Local CPRE network successes in 2024
We’re really happy to be able to take this opportunity to share and reflect on the incredible work that local groups are doing. Taking action for our countryside, involving local communities and celebrating the beautiful places that you live in, to name just a few. Thank you so much to you all. Please do read on to hear about some fantastic successes from 2024.
CPRE Bedfordshire
June saw the launch of CPRE Bedfordshire’s new series of monthly web features, created to help readers to explore the county. The series is an A-Z of Bedfordshire places, projects, landscapes and local history with tips for walks and places to visit. The topics covered so far include bridges, chalk and forests.
The website features prove popular, and LivingLife, a monthly magazine delivered to over 24,000 homes and businesses, publishes abridged versions. Excerpts are also being featured on via CPRE Bedfordshire’s social media channels.
The series is helping CPRE Bedfordshire celebrate their countryside and reach new audiences. They’re researched and written by Digital Engagement Officer, Shelly Dennison, and illustrated with images from a small team of volunteer photographers who use their skills to capture the best of Bedfordshire.
You can read all the posts so far here.
CPRE Derbyshire
CPRE Derbyshire partnered with the Derbyshire Association of Local Councils to celebrate their countryside and those who protect and cherish it, in the first Derbyshire Living Countryside Awards.
There were five categories:
• Inspiring Groups
• Trail Blazer
• Made in Derbyshire
• Derbyshire Captured: under 16s
• Derbyshire Captured: 16 and over
You can read more about the awards and the winners on the CPRE Derbyshire website here.
At a recent volunteer gathering, Ryan Morgan, who organised these awards, was honored with the 2024 CPRE Young Trustee Award by CPRE Derbyshire Chair, John Ydlibi, in recognition of this achievement.
CPRE Derbyshire is also collaborating with a local artisan distillery which prides itself on its carbon-zero production methods and use of local ingredients. Every purchase of Dog and Spoon Distillery crafted Bergamot gin carrying the special CPRE label will provide a small donation to CPRE Derbyshire. You can buy yours here!
CPRE Dorset
An iconic image unique to Dorset are its fingerposts – old road signs featuring a white or occasionally red metal roundel or finial. They’re a common feature of the Dorset countryside and a legacy of the early road system.
Dorset CPRE offers a small grant scheme for restoration of the fingerposts with over £21k in grants for 156 fingerposts awarded since the scheme launched in 2017, with a further 7 approved.
In August 2024, the restoration of a cast iron fingerpost in Evershot was finished. It was likely only one of two remaining of the earliest iron Dorset fingerposts which predates all other fingerpost designs being completely cast in iron. Here’s the before, and after images.
CPRE Gloucestershire
The CPRE Gloucestershire Awards Ceremony took place on Tuesday 12 November at Elmore Court, celebrating environmental and community impact in the county.
It was a fantastic event, bringing together lots of local organisations and colleagues. Six projects received awards contributing to the group’s significant milestone of 100 awards! They secured coverage in several media outlets, including an upcoming feature in Cotswold Life magazine. You can read more about the awards and winners here.
They’ve also been supporting the campaign to save Juniper Hill Field. CPRE Bedfordshire president, Madeleine Bunting, is part of Friends of Juniper Hill Field, a group formed to combat a serious threat to a wildflower meadow in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the Cotswolds. Thanks to the efforts of the campaign group, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust has now successfully acquired the land.
CPRE Hampshire
In August, CPRE Hampshire ran a traditional haymaking event with five partners: Land Lore Consulting, Hampshire County Council, Highcliffe Community Forum for Action, Cameron Bespolka Trust and Sustainable Communities Fund.
Volunteers scythed the meadow, turned the hay by hand and used a box baler to compress the dried hay. A fantastic instructional video was also created, which you can watch here. The wildflower rich hay was then fed to the allotment sheep!
Cameron Bespolka Trust funded two school visits out to the meadow, where the children looked for signs of autumn and discovered the wildflowers that grow in the meadow. CPRE Hampshire also joined a walk through the meadow in early December, showing that these fields can be appreciated all year round.
On Tuesday 10 December, the CPRE Hampshire Countryside Awards ceremony was held at Kings Somborne Village Hall Recreation Ground. Over 50 people gathered to honour countryside projects addressing pressing issues relating to the Hampshire countryside. You can read more here.
CPRE Herefordshire
CPRE Herefordshire’s Dark Skies project was founded by executive team member Yolande Watson. The project aims to conserve and enhance dark skies and raise awareness of artificial light at night, as well as the importance of responsible lighting practices.
In early November, the project was awarded the prestigious DarkSky International Bob Gent Community Leadership Award. This marks the first time this award was given in the UK—an incredible achievement! It showcases the dedication and hard work of CPRE Herefordshire, along with the invaluable contributions of volunteers, partners, and local communities involved in the project.
Yolande has also been delivering talks to community groups – one group has already set up a Biodiversity Group and will receive training on how to carry out light pollution surveys in mid-January.
You can read more on their website.
CPRE Lancs, LCR & GM
Over the last two years, thanks to a substantial Heritage Lottery Fund grant, CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester developed a 200-mile circular walk called the Greater Manchester Ringway (GMR). See an ITV News piece about the project here.
The walk is in 20 stages, with varying degrees of effort. The route guides can be followed through a handy phone app called ‘Go Jauntly’! Each stage begins and ends at a train station, bus stop, or tram stop, eliminating the need for cars.
They’ve recruited over 50 new CPRE volunteers, the majority acting as stage guardians, and installed over 1500 way-markers called roundels so no one can get lost! See a map of the GRM here, and spot a roundel in the bottom left corner.
They’re also about to launch Friends of GMRingway, a new charity to take over where the project team has left off, but CPRE will continue to work closely with the new charity.
