CPRE Herefordshire Annual Report October 2012

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
N THE LAST YEAR, HCPRE
volunteers within our Planning
Local Area network have made
almost 40 submissions on
planning applications that we
believed would adversely affect the landscape.
Every week, HCPRE volunteers check the lists of
recent planning applications to investigate the
details. If we feel that the application does not
comply with national or local polices, a detailed
representation is made.
Our objections have covered polytunnels, wind
turbines, a new superstore in Ledbury and
hedgerow removals. We have also worked
at the policy level keeping in close contact
with Herefordshire Council on the emerging
Local Development Framework that will
govern planning policy in the county for the
next 20 years.
Our 2012 Annual Report covers many of the
issues that HCPRE is working with. It is a huge
agenda and one that depends on a handful of
committed volunteers and the support of our
membership across the county. CPRE National
Office ably supports us but it’s still a tough
task – a task that will get tougher in the future.
The new National Planning Policy Framework
from Government, while an improvement on
the original draft document, nevertheless
signals a major change in attitude to
landscape protection. Current debate about the
possible incursion of development into green
belt is further evidence of that change.
Economic imperatives may increasingly
override more than 70 years of planning
protection of the countryside.
Hereford does not have a designated green belt
but the proposed relief road will slice through
prime agricultural land and the exceptional
landscape setting of the Wye west of Hereford.
HCPRE’s position is that the case for the road is
unproven in relation to its stated objective of
reducing congestion. Could economic
imperatives be the real reason for the road?
At a time of economic depression and falling
living standards, it is very difficult for
organisations such as HCPRE to argue against
any development that offers the possibility of
economic growth. It is even more difficult to
argue that there may be other ways of growing
the local economy than by concreting the
landscape.
HCPRE has supported the local foods initiative
in Ledbury (see next page) and is looking to
work with REconomy, a project from the
Transition Network aimed at creating a truly
sustainable Herefordshire economy, one which
will meet the real needs of local people. This
can be achieved through developing existing
enterprises and new ones, through developing
local skills and local resources.
Our vision is a county that thinks differently, is
different and is working for the future not
attempting to re create the past; a county that
re-generates the local economy from within,
and takes advantage of the resources that we
already possess.
To protect our landscape we need to not only
respect it, but to see it as a prime asset: as well
spending much of its time objecting to
developments that damage our landscape,
HCPRE also seeks to positively promote its
value. In 1934 Queenswood Country Park, still
the county’s only country park, was purchased
by HCPRE following concerns that the land was
being sold off for holiday homes with no
planning control to prevent this from
happening. 80 years later, we are researching
the possibility of initiating a new Area of
Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covering
the Black Mountains.
It is surprising to many that despite the beauty
of Herefordshire’s landscape less than 20% has
any official designation that might protect it
from development. A new AONB in addition to
protecting more of the landscape could bring
economic benefits as well. This will be the main
topic of our AGM on 3rd November, so let us
have your views.
Membership over the last year seems to have
held stable halting the decline in recent years,
which is good news. However in the coming
year we will need to give more attention to
finances. We have incurred extra costs this year
with the new website but our projections
suggest an underlying structural deficit.
Although our reserves are healthy, we will need
to address income if we are to maintain them.
We could face substantial cost next year in the
Examination in Public (EIP) of Herefordshire’s
Council Core Strategy at which HCPRE will need
to make its case on issues such as the relief
road, and increased development that
threatens the landscape. We have allocated a
significant proportion of our reserves to cover
the possible costs.
Finally, may I make my annual appeal for
volunteers? We need whatever time you can
give whether as part of our planning watchdog
group or to serve on the Executive Committee
or any other skills you think you can bring. An
hour or a day – as they say every little helps!
My thanks to all our volunteers, our supporters
and to our administrator Barbara Bromhead-
Wragg who has done sterling work this year on
our new website and keeping us organised. Our
President, Bishop Anthony, will be in the chair
again at our AGM and my thanks to him for his
continued support.
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