Countryside under pressure

Friday, 9 September 2005 12:00 AM

The government has been urged to make more efficient use of land for housing after a campaign group warned that urban sprawl was engulfing the English countryside.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) urges ministers to build at least 75 per cent of new houses on previously developed land - or watch as the countryside is engulfed in concrete.

The call follows the release of a CPRE report that suggests most of the English countryside could be lost within a single generation unless trends are reversed.

"We cannot continue to consider the countryside as a limitless resource, infinitely able to recover from repeated damage," said Tom Oliver, CPRE's head of rural policy.

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) welcomed a debate on the subject and called on the general public to consider how to tackle the problems outlined in the report.

The report, Your Countryside, Your Choice, identifies four main trends that could endanger the countryside.

Firstly the "greatly expanded" housing programme and land speculation that goes with it is putting pressure on rural land. Secondly, there is ever greater demand for more roads.

Also, there has nationwide expansion in airports - which also leads to more pressure to build roads and rail networks. Finally, a "dramatic" decline in farming has meant the abandonment of formally cultivated land.

These pressures are having a real impact today, the report says, with 21 square miles of countryside - an area the size of Southampton - lost to development every year.

"What makes this all the more tragic is that so many people care passionately for the countryside, treasure the time they spend in it, and count it as a core part of this country's identity," Mr Oliver said.

The CPRE calls for specific measures to deal with the problem - including a target of three quarters of all new housing to be built on previously developed land.

It also says farmers should be funded to act as caretakers of the countryside - paid to help retain the character of the landscape and conserve natural resources.

And the organisation says regional policy should respect "environmental capacity" and not just push for maximum development.

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