CPRE Herefordshire Annual Report 2004

Chair's Report

As I approach the end of my first year of chairing the Herefordshire Branch, I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all members who have helped to ease me into the job!
It has been a challenging period for us all. Our successes are due to the dedicated work put in by all our volunteers, both in the field, in for example ANOB's and the Herefordshire Partnership, and working together in groups to develop policy issues and respond to consultation documents. Thank you all.
As benefits our new title, campaigns have featured strongly. Our ongoing support of the Friends of the Golden Valley has developed into a broader campaign to ensure that Government guidelines on renewable energy (the Draft PPS22) do not open the floodgates to wind farms in the Marches.
Generous funding support from our National Office enabled us to provide tangible support to the Walterstone Action Group in their opposition to the proposed new 'stately home' at Cwm Farm just outside the Brecon Beacons National Park. It enabled a strong representation to be made at the Planning Enquiry which tested of the new Planning Guidelines PPS7.
We launched our ''Dark Skies'' campaign at the Courtyard Theatre in the autumn, using the occasion of a lecture by Sir Patrick Moore, who readily endorsed our initiative. An innovative online recording of examples of 'night blight ' was set up with the resulting list being presented to the Council to inform its policies on public and private lighting schemes.
The ramifications of the Rotherwas Access Road continue to engage us, with proposals being written into the UDP for a new township of some 1800 dwellings. All this as a device to fund a road that has already tripled in cost and is the most environmentally damaging of all the routes considered.
We have maintained fairly active watching briefs and contributions as necessary on a number of other issues, including the increasingly real threat to our hedgerows, polytunnels, waste reclamation and energy generation schemes, permanent and temporary dwellings for farm workers, and major developments in and around our market towns and the City of Hereford.
Early indications on the UDP show that whilst some of our objections have filtered into the current draft, many glaring issues remain to be tackled. Our objective is to make sustainability central to the whole UDP.
Several other excellent initiatives undertaken by the Branch include the Ledbury Group's Photo Competition, a stand taken at Queenswood over a Bank Holiday and a Hedgerow Survey Training Day.
At the beginning of the year our President, Lawrence Banks, hosted a Forum in which invited guests from other County organisations and the Council discussed issues relating to landscape and future impacts. The aim was to identify common areas of concern where we might act in concert and this was achieved.
Our new publicly accessible Website and Extranet for members were both launched in the autumn, following months of hard work. It is a modern tool for a modern age, and will increasingly be where our knowledge base is accessed.
The development of knowledge has also featured in an initiative with Holme Lacy College to take one of their MA students on a month’s placement with the Branch. We have used the opportunity to launch the first stage of a research project to widen our understanding of the sustainable building, and in particular of the material components that can and should be sourced locally.
Eric Loe

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Planning Group Report

Several major planning issues have arisen in the twelve monthsto June 2004 which have raised fundamental questions which go to the very core of what CPRE is about. We are all, of course, anxious to see thriving towns and countryside and accept that rural diversification is necessary to achieve this aim but we have become concerned at the increasing spread of what is best described as inappropriate industrialisation of the landscape. Several major developments have taken place without any of the necessary planning and other consents having been obtained.

