Dorset CPRE says safeguarding local countryside just as urgent today as a century ago
local campaigners have warned the leader of Dorset Council that the countryside faces new century of pressure at 100th anniversary event
The campaign to protect Dorset’s countryside remains as urgent as it was a century ago, environmental campaigners have warned, as the county prepares to enter the next stage of its long-delayed Local Plan.
The warning came at an event at Milton Abbey marking 100 years of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, now known as CPRE.
Speakers said the threats facing the countryside had changed since the organisation was founded, but the need for vigilance remained.
The anniversary event comes as Dorset Council begins the next phase of its Local Plan, following delays and changes to the process over recent years.
Council leader Cllr Nick Ireland told crowds that the authority remained committed to protecting Dorset’s countryside and wildlife, while acknowledging the difficult choices created by competing demands.
The debate was often presented as a choice between conservation and progress, he said, but the real challenge was finding a way to achieve both.
“How do we protect landscapes, restore nature and support farming while also providing homes, jobs, infrastructure and clean energy?” he asked.
Cllr Ireland said the council regarded nature as one of Dorset’s greatest assets, underpinning quality of life as well as the county’s visitor economy.
But he warned that protecting the countryside also had to take account of the needs of local communities.
“One of the greatest challenges is that too many of our young people feel they have to leave to have affordable homes or employment opportunities,” he said.
Dorset CPRE president and former war reporter Kate Adie praised local campaigners for holding decisionmakers to account and highlighted successes achieved by the organisation over the years.
But she warned that the countryside could not be taken for granted.
“A hundred years later the threats to the countryside are slightly different,” she said. “We still have to be active and alert and not just let that change roll over you.”
Kate Adie said recent polling suggested most people, regardless of age or background, believed greater protection was needed for the countryside.
She argued that CPRE was well placed to seek consensus through democratic processes and policymaking rather than confrontation.
Dorset CPRE farming adviser George Hosford also warned of continuing pressures on rural areas and agriculture, including climate change and the effects of government and planning policies.
The debate comes as Dorset faces the challenge of deciding where future development should take place while protecting the landscapes, farms and wildlife that campaigners say define the county.