drowned out by debates on the economy, taxation and immigration. CPRE prepared a ‘Manifesto for the Countryside’ in the knowledge that decisions made by the next Government would have a profound impact on rural England. The manifesto set out the key actions needed in the next five years to protect and improve England’s countryside and was a lobbying tool for thousands of our members and supporters, enabling them to challenge candidates to support CPRE’s agenda. The manifesto called for progress from the next government in three areas: Support for the planning system - to ensure it remains the most democratic system we have to protect and enhance the countryside, while renewing urban areas, supporting low carbon transport and affordable housing, and making the most of brownfield sites for new development. Better protection for National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Green Belts and other valued landscapes, for the beauty and tranquillity they offer us all. Action on litter and fly-tipping to make better use of existing laws, improve litter education, and introduce a bottle deposit scheme. Litter also spoils many areas of countryside and costs the tax-payer £2.4million a day to clear up. We had a fantastic response from the public with over 90 letters of support for the manifesto being published in local and national papers, with a combined readership of 2.2m. We were happy that many of our goals were included in the main three parties’ manifestos, and subsequently upheld by the coalition government. We intend to continue to press David Cameron and Nick Clegg as they lead the new coalition Government, while continuing to work with Labour to ensure an opposition with genuine countryside credentials and concerns. We want the government to: Give the public a say in new housing and infrastructure Protect landscapes Take action on litter

CPRE in Europe Pioneers of European lobbying
White cliffs always make us think of Dame Vera Lynn, and funnily enough she played a major role in CPRE’s first European campaign…. 1972 CPRE organised direct representations to the European economic community and defeated proposals to increase lorry weights – the first such campaign by a British amenity society. Dame Vera Lynn was the figurehead of a campaign which aimed to stop European juggernauts thundering through English villages and shattering tranquillity. 1974 CPRE helped found the European Environment Bureau (EEB) to enable further representations to the EEC, and immediately pressed for funds to be made available for landscape conservation schemes. 1985 In a campaign to reform the EC’s Agricultural Structures Directive. CPRE stopped funding for many damaging agricultural activities and secured the first ‘green’ farm payments. 1987 CPRE used EC policy to obtain a decisive legal opinion showing government proposals for water privatisation would contravene official European policy. This resulted in the withdrawal of the plans and the establishment of the National Rivers Authority. 1980s and 90s CPRE kept up pressure on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to build in biodiversity and sustainable farming into its subsidy structure. 1989 We teamed up with Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace to produce Blueprint for a Green Europe: an environmental agenda for the 1989 European elections. 1991 As the country is beset by numerous damaging road schemes, CPRE issued a complaint to the EC over the UK Implementation of Environmental Assessment for Roads. 1992 CPRE produced a Campaigner’s Guide to using EC Environmental Law with our honorary Counsel, Richard Macrory While the EC was looking at spatial planning issues, CPRE worked through EEB, including producing a joint statement with Friends of the Earth, on key principles to underpin the so-called European Spatial Development Perspective. 2007 As members of the Better Bankside scheme to promote urban regeneration and green spaces – which CPRE see as a way of making brownfield land more attractive to developers than green belt – we sent a delegate to a fact-finding visit to Holland to explore the benefits of urban regeneration in densely population countries. 2009 CPRE hosted a delegation from our sister organisation in Denmark, the Danish Society for Nature Conservation. We wanted to learn from their success as a campaigning organisation with a local Branch structure and 135,000 members. We also benefitted from hearing about their progress with community-led renewable energy, which we have put into practice with our recent, ‘Get Generating’ report. 2011 and ongoing We've done lots of work on container deposit refund schemes that has an international dimension (including close work with Germany). A lot of European nations carried on with bottle deposits after they fell out of favour here, and we are now using their expertise to show that such schemes can still work here. We've also done some work with partner organisations in Europe on tranquillity - our campaigner Graeme Willis gave a seminar in the Netherlands where they are planning to build on the our work to develop a tranquillity map for a designated natural area. The tranquillity work has also been presented at a conference in Barcelona, so there is a growing interest on the continent in using tranquillity mapping to protect the environment. We continue to work on CAP reform, lobbying Brussels directly and working with partners like the Green Alliance and Wildlife and Countryside Link. With new Common Agricultural Policy reform proposals due in mid-2011 we continued to lobby the Government, the European Parliament and the European Commission to bring about a reform that prevents direct payments damaging the countryside and increases the funding for agri-environment measures to maintain and enhance the character of our agricultural landscapes. We are also monitoring interesting developments in green belts coming from Eastern Europe, where the line of the former iron curtain is being turned into a giant linear nature reserve. Our Chief Executive, Shaun Spiers, recently went to Germany on a renewable energy fact-finding mission. The study trip organised by the Co-op looked at small-scale, community-owned schemes where solar panels, wind turbines and biogas from local farms all power the community directly, rather than being fed into a national grid. Pioneers of European lobbying A thirty year campaign to make CAP fit the countryside Learning from best practice across Europe Spreading the message on tranquillity

