There’s been a bit of a north-south divide with Britain’s weather this week and for a change the southern half seems to have got the worst of it. But don’t run away with the idea it we northerners were all basking in a heatwave, enjoying barbeques and cooling off in a balmy Irish Sea. While I was taking a few days off work I visited the Lake District which is less than an hour’s drive from where I live. The sun was shining when I set off but a huge mass of cloud hung over Cumbria and I had to endure constant drizzle on my walk around Elterwater. A couple from Worcester, whose two young children seemed to be handing over most of their packed lunches to the swans and ducks, displayed some typical British pragmatism, saying it was the third long-stay holiday they’d had in the Lakes and hadn’t yet had a full day of sun… however, just to wake up to such a view (they pointed to the Langdale mountains) had made their trip worthwhile. After such a dismal year, one way or another, the area deserves some sun and plenty of tourists willing to part with their money.

Shaun Spiers, the Chief Executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), has been in my neck of the woods recently and as well as appreciating the great diversity of Yorkshire’s vast landscape he also noticed what many of us have been saying for a while about developers trying to lay their hands on vast tracts of land here. Shaun says:
“I came up against two terrible examples of skulduggery, developers riding roughshod over planning laws, intimidating local planners and generally getting away with murder. I met one poor woman whose property is becoming encircled by caravans, with a theme park threatened for a nearby field. It sounded like a story from the Wild West, with the developer clearly trying to force her out of her property while the council looks the other way. Fortunately, she is not for giving up and CPRE is helping her fight. But it was a reminder that plans and planning laws are no good if they are not enforced. ”
You can read his full comment in September’s Countryman which is on sale this week at your local newsagent.

Today a new Rural Coalition publishes The Rural Challenge, a report outlining detailed proposals to give local people, entrepreneurs, community groups and councils the ability to bring about positive change that will ensure a thriving future for the countryside. The report is being billed as a blueprint for delivering the government’s so-called Big Society in the small places which are at huge risk unless action is taken now.
The report sets out propositions for taking on five key challenges facing the countryside – meeting rural housing need, building thriving economies, delivering good rural services, creating flourishing market towns and empowering local communities. The Rural Coalition, chaired by Lord Taylor of Goss Moor, believes this can be achieved by letting communities seize the initiative.
Key recommendations of the report include:
Urging the Government to give greater independence to local residents and councils;    Scrapping plans for referendums in the Government’s Community Right to Build scheme which would require 90% community support before new, small scale development can go ahead in villages;
That town hall planners, local councils and communities should be free to come up with innovative solutions to the rural affordable housing crisis;
A call for the Government to take proper account of the impact of public sector funding cuts on rural areas before finalising the Comprehensive Spending Review in October;
Pressing for a radical transformation of planning practice to give communities the lead in planning for thriving and sustainable new neighbourhoods when market towns need to grow.

The Rural Coalition is made up of Action with Communities in Rural England, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Country Land & Business Association, the Local Government Association, The Royal Town Planning Institute and the Town & Country Planning Association.
Do I at last see some joined-up thinking about solving the problems of the countryside? Or wil it all end up in a tangle of red tape?

It’s hard to imagine the British countryside without the iconic hedges and walls that have been dividing it into bite-sized chunks for many centuries. And with differing regionalised styles, laid down through tradition and local geology and geography, you don’t need to be too much of an expert to realise where you are in the UK. The South West is blessed with some fine preserved hedges. The area largely escaped the draconian clearances enforced by government in a programme of intensive farming between 1940 and 1980. Devon’s hedges are similar to those found on the Channel Islands, made up of several different species along an earth bank which is often faced with stone or turf. We’ll be looking more closely at the hedges of the south west, and a group of people who are trying to preserve them, in September’s Countryman (on sale Aug 24).

