Countryside campaigners CPRE [1] is inviting everyone to blog their vision for the future of England’s countryside following the major speech it hosted today by David Miliband, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. [2]

CPRE Chief Executive Shaun Spiers said: ‘England’s countryside is living through extraordinary times, and it’s changing faster than ever before. The coming years represent a period of unprecedented threats and opportunities.

‘David Miliband has made a big and bold speech after spending the day out about in the Green Belt with us, finding out about our concerns and ideas. We’re very grateful for that. [3]

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Join the debate on how we use our land at www.cpre.org.uk/debates

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‘Most of what he said we’d agree with. But we don’t think all of Government – or, indeed, the Opposition parties – yet grasps how much our countryside matters to people – culturally, psychologically, and for their physical and spiritual health.

‘But David Miliband has clearly marked out some really important issues in talking about the future of how we use our land, that most critical and taken-for-granted resource.’

For CPRE, the key issues are:

• ensuring our planning system gives people a real chance to influence change for the better while safeguarding important environmental values;
• making sure the ‘softer’ but all important countryside qualities of beauty, tranquillity and diversity are conserved, as well as the more easily quantifiable outputs such as food, timber, biodiversity and flood protection; and
• effectively combating and coping with the climate change humanity is causing without destroying valued landscapes.

David Miliband’s speech and CPRE’s initial response is being posted on our website, www.cpre.org.uk. We want as many people as possible to give their views. The Secretary of State and CPRE will sum up what they have learnt from the debate by the end of March.

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. Mr Miliband spoke at CPRE’s 80th Anniversary Conference at the Royal Society in London today, with responses from CPRE Chief Executive Shaun Spiers, Susan Bell OBE, former Chief Executive of the National Forest and a member of CPRE’s policy committee, and Cambridge University Professor Susan Owens OBE, a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Mr Miliband’s speech is available from the Defra press office and web site – Defra has issued an accompanying news release today (Friday, 9 March 2007).

3. Mr Miliband joined CPRE in a minibus tour of several locations in Green Belt countryside on the East London – Essex borders, finishing at the Visitor Centre for Thames Chase Community Forest, before travelling into central London by train. The places we visited illustrated how countryside next door to very large numbers of people could be conserved and enhanced, and public access increased.