Call to protect prized landscapes

Building projects may wreck rural landscapes, the CPRE fears

Rural campaigners are calling on the UK government to review its proposals for new countryside policies amid fears prized landscapes could disappear.

Draft plans include scrapping landscape designations used by councils to protect landscapes, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) says.

This could lead to beauty spots being blighted by building schemes, it says.

Government planning minister Keith Hill said preserving the countryside had to be balanced with the need for new homes.

'Change of heart'

A government decision on the controversial issue is expected soon.

The CPRE has written to Mr Hill calling for a change of heart.

Publishing its arguments on Wednesday, the organisation urged the government to allow communities to keep their right to safeguard their most valued landscapes, by giving them protected status in local planning policies.

It means that bits of England are available for all of us to enjoy - they are just ordinary, beautiful England Tom Oliver CPRE

The head of rural policy at the CPRE, Tom Oliver, said: "The government claims local landscape designations are preventing 'necessary' development.

"But they have offered no evidence of this, which begs the question: who should be deciding local planning issues - the locally elected council, which knows its patch, or the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in Whitehall?

"We urge the government... to see the good sense of allowing local people to afford a modest level of protection to the landscapes they love most."

He described the current policy as "incredibly successful" in allowing local councils to respond to local concerns about the landscape.

Blocking plans

"It means that bits of England are available for all of us to enjoy - they are just ordinary, beautiful England, which is threatened as never before by all sorts of insidious development."

The government says the designation can be used to block projects indiscriminately, including schemes that promote sustainable development or national policy objectives.

Mr Hill said: "We want to see thriving, sustainable rural communities, which means getting the right development, in the right place at the right time.

"We have to weigh the needs of the community for new homes, as well as the importance of protecting our precious countryside."