MOR than half of England’s countryside – including swathes of the North East – could be at increased risk from development as a consequence of the Government’s reforms of the planning system, a report warns today.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England says the threat falls on areas of land unprotected by nature and landscape designations. Among the areas at risk are 91% of the land in the Sedgefield constituency, 70% of Easington in County Durham and 72% in the Hartlepool constituency.
In Northumberland, the CPRE report claims, 75% of land in the Wansbeck is at risk of development and urban sprawl. as is 78% in Carlisle.
It says that for decades English planning policy has recognised the intrinsic value of the wider countryside, including undesignated areas, but that the draft National Planning Policy Framework, which is due to be finalised shortly, omits such a policy.
Fiona Howie, head of planning at CPRE, said: “We are pleased that the Government’s planning reforms will retain protections for specially designated countryside.
“But Ministers have provided no reassurance that the final NPPF will recognise the value of the wider, undesignated countryside that makes up more than half of England’s rural landscape. The imminent changes to the planning system should ensure that it is not only the specially designated areas that are valued.”
Richard Cowen, CPRE North East chairman, said: “It has always been my concern that land which is not designated is very much at risk.
“The Government proposals are a significant threat to the undesignated landscape. It is very much a concern.”
The draft NPPF was published for consultation in July last year and is expected to be published in its final form before the end of March.
CPRE is not recommending that the final NPPF should protect all countryside from development of any kind.
“Rather, we are calling for a national policy which recognises the intrinsic value of the countryside as a whole,” said Ms Howie.
“This policy should ensure that decisions about whether to allow development in countryside not protected by national designations take account of the importance of the character of England’s wider countryside.
“Without such a policy, CPRE has serious concerns that the wider countryside will be vulnerable to scattered, unplanned development, as well as urban sprawl, instead of investment in development which focuses on urban renewal and, where necessary, well planned urban extensions.”