Our successes

In 1938 we produced a film as part of our campaign for National Parks. Rural England: the Case for the Defence was shown in 925 cinemas across the country and received good reviews from The Sunday Times and the BBC.

Watch the film and you will see the beginnings of our campaign for National Parks including the South Downs.

Twenty years later in 1949 we were rewarded with the designation of 10 National Parks following the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act that year.

A donation of £20 could help us protect the special landscapes we love for now and for future generations.

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National Parks and designated areas campaigning success story

1929
A CPRE memorandum to the Prime Minister urging the case for National Parks. In response, the Government set up the Addison Committee of inquiry into National Parks.

1930
On behalf of CPRE, Vaughan Cornish, Patrick Abercrombie and Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell submitted evidence to the members of the Government Committee on National Parks.

1935
CPRE and CPRW set up standing committee on National Parks to represent all interests concerned in securing the designation of National Parks.

1936
CPRE negotiated the historic central Lake District afforestation agreement with the Forestry Commission.

1947
The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 achieved many of CPRE's ambitions for planning in the countryside and laid the foundations of the planning system we still use today.

1949
The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 paved the way for National Parks after CPRE was invited to give evidence-in-chief to the National Parks Committee — created at CPRE’s request during a 20-year campaign. The designation of 10 National Parks followed. A Royal Charter sets up the Nature Conservancy (now Natural England).

1952
CPRE and the Standing Committee on National Parks pressed for the newly designated National Parks to be given planning and financial independence.

1961
Voluntary scheme for control of afforestation in National Parks introduced in response to CPRE pressure for statutory control.

1977
CPRE brought the problem of ploughing of Exmoor’s wildlife-rich, characteristic moorlands to national notice. Lord Porchester’s official study vindicated CPRE’s arguments.

1978
CPRE helped defeat Southern Water Authority’s drainage scheme for Amberley Wild Brooks in West Sussex.

1981
CPRE campaigned outright against a grant-aided scheme to convert Halvergate marshes in Norfolk to arable production.

1985
The Okehampton Bypass controversy reached it climax with the Government’s unprecedented Confirming Act to override the findings of the joint select committee of both Houses of Parliament that the southern (Dartmoor) route should be avoided.

1985
CPRE gave evidence in support of the subsequently successful designation of the North Pennines as an AONB.

1988
CPRE led the successful campaign against Hampshire County Council’s private bill to build a bypass along the controversial route at Lyndhurst in the New Forest, which would have caused grave damage in this unique area.

1988
CPRE urged the creation of a New Forest Authority with adequate powers and resources to protect the Forest.

1990
Important CPRE evidence to the National Parks Review Panel urged more powers and resources for National Park authorities.

1995
The Environment Act sets up fully independent National Park Authorities.

1999
The Government announced plans to create two National Parks (the New Forest and the South Downs) in 1999. The New Forest designation is confirmed in 2004

2009
After 79 years of campaigning we are rewarded with the designation of the South Downs as a National Park. The South Downs become England’s 10th and the United Kingdom’s 15th National Park.