Re-connect people with nature, Benyon tells CPRE

Protecting the countryside can go hand in hand with ‘unleashing rural opportunities’ and ‘re-connecting’ people. That was the message from Environment Minister Lord Benyon to the annual meeting of the Berkshire Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

Building affordable homes that people need, speeding up broadband connectivity, improving local transport services, diversifying rural businesses and giving new life to redundant buildings can all play their part in strengthening countryside communities, the minister told CPRE Berkshire members at their AGM held in the Long Gallery at Englefield House.

Lord Benyon’s speech included a plea to promote responsible enjoyment of the countryside. “As a nation we need to ‘re-connect’ people with their local countryside – and especially our children. Nature heals, it offers innate joy, a sense of wellbeing. Perhaps we need to start measuring happiness in the same way we measure GDP.”

The former MP for Newbury thanked CPRE Berkshire for its work in protecting the green belt and rural landscapes, and urged CPRE members to “continue celebrating our countryside and green spaces.” He also highlighted the importance of farming and countryside management to the wider economy. In particular, he said, the security of the nation’s food supplies is vital. “In this country we currently produce 62% of what we eat, but we can produce 75% or more. We have to think 20, 30 or 50 years ahead and look at ways to improve national resilience.”

He added that the Government is concerned to strengthen the rural economy and “encourage the next generation of people from farming families to stay in the family business and allow them to embrace the new world of agriculture.” Meeting local housing needs will also be crucial to rural communities, and this requires cooperation between parishes and local builders with a commitment to building in the local vernacular so that new homes look right in their rural settings.

On environmental issues, as with most political hot topics, “most people are in the middle ground. They want dialogue rather than confrontation.” Access to the countryside is an example of this, with a small group demanding an automatic ‘right to roam’ anywhere and everywhere and with a few landowners trying to block public access to their land, but “the great majority of us are in the middle,” understanding farmers’ concerns and recognising the need to open up the countryside more. But there is a balance to be struck between the two.

This message was echoed by CPRE Berkshire Chairman Greg Wilkinson who said that CPRE was keen to cooperate with as wide a range of environmental and community groups as possible, and that CPRE Berkshire’s focus in its new Strategic Plan is on creating alliances and partnerships across the county. In particular, CPRE is looking forward to its centenary in 2026 and is working on a special project looking at how Berkshire’s countryside has changed in the past 100 years and how it might look in another 100 years’ time.

Among those attending the CPRE Berkshire AGM at Englefield House were the Branch President, James Puxley CVO, Lord Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire, and the Vice-President, Dr Christina Hill Williams DL.