Keeping the peace

Countryside needs more protection from urban sprawl, show new maps

‘Peace and quiet’ – it’s the most valued feature of the countryside. That’s according to 72% of respondents in a poll carried out by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), compared with just 19% who chose ‘nature’. It’s this tranquility that the group wants to preserve from the spread of noise and visual instrusion.

The CPRE’s new set of ‘intrusion maps’ show that as much as half the country is disturbed by infrastructure such as roads, airports, power lines and stations, and even wind turbines. Although only about 11% of England is classified as urban area, the maps show how development can cast a shadow on surrounding areas. Since the early 1990s, the group says, an area the size of Greater London has been overshadowed by urban intrusion every year.

But the publication of the maps is not just a lament for what we have lost – it’s a call for smarter policies on planning and transport, such as:

• halting current airport expansion plans;
• bringing uninhabited homes back into use - 200,000 currently stand empty, which is as many as are built in a year;
• setting more challenging targets for recycling brownfield sites; and
• promoting public transport as an attractive alternative to the car.

“The tranquility of the countryside is an important resource that can benefit health, wellbeing and quality of life,” explains CPRE’s Graeme Willis. “It can also be an economic asset, which attracts tourism and inward investment.”

26 October 2007