• A plant for composting mainly poultry feather waste but also animal, kitchen, paper and green waste has been established at Wharton near Leominster since February 2002. We believe the plant, known as Bioganix Ltd., is an example of inappropriate industrialisation of farmland. The site already has a large and successful agricultural machinery contracting business established as part of a farm diversification scheme all in close proximity to 17th century Wharton Court which is listed Grade II. and the River Lugg SSSI! The detrimental landscape impact presented by large industrial type buildings erected on the site has been compounded by the foul odours emanating from the Bioganix plant which residents over a wide area have had to suffer for some two years. Only now (March 2004) are the necessary waste treatment and planning consents being sought from the Environment Agency and Herefordshire Council. This is taking place against a background of complaint from two Parish Councils and the local community.
• At nearby Brierley a grotesque development is taking place by an ‘industrial’ farmer who proudly claims to be the largest grower of “under-cover” strawberries in the country. Few would argue with the planting of 280 acres of strawberries on former hopfields but we have strongly objected to retrospective applications for site works including driving new roads across the floor of the River Arrow valley and ripping out hedgerows to allow for the siting of 300 caravans to house 1,300 fruit-pickers. A massive amenity centre to house a gym, disco, cinema and doctors’ surgery are also in course of construction. All this together with not dissimilar developments that have already taken place at the owners “farm” in nearby Marden is to satisfy the requirements of Tesco for strawberries. The owner has also now submitted a planning application seeking the permanent retention of polytunnels at Marden over an area of 135 acres to meet Tesco’s demands for strawberries outside the usual UK growing season. We believe that this latter development has important implications for Brierley. Bear in mind that strawberries will be grown in raised beds and not in the ground and will, therefore require considerable irrigation and chemical fertilisers. Needless to say the resultant produce will be trucked from this county to the far corners of the country and to all points in between. We have been heartened to learn that prominent journalists like Simon Jenkins (Times), Brian Viner (Independent) and Monty Don have added their voices against this rape of the beautiful Herefordshire countryside.

We occasionally lend support to controversial developments but only after having carried out detailed research. A Waste Treatment Plant on an Industrial Estate at Madley employing innovative autoclave (steam treatment) technology is a case in point. We received professional advice on what, if any, environmental effects arose from similar technology plants overseas and concluded that the process is relatively benign. Our principal concerns related to the impact of the increased traffic on the local highway infrastructure and we sought conditions to protect residential amenity. We also sought the banning of waste being imported from outside the County. Consent was given on 17th March 2004 by unanimous vote of members of the Planning Committee.
The Planning Inspector has dismissed the appeal lodged by the applicants against the refusal by Herefordshire Council of a proposal to build a large country house at Cwm Farm, Walterstone, a remote and beautiful site in the Golden Valley. This was the first application lodged in Herefordshire under a little used "exception" planning loophole that may, under clearly defined conditions, allow the erection of isolated large new houses in open countryside that are not required to meet an essential need for farm or forestry workers. Although this Branch accepted that the proposal was of considerable architectural merit we nevertheless felt it failed other tests for example the detrimental effect it would have had on the immediate setting and the wider surroundings. The applicants have the right to challenge the Inspector's decision in the High Court providing they do so within 42 days of the (31st March 2004) decision date.
We continue to monitor planning applications throughout the County and greatly appreciate the support of members in assisting us in this role.
David Tilford

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Policy Group Report

Three issues have dominated the Policy Group agenda in the year to June 2004- the Rotherwas Access Road, The draft Unitary Development Plan and Night Blight.
We began the year with a major disappointment when Herefordshire Council gave itself the go-ahead for the new access road into the Rotherwas Industrial Estate. Against the objections of CPRE and many other groups and against the advice of its own consultants the Council opted for the most damaging route across open countryside and a designated area of landscape value.
The damage that the road will bring has now been compounded by the news that a major housing development is proposed along the line of the road - as a means of paying for the road! Campaigning against this will be a priority in the first half of 2004.
The Unitary Development Plan, which was the focus of much of our work in 2002 continued to be in our sights as we prepared for the next version before it goes to enquiry and adoption in 2005. The Deposit Draft will be opened for consultation this summer and during 2003 the Policy Group continued to refine its strategy for this phase and the Public Enquiry that will follow. We remain concerned that the Plan fails to embrace a vision for Herefordshire that builds on its strengths as a predominantly rural county of exceptional landscape value. At heart is our view that sustainability policies need to be strengthened and that Herefordshire must develop an approach to economic development that does not repeat the mistakes found in most other parts of England.
In the autumn we joined with the national CPRE campaign on night blight by launching a website inviting people to let us know of examples of intrusive lighting. The campaign was endorsed by Patrick Moore during his appearance at the Courtyard theatre in Hereford and has received some good media coverage subsequently. Public response has been excellent with over 60 examples of intrusive lighting being submitted. The full results were presented to Councillor Roger Phillips, Leader of the Herefordshire Council at our AGM in June 2004 and we hope that the Council will engage with us in developing policies to reduce light pollution in the county.
The Policy Group, made up of willing volunteers, including a number of real experts in their field, offers an effective forum to address a very wide range of issues that impact on the landscape. The agenda seems to get longer every month, reflecting the increasing pressures on the countryside. Everything suggests that these pressures will only increase. We have started to address the implications of Common Agricultural Policy reforms and diversification as well as the pressures of ‘urbanisation’ and are seeking to build links with like minded groups to develop a broad based grouping that can influence policy making more effectively.
Bob Widdowson

