[Wildwell]

Creeping urbanisation and development may lead to the destruction of the traditional English countryside in a single generation, a report warns today.

The remorseless expansion of housing, industry, traffic, road-building and airport construction, combined with the steady decline in traditional farming, may mean the treasured, traditional countryside will have all but disappeared by 2035, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

The report identifies many severe long-term threats facing rural England. It sees the biggest as the major expansion of house-building, especially between cities, and within 100 miles of London. At present, a total of 150,000 houses a year are being built in England, but this figure could double if the Government adopts the recent Barker report, which said that home-building should be stepped up to bring house prices down.

The other threats included:

* A huge expansion of road freight distribution and car-dependent development, with an associated noise and loss of tranquillity;

* Major airport expansion, both nationally and regionally, with associated infrastructure;

* A dramatic decline in farming, leading to ever-more polarised land management, either more intensely farmed or abandoned.

"All the while," says the report, "climate change threatens to undermine the long-established natural processes in the countryside, and our response to the associated extreme weather and increased shortage of water could cause more damage still."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/enviro ... 311284.ece

TOWN and country dwellers are being urged to stand up and fight for the protection of the countryside or risk losing most of it within 30 years.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) today issues a call to the nation to save cherished landscapes that provide tranquillity for millions of visitors every year. The campaign coincides with a grim future portrait of rural England unless there is a sharp reversal of policy.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/ ... 43,00.html

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wildwell', 'T')he Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) today issues a call to the nation to save cherished landscapes that provide tranquillity for millions of visitors every year. The campaign coincides with a grim future portrait of rural England unless there is a sharp reversal of policy.

[Wildwell]

Funny you should say that but it’s exactly what’s happening. The biggest complaints about road expansion and particularly airport expansion come from conservative voting middle England, whose nice homes are blighted by it. As conservatives are pro-UK, they tend to be anti Europe (and to an extent globalisation). While Labour are actually supporting airport expansion, road building, cuts in road tax in real terms compared to the Conservatives! It appears the tables have entirely turned!

[Cynus]

"The remorseless expansion of housing, industry, traffic, road-building and airport construction, combined with the steady decline in traditional farming, may mean the treasured, traditional countryside will have all but disappeared by 2035, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)."

Hey, it sounds like you'll be just like America then!
But isn't that the goal of human civilization these days? To turn the entire earth into an American suburb?
Clothing, architecture, music, movies. It will all be America one day. Just look at the Indians, Africans, and Asians--heirs to ancient cultures and civilizations--they all look like they just walked out of the Gap. As soon as we get done with the Middle-East our job will be done.

[Permanently_Baffled]

I agree that we need to stop the assault on the greenbelt, it really saddens me to think that even if we had another 100 years of cheap energy all we would do is turn this island into one giant housing estate!

To get this in context though, 750,000 hectares of rural land has been developed from 1945 -1990 (DEFRA 2002). This compares to total non urban land mass of 18,500,000 hectares. This is circa 4.2%. So its bad , but not a lost cause.

It looks like PO will come just in time, it will certainly pop the housing bubble and stop us further demolishing the green belt. Hooray!

The irony is that we will be tearing developed areas down to make way for grazing or allotments post peak, urban development in reverse !

PB

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Permanently_Baffled', '
')
The irony is that we will be tearing developed areas down to make way for grazing or allotments post peak, urban development in reverse !

PB

[Permanently_Baffled]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Permanently_Baffled', '
')
The irony is that we will be tearing developed areas down to make way for grazing or allotments post peak, urban development in reverse !

PB

[Bedevere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Permanently_Baffled', 'I')t looks like PO will come just in time, it will certainly pop the housing bubble and stop us further demolishing the green belt. Hooray!

[Wildwell]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cynus', '"')The remorseless expansion of housing, industry, traffic, road-building and airport construction, combined with the steady decline in traditional farming, may mean the treasured, traditional countryside will have all but disappeared by 2035, says the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE)."

Hey, it sounds like you'll be just like America then!
But isn't that the goal of human civilization these days? To turn the entire earth into an American suburb?
Clothing, architecture, music, movies. It will all be America one day. Just look at the Indians, Africans, and Asians--heirs to ancient cultures and civilizations--they all look like they just walked out of the Gap. As soon as we get done with the Middle-East our job will be done.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cynus', '"')
But isn't that the goal of human civilization these days? To turn the entire earth into an American suburb?
Clothing, architecture, music, movies. It will all be America one day. Just look at the Indians, Africans, and Asians--heirs to ancient cultures and civilizations--they all look like they just walked out of the Gap. As soon as we get done with the Middle-East our job will be done.

[Cynus]

Isn't EarthFirst an attempt to be the monkeywrench army? I believe their first act was to unveil a banner of a large crack in the Glen Canyon dam (which you probably know was Abbey's personnal most-hated thing on earth). I think Abbey himself encouraged them along.

[backstop]

As one who opposes vehemently the industrialization of the British countryside by the fragmentation of landscape under the monstrous wind turbines that governemnt is trying to impose on us,

and,

as one who objects outright to the destruction of rural communities by the influx of debt-backed urban wealthy building their hideous tacky boxes (many of which will be useless before the mortguages are paid off, and whose weekend occupants generate a culture of sub-ruria),

first,

I strongly support the right of those who work in rural skills to build rural housing,

and second,

I still more strongly affirm the the need for sustainable energy that is not selected with a view merely to splitting the green vote (as windpower was by Walter Marshall, nuclear engineer & head of CEGB) but rather those selected for serious long-term potential and scale, such as Offshore Wave Energy and Coppice Woodland for Methanol.

So,

I find the Campaign to Preserve Rural England to be a grossly wrong -headed expression of preservationist environmentalism. I note the utter failure of their strategy, like the rest of the environmental movement, over the last thirty years.

Put not your faith in Environmental NGOs ! or your £25 /yr subscriptions either !!

regards,

Backstop

[rogerhb]

I wonder if people in the 13th Century used to protest against windmills spoiling there countryside.