Reflections on how CPRE became a modern campaigning organisation

I have been reading Matthew Kelly’s ‘Protecting the Countryside – The First Century of CPRE‘. It’s a vast job to try to compress 100 years of CPRE into one accessible book. The focus on CPRE’s policy positions and achievements is entirely appropriate and there is a lot of excellent analysis and narrative. But inevitably, other key aspects of our history are missing.

I was national Director of CPRE after Robin Grove-White and before Fiona Reynolds, from 1987 to the end of 1991, so was keen to share my own reflections based on my experience at that time.

Firstly, it’s worth stating that CPRE’s trustees and other volunteer advisers, made a huge contribution during this pivotal moment in CPRE’s first 100 years. I remember how the Policy Committee (trustees, academics and other external experts and allies) were a very significant part of CPRE’s continuing policy formation.

More generally, in any charity, the trustees take legal responsibility for all aspects of the organisation, and take collective decisions on all key matters. And they deserve recognition in in CPRE’s centenary year.

Modernising membership

Before I became Director, Robin Grove-White and David Astor were encouraging the branches to embrace a fundamental change in CPRE membership: instead of members paying their subscription to the branch, with the branch remitting an agreed amount to the national office, the proposal was that the members should in future pay their subscription to the national office, with an agreed amount remitted to the branch. That meant that the national office would know who its members were. That paved the way for national campaigning and fundraising and the transformation of CPRE.

As part of the bargain, national office began to invest in branch development, helping to finance paid branch development officers, so that they became more professional organisations and better at recruiting more members and raising more funds for the cause. Meanwhile, virtually all members of the staff policy team as well as the Director and Director of Policy visited branches frequently and liaised with them constantly.

David Astor and Robin Grove-White himself had decided by the mid-1980s that it was essential to strengthen and modernise CPRE as an organisation. That was my particular priority as Director. In his book, Matthew writes: “CPRE…. enjoyed an increased membership (45,000) and an expanded staff base under the dynamic leadership of Fiona Reynolds.” But it was in fact during my time as national Director that we doubled the membership and quadrupled the income of the charity, while Fiona lead superbly on policy.

We initiated appeals to our national membership who responded magnificently and very generously compared with most other charities. We worked with PR and design agencies to produce striking appeal mailings. The staff team embraced the new approach and produced stunning annual reports with Ken Burnett, who was in the vanguard of innovation in advising charities on telling their stories attractively for fundraising and support.

The people behind the policy

In another dimension of fundraising, we were able to win generous grants for policy work (quite unusual) from the Sainsbury Family Trusts, which is what enabled the expansion of the policy team. We were able to get into fresh policy areas such as water resources, transport and Environment Impact Assessment, as well as expanding our work on planning, agriculture and forestry. If you are looking at 100 years of CPRE, that expansion is worth remembering.

I’d also like to shine a light on the achievements of some of the outstanding individual campaigners that worked alongside the national Directors. In my day, campaigners like Dick Bate, Tony Burton and Neil Sinden on planning, Ben Plowden on transport, David Conder and Andy Wilson on agriculture and others were formidable in their own right, and as a team, brilliantly inspired and managed by Fiona Reynolds.

Environment becoming mainstream

Looking back at this period also brings to mind a genuinely seismic moment in the environment’s journey to becoming a mainstream political issue: Mrs Thatcher’s sudden and startling intervention in September 1988, warning starkly about climate change. While other major environmental organisations had originated as protest movements and found themselves adjusting to this new political landscape, CPRE was particularly well placed to seize the opportunities this created, having always been an insider organisation close to the levers of power.

As CPRE marks its centenary, it feels fitting to look back on this chapter, a period defined by growth, innovation, and a step-change in what the organisation could achieve, and to celebrate the people, staff, trustees, volunteers and supporters alike, who made it possible.