Countryside Alliance - love the countryside

Figures released to the Countryside Alliance under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed that at least 135,000 new homes in Britain are planned for flood plains or in flood risk areas.  The Government changed planning policy in 2006 “to ensure that flood risk is taken into account at all stages in the planning process to avoid inappropriate development in areas at risk of flooding, and to direct development away from areas at highest risk”. This new research, however, reveals the thousands of homes already planned in flood risk areas.

The management of heather moorland should be the one area where non-shooting conservationists can be unequivocal in their support for shooting. The evidence is overwhelming that on moorland managed for grouse, most importantly through the control of predators and burning of heather, a huge range of other important bird species thrive.

New research, commissioned by Natural England, into the status of breeding birds in the North Pennine Special Protection Area (SPA) between 2005 and 2007 has revealed that the RSPB’s Geltsdale reserve in Cumbria has some of the lowest densities of birds found anywhere in the region.

The status of “Special Protection Area” (SPA) is an EU Natura 2000 designation which requires measure to be taken to preserve certain at risk bird species. In the case of the North Pennines SPA (1470 sq km), it encompasses 17 smaller Sites of Special Scientific Interest, including the 7967 hectare Geltsdale and Glendue SSSI of which the RSPB manage over 5000 hectares.

The Countryside Alliance has branded recent plans to impose eco-towns in select locations throughout Britain “short sighted”. 

While acknowledging the desperate need for new housing in rural locations, the Alliance has criticised plans to build eco-towns where residents have not been consulted, in areas already struggling to cope with crumbling transport infrastructure and the withdrawal of key services such as local schools and post offices.