Comments for The Countryman magazine - British countryside news - nature and wildlife blog - UK countryside -

Comment on A grey day in the Lakes by Martin

Martin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:23:10 +0000

Britain has some of the most diverse and beautiful countryside you could wish to see anywhere. Unfortunately, especially if you have children, the weather can make all the difference. That and the fact that Britain is not the cheapest place to holiday in often put people off. We recently spent a week in Devon and it rained constantly for 4 of the 6 days we were there. Fortunately, we’re made of hardy stuff!

Comment on Riding roughshod over planning laws by john timbrell

john timbrell — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:18:49 +0000

Talk about planners twisting the rules; Here, in The Forest of Dean. one of our local planning officers upset because a householder was winning an argument against him, accused the householder of using land attached to his house for parking and therefore needed planning permission for a change of use. The planning officer proved his case by photographing a car parked on the land. Unfortunately for the planning officer he negelected to obscure the number plate of the car.Turned out it was his own car. Guess what happened to the planning officer. Not a lot! It used to be ‘one law for the rich, and another for the poor’, today it’s ‘one law for the government/councils, and another for the rest of us.’

Comment on Riding roughshod over planning laws by Martin

Martin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:35:44 +0000

We are currently experiencing something similar, with high levels of inappropriate development - the cramming of as many appartments as possible into as small an area as possible, despite the fact that the area is crying out for 2 and 3 bed affordable houses.
It seems that if an individual wants to make improvements to their home, the local authorities site obscure planning laws to make life as difficult as possible. And heaven forbid that you make a simple error in your application. Yet when the same council can benefit from mass development (in the form of increased revenue), the same laws become mere guidelines to be totally ignored. Even Tree Preservation Orders are not worth the paper they are written on.
I think that the country as a whole is getting to point of saying that ‘enough is enough’. It’s time to fight back against these developers and their ‘lackies’ on the council by using their own planning laws to object. I would encourage anyone wishing to fight a development to take time to study the planning application for where it clearly flouts the planning guidelines. Don’t for one minute expect that the developers are playing by the rules.

Comment on Batty problem with windfarms by Richard

Richard — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:33:03 +0000

I would have thought household cats and road traffic kill far more bats and birds than turbines.

Comment on Working together to solve rural problems? by Martin

Martin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:55:17 +0000

I guess that only time will tell whether or not this has a positive impact for rural communities. In principle the government’s Big Society is a great idea; the test will come the first time that a local decision conflicts with what central government wants to do (such as the indescriminate building of tens of thousands of homes in the south-east).
And innovative solutions are all very well until it comes to the money to pay for them. ‘He who holds the purse-strings calls the tune’.
In my experience, ‘Joined up thinking’ and ‘political strategy’ are not two concepts that sit well together.

Comment on Keeping hedges alive by john timbrell

john timbrell — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:55:15 +0000

Reminds me of a confrontation between a landowner and tresspasser (or walker; depends on your viewpoint) Where a long discussion ocurred starting with “how would you like it if I walked across your garden” continuing with ” well how did your ancestors obtain the land in the first place” with the reply ” we had to fight for it” ending with the walker saying, “well I’ll fight you for it now.”

Comment on Keeping hedges alive by Martin

Martin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:58:02 +0000

It would be interesting to know how much land today is in still in private ownership thanks to what should have been ‘illegal’ land-grabbing in the past. I’ve read that virtually no application for land enclosure was rejected by parliament - a body, unsurprisingly, made up of landowners. Meanwhile, the villagers were compensated by being given land that was so poor that nobody wanted it. A case of the politicians looking after their own interests - wouldn’t happen today!!!!

Comment on Keeping hedges alive by johntimbrell

johntimbrell — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 07:39:41 +0000

Also see ‘greedy landowners’ blocking access to our coast. Aug.2nd blog

Comment on Keeping hedges alive by Martin

Martin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:52:45 +0000

Really looking forward to this article. As a volunteer in countryside management one of my favourite tasks is hedge laying as a means of preserving their natural beauty and restoring them as a haven for wildlife. Unfortunately, it is the miles and miles of wire fencing and barbed wire that has greatly impacted the maintenance of our hedgerows - useless for wildlife, offering no protection from the elements and an eyesore.
It’s strange to think that today we value our hedgerows, yet during the enclosures of 1700s we would have detested them as they represented rural communities being thrown off the land they had worked for generations as it was grabbed by greedy land owners.

Comment on Coastal path… is it worth it? by Chris

Chris — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 10:24:45 +0000

£50 million pounds is a relatively small amount of money and it would say a lot about our British spirit if even in these financially difficult times, we still invested in our countryside. It is not about people walking the entire distance, although some will chose to. It is about people being able to access their coastline.

There was some discussion though (on one of the countryside programmes) recently, that £50 million pounds was far from the true amount needed.