1980s

Constraining the building of new homes in the countryside remained a CPRE preoccupation through the post war years. Photo: © CPRE

1981
CPRE campaigned against a grant-aid scheme to convert Halvergate Marshes in the Norfolk Broads to arable production — it became a cause celebre and led directly to the establishment of the Environmentally Sensitive Areas Scheme which subsidised wildlife and landscape-friendly farming.

1982
CPRE objected to the proposed M40 motorway extension between Oxford and Birmingham, highlighting the threat to unspoilt countryside while presenting detailed and realistic alternatives.

1984
CPRE's national Green Belt campaign resulted in the Government withdrawing two damaging draft circulars on Green Belts and Land for Housing.

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. The designation of the North Pennines as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty fulfilled CPRE work initiated in 1927.

1986
CPRE won a major public inquiry into proposals for a new settlement at Tillingham Hall, in the Essex Green Belt, abating the threat of a spate of such schemes.

1987
CPRE obtained a decisive legal Opinion showing how the Government's proposals for water privatisation were inconsistent with EC policy. This resulted in the withdrawal and reframing of the Government's plans, and the establishment of the National Rivers Authority.

1988
As urged by CPRE and others, the Chancellor of the Exchequer scrapped tax incentives favouring blanket conifer plantations in scenic areas. New policies ruled out fresh conifer planting in most of the English uplands — one of CPRE's earliest campaign goals.

1989
The Government announced a straw and stubble burning ban from 1992, following a CPRE campaign which had started in 1983.