CPRE fears for AONB

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has issued an alert about the threat of “damaging and inappropriate developments” to the nation’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

The CPRE said the threats had come at a time when government policy risked further weakening the protection of the countryside. It published a map showing many of the threats which it was scheduled to highlight at a national conference on AONBs in Cornwall on July 5.

Shaun Spiers, chief executive, said CPRE branches across the country were on the front line of the battle to protect the countryside, but the range of threats they faced was “frightening”.

“Left unchallenged these proposed developments will have a lasting and detrimental effect on these areas. The threats facing AONBs are particularly worrying because these contain many of the country’s finest landscapes and are meant to have the strongest planning protection.”

He said the planning system should be strengthened if it could not safeguard AONBs.
“However, we are deeply concerned that far from strengthening the planning system, the government is proposing to make ‘yes’ the default answer to development proposals.”