Countryside under threat

From: Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

THE widespread destruction of the British countryside between the wars – urban sprawl, ribbon development, conurbation etc – led to the welcome postSecond World War countryside legislation such as national parks, the green belt and other less severe restrictions on the spread of housing generally. They worked pretty well for the next generation or so in protecting precious, irreplaceable open countryside.

The present Government is surreptitiously setting aside these protections in its desperation to stimulate the economy by getting the building industry into full flow. Additional measures include inventing a non-existent countrywide housing shortage in order to justify its imposition of immensely-inflated housing targets on local authorities and, at the same time, advising planning inspectors to permit appeals almost anywhere, including the green belt.

This policy is not boosting the economy because it is based on imagined massive demand. Think of all those perfectly decent terrace houses which my wife and I, like most of our generation, were happy to use as a first step on the housing ladder but which nobody now wants. Look at the property pages of your local newspaper.

However this surreptitious removal or weakening of controls is causing immense and irreplaceable damage to precious countryside. Difficult to oppose this policy because it is carefully concealed – and we shall have to use our judgement when the next election comes around by asking who, if anyone, can be trusted to protect the British countryside?