I enjoy walking and I love visiting great stretches of England’s coastline but I’m unlikely to ever walk the full 2,750 miles around the seaward edges of the country in my lifetime. There will be many who fancy the trek and more who would like to complete sections of the coast currently ‘out of bounds’.  But I wonder if it is really worth, in such cash-strapped times, ploughing vast amounts of money into creating a complete coastal path as laid out in the Marine and Coastal Access Act which is now law. It’s not just the money - estimated by some as £50m - it will need for Natural England to complete but also the blight such a plan imposes on land owned by home-owners, farmers and businesses. It is also thought that around 13 per cent of the existing paths will drop into the sea over the next 20 years, so maintenance is going to carry further expense for future generations. I’m certainly no kill-joy but there are already lots of places for us to walk freely… do we really need a complete coastal path?

During a recent trip to the Cotswolds I couldn’t help but notice not only the colourful fields of rapeseed but also the vibrant purple strips of lavender. Apart from being on the wrong side of the road I could well have been driving through Provence. We have a tremendous success story about British lavender-growing in August’s issue of Countryman which is on sale this week. Also in the magazine we look at rising kites… the bird variety… and also someone making a living out of sheep poo. Yes, there’s still a lot to celebrate about our countryside.

As windfarms make their way relentlessly across the country – there were around 2400 at the last count with plans for another 400+ – the threat to our bird and bat population becomes larger. Although little work has been carried out in the UK, a six week study on two American farms recorded more than 4,500 bat fatalities from collisions with the turbines. As mentioned before in my blog, attempts at reducing bird collisions with wind turbines have typically involved making the turbine blades more conspicuous. However this clearly wouldn’t work for bats, where hearing is their primary sense. Anecdotal evidence, including that of bats foraging offshore in Sweden avoiding an area around Utgrunden lighthouse, where a powerful radar is in permanent operation, led Aberdeen University scientists Barry Nicholls and Paul Racey to investigate whether a small portable radar system would act as a repellent around windfarms. Experiments over the last two years have shown that the portable system works, with bats moving some 30m away. Further work now needs to be conducted by radar engineers working in conjunction with bat biologists, but in the end someone will need to pay for the implementation of the system…

Since the demise of the Royal Agricultural Show the Great Yorkshire has become the country’s biggest rural event. It started today in fair weather but by the end of the day rain had set in. Princess Anne, pictured here at one of the hound classes, stayed for around three hours. More photos on my Dalesman blog on www.dalesman.co.uk

I had some good news this week as it’s been announced that work has begun to create 2.4 hectares of new reed bed, wet woodland and wet grassland  habitat at the nearest wetland centre to my home. The  Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) are  to provide Martin Mere Wetland Centre in Lancashire, primarily with a new nesting habitat for reed bunting and water vole and other important species of conservation concern such as bearded tit, sedge warbler and reed warbler.  The project involves the excavation and profiling of ditches and ponds within an area that was once part of the Martin Mere - at one time one of the largest lakes and wetlands in the Lancashire plains. Once completed the open channels will be used for visitors to paddle around the reed bed in canoes.  I’m looking forward to this alternative method of bird watching while getting close to wildflowers and insects such as bumble bees, dragonflies and butterflies – but seeing as it’s thirty-odd years since I’ve been in a canoe I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed in one (or even fit in!). The wetland creation will be completed by October with the canoe safari experience opening next spring.

Results of the first sample survey of England’s 14,500 listed places of worship were published last week by English Heritage. It suggests that around ten per cent are in need of urgent major repairs and that two-thirds of congregations say funding major repairs is a constant worry. In response, English Heritage has produced Caring for Places of Worship, a practical guide, DVD and a website www.english-heritage.org.uk/powar.  Dr Simon Thurley of EH says: “We estimate that there are £925 million of outstanding repairs to be done in the next five years. Grants of £40 million a year help but the vast majority of repairs have to come from voluntary giving and have to be undertaken and organised by congregations themselves. The current climate of increased unemployment, low interest rates and reduced returns on invested capital make fundraising a greater challenge than ever. Alongside this, some congregations are finding the responsibility harder to bear unless their whole community comes together to support its most historic and iconic building.” EH will continue to assess places of worship and will add those which are most vulnerable to its Heritage at Risk register, making it easier for their congregations to attract the help they need from heritage organisations, local authorities and the wider community.

Photo shows St Mary’s at Broughton in Yorkshire - early Norman with additions up to the 15th century. The church overlooks the Countryman offices.