CPRE London
CPRE London is offering free monthly knowledge exchange webinars, featuring engaging speakers from a variety of organizations. These webinars explore timely topics related to London’s Green Belt as well as its green (and blue!) spaces.
These webinars have proven to be incredibly popular, drawing up to 100 attendees per session. We promote these webinars through a monthly newsletter to supporters, members, and a diverse stakeholder network which includes local politicians, council officers, influencers, journalists, and charities across sectors such as environment, housing, transport, and water management. The lively chat fosters new connections and strengthens existing ones, creating a dynamic and engaged community.
The most recent topic was Gardens on the Front Line. The next webinar is ‘London’s sewage crisis: will the Super Sewer solve it!’ and will take place on 23 January. If you’d like to attend, you can get free tickets here. Alice Roberts, CPRE London’s Head of Campaigns, will be happy to talk to any local group interested in doing their own webinar series, and you can email her at alice@cprelondon.org.uk.
CPRE Northamptonshire
In October, CPRE Northamptonshire held a successful planning roadshow—‘Facing the Planning Challenge’—for local parish councils.
The event aimed to inform attendees on how the recent government changes to the planning system could affect their local community, and how they could get involved in the decision-making process. Lizzie Bundred-Woodward from National CPRE delivered an insightful presentation, which was followed by a lively and engaging Q&A session.
At the event, they were delighted to present long-time trustee and planning lead Alan Mayes with a CPRE Trustee Award and medal for his many years (more than 40!) of commitment and hard work.
There was also a lot of interest in CPRE Northamptonshire’s Landscape Design Guide which was launched earlier this year and many parish councils joined CPRE following the event and we hope others will follow suit.
CPRE Oxfordshire
CPRE Oxfordshire appointed three students from Oxford Brookes University for their new student ambassador scheme. They’ve helped CPRE produce responses to planning applications over the academic year.
One student appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2024 Countryside Voices magazine, describing some of the tasks he’d been involved with. The scheme will run again in the new year, with new student ambassadors joining the group!
In the spring, they organised two events focused on inclusion and countryside access. The first was a walk celebrating the completion of an accessibility improvement project, along the Oxford Green Belt Way (OGBW), where accessible gates replaced stiles.
The second was a tour of Harcourt Arboretum, led by Dr Rodger Caseby with Refugee Resource, for a group of women and children. They plan to organise more events of this kind, providing access to nature to those who might not otherwise be aware of it. You can read more here.
CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire (PDSY)
2024 has been extra special for PDSY as they marked their 100-year anniversary. There’s been fantastic events taking place throughout the year, including celebration event in May, which you can watch a video of here. They’re also planting 100 trees for 100 years of the charity!
Other events include the book launch of ‘Ethel: The Biography’, which explores the life and legacy of Ethel Haythornthwaite, the founder of CPRE PDSY. The group hosted a series of guided walks in Sheffield and bird and bat walks. A beer celebrating Ethel was created in partnership with a local brewery, there was a school drama called ‘Ethel’s Exploits’, and a Peak District Boundary Walk app was launched. Press highlights of their fantastic celebrations have included BBC Countryfile, Edge magazine and Countryside Voices.
Read more about their centenary year here.
CPRE Shropshire
As part of their Hedgerow Heroes project, CPRE Shropshire created a short film produced by Sarah Jameson and young local filmmaker Robin Fellows-Weir. The film showcases hedgelayer, Chris Rowe, at work in a nature reserve owned by a long-standing CPRE member.
The film has had an impressive 66k views on YouTube and lots of lovely messages in the comments. You can see Robin’s filmmaking in action in this photo (photo credit: Youngwilders, Instagram: @Youngwilders_).
In Robin’s own words: ‘It was a pleasure to work on The Hedgelayer. Chris’ expertise was great to watch and listen to, and his enthusiasm is infectious. I’m very proud of the film that Sarah Jameson and I created together; I’m really happy to have been able to bring a day in the life of a hedgelayer to a wider audience’.
Robin is working with Sarah on a new short film, focused on the life of a coppice worker in ancient woodland, which will be released next spring. This is not formally being funded by the Hedgerow project but is running alongside it.
CPRE Somerset
CPRE Somerset has been running a litter project since 2020 in a project that encourages volunteers to do a regular clean-up in a location near them at a time that suits their availability.
Almost 300 volunteers of all ages and walks of life were given litter picking kits, and they keep in touch via a Facebook group. You can read about and watch a video of one of the volunteers here.
The project has grown with the help of a generous donation from a member and now involves several SEND schools. This year, they also received sponsorship from SUEZ for a further 60 new kits, some of which were given to groups working with young people – In The Mix Youth Project, Cambian Lufton College and The Onion Project.
CPRE Somerset took legal action to protect a stretch of the coastal footpath within Exmoor National Park from overdevelopment. Planning approval was given to replace a dilapidated timber workman’s bungalow at Hurlstone with a much larger dwelling.
CPRE Staffordshire
CPRE Staffordshire reached a remarkable 350 members, volunteers and event attendees this year. This has included fantastic initiatives with younger people, taking part in the Countryside Day pilot, offering members and supporters a tour of Blithfield Hall and responding to planning applications across the county.
The Hedgerow Heroes project involved more than 100 volunteers, including 18 young people, in planting 2.5km of new hedgerow. There was a free event for Brownies and Guides, where 60 children stargazed and learnt about the importance of dark skies. They also completed a lot of planning work, recruited a team of student planning volunteers, and produced an interactive map of solar farms. You can read about these significant projects, and more, on this infographic.
CPRE President, Mary Ann Ochota thanks members, supporters and volunteers