CPRE are the champions of England’s Countryside.
Why support CPRE? CPRE are the champions of England’s Countryside. We are in the best position to ensure the need for energy, jobs and housing is not at the expense of the countryside, thanks to: Local and national action; expertise on all rural issues; our proven track record With your help - as partners, members, donors or volunteers – we could do even more…. (Image – Ryedale, North Yorkshire) Why support CPRE? The countryside faces huge challenges, including development pressures made more severe by a weakened planning system; changes to agricultural markets and subsidy regimes; and climate change. These challenges would be daunting at any time, but they come in the context of a culture increasingly disengaged from the natural world, and where an identification with rural England, though still important, can be expected from fewer and fewer politicians and ‘opinion-formers’. it is clear that we would need to plan carefully to minimise the impact of development in the countryside, including roads, airports and flight paths, housing, retail sheds and their distribution networks, industry and power generation (pylons, power stations and wind turbines). We know that millions of people in England grow up almost entirely divorced from the countryside, or even from the outside world. With the dominance of mass culture and a large population of first or second generation immigrants, the identification with the English countryside that was once a feature of our national life can no longer be taken for granted. Children appear to lead increasingly ‘virtual’ lives. Public appreciation of the countryside has to be worked for, and CPRE are leading the way through educational schemes to help build this appreciation from the next generation. In Devon, CPRE volunteers have been encouraging kids to capture a special child’s eye view of countryside communities. The Pam Parker Map competition challenged schoolchildren to create a map of their local area featuring child-friendly details like the best place to find conkers and what selection of sweets is on offer at the local post office. The maps are beautifully drawn and show that children don’t need much encouragement to give their unique take on the concept of local character, and to think about their community and the countryside around it. CPRE Hampshire have awarded one such exemplar project already. In the middle of what was once Europe’s largest social housing estates lies an oasis of calm. Mushroom Wood, Creature Zone and Deer Park are on the northern edge of Leigh Park in Havant, Hampshire. But they’re not part of a National Park, nor a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They’re part of an outdoor classroom, named and used by children at Warren Park Primary School, situated in the most deprived ward in the south east of England. Children born and raised on the Warren Park housing estate love their outdoor classroom lessons, two and a half hours every two weeks of nature-focused activities. Many urban children here don’t have gardens and the countryside can be difficult to get to for most parents. Green classrooms can have a real impact on the pupil’s behaviour towards the natural world, and have really begun to engage with the nature on their doorstep. CPRE in Cumbria run a programme of activities for schools and young people through the Flora of the Fells project – Annie Masson explains, “We help young people get out into their local landscapes, giving them a chance to explore a ‘wilder’ place, discover what makes it special, from veteran trees and rare upland plants, to the human impacts that shape the landscape.” Later in the year CPRE will be bringing forward a proposal to ensure that all children have substantial engagement with the natural world as part of their education. We must draw on the same sense of optimism that CPRE was borne out of way back in 1926, that the countryside is a huge resource for this country and hugely valued by people, and that we can make the countryside better and more appreciated by people. We want to help frame the thinking of decision-takers so that we get to a situation in 20 years time where town and country are recognised as benefiting each other, where the countryside is recognised as an invaluable resource for people living in towns and cities, which after all is the vast majority of us, and as playing its full part in combating climate change.

Introducing the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)

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Introducing the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)

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