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Branch Development Officer's Report

When I took up my post nearly three years ago, Branch Committee members pinpointed several areas where the Branch felt they could do better. The most critical of these was that communication with members and the wider public was not working like a well-oiled publicity machine! Publicity can cost a fortune, leaflets, advertisements, direct mailing – expensive options which quickly go out of date. I felt that a website, once designed and built, can be updated, changed, and enlarged quickly and easily at very little cost, and there is no doubt that the Internet is the premier method of communication these days. Our new website www.cpreherefordshire.org.uk was launched in October 2003 to coincide with our ground breaking idea of an on-line survey on light pollution, Night Blight and it has all been very well received. We have had more ‘hits’ than I could have hoped for and the site has already generated enquiries from the public who have local problems they hope we can help solve. These enquiries have ranged from hedgerows to ‘rat runs’. The website has given us the freedom to publish our material, tell people about our aims and our work, give people the opportunity to join on the spot, advertise our Legacy campaign and to publicise our Herefordshire campaigns in a professional way. We will only recruit more members if we tell people what we stand for, what issues we care about, what we are doing about them and give them the chance to join! If someone asks you about CPRE please remember to tell them about our website. And please visit it regularly yourselves – new material is added all the time (see the What’s New column on the right of the home page).
The members area of the website is equally successful. It is fulfilling precisely the role we had planned for it. It gives members an opportunity to access local and national information that they otherwise would not have due to cost of circulating paper. New documents are added to the members’ area virtually daily, so many of the folders givre real insight into our policy debates and conclusions. Members can, of course, contribute by clicking one of the buttons allowing you to e-mail us. We will be delighted to put on the members’ area substantive contributions form you.
Other CPRE Branches have expressed an interest in our website and members area – perhaps we have started a trend! The members area was part funded by the Herefordshire Council Small Grants Fund, and we are grateful to them for their support.
Another of my targets was to recruit more members. This has proved immensely difficult. It is not a huge consolation to know that Herefordshire is reflecting the national trend in this department, although it does perhaps provide some answers as to why it seems to be increasingly difficult to recruit. At the beginning of my contract I said I felt that the benefit of my 3 years would not be obvious until I had left! I stand by that comment, but our latest membership figures do show that we have stemmed the tide on membership and shown a small gain. I am hopeful that the 18 talks/presentations that I have given this winter will bear some fruit. I am surprised just how many people are hearing about CPRE for the first time. I am also optimistic that the Branch will continue to offer talks or presentations, this is such a good way of reaching a lot of people – I estimate that I have ‘spread the word’ to about 360 potential members in 4 months!
One of the consequences of becoming a more ‘front line’ organisation is an increase in work – if this were a measure of success, we would be doing extremely well! However, everything CPRE does for Herefordshire depends on volunteers coming forward to help carry the load. Although we have recruited a number of new volunteers who are already worth their weight in gold, the Branch must extend and increase its network of members who are prepared to help in a practical way.  The range of subjects and the types of jobs that CPRE undertake are important to the County, often affect people’s lives quite intimately, are interesting and cover a wide spectrum of topics – sufficient for there to be something for nearly everyone. They do not require any specific skills. An interest in and love for Herefordshire is the essential requirement! Herefordshire is currently facing a period of major economic development, fundamental changes to farming, an as yet undefined future as part of the West Midlands Region and considerable challenges facing its landscape from a future of renewable energy. CPRE has a dynamic role to play in these and many more issues.
Stella Woodman

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CPRE Herefordshire is a registered Charity: No: 213951. The Campaign to Protect Rural England exists to promote the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England by encouraging the sustainable use of land and other natural resources in town and country.