Visit To The North West By Bill Bryson

8 October 2007

The national President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England [1] (CPRE), Bill Bryson [2], champion of rural England and best selling author, will visit the North West on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 October. This will be the first regional tour he has made since being elected in July.

The visit will be a fact finding mission for Mr Bryson who will meet campaigners to see and discuss a wide range of issues in the region [3] including:

• farming, in particular the part played by countryside stewardship and a revival in local foods; [4]
• areas proposed for wind farm development; [5]
• affordable housing in the Lake District National Park; [6]
• areas scarred by overhead electricity wires. [7]

CPRE North West Regional Chairman, Nick Thompson, says:

‘We are so pleased that Bill has been able to join us for these two days. He is coming to see for himself, a range of campaign work that we are doing to ensure that we maintain some of the finest bits of countryside in the whole of England.

‘The North West faces huge pressures not least from the scale of development proposed in the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy [8]. What Bill will see is how we are attempting constructively to ensure that the precious inheritance we have here in the North West can be maintained by ensuring that social and environmental issues are not sacrificed to a single minded obsession for economic development at any cost.’

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Bill Bryson. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951, the son of two journalists. A backpacking expedition in 1973 brought him to England. After working for The Times and The Independent in the 1980s, he became a full time author living in North Yorkshire. He and his family returned to the USA for several years, then moved back to England in 2003 to live near Norwich. Bill is Chancellor of Durham University and in 2006 was awarded an honorary OBE for services to literature.

3. Bill Bryson will be visiting CPRE Cheshire (www.cprecheshire.org.uk), CPRE Lancashire (www.lancashirecpre.freeserve.co.uk) and Friends of the Lake District, CPRE’s county representatives in Cumbria (www.fld.org.uk).

4. CPRE has been campaigning on local food issues since 1998 and published a key report, The real choice: how local foods can survive the supermarket onslaught, in 2006. CPRE is involved nationally and locally in initiatives to support local foods. In particular CPRE Cheshire runs an annual ‘Buy Local’ award scheme (see: www.cprecheshire.org.uk).

5. CPRE supports renewable energy generation but has expressed concern about the scale and siting of some large scale wind farms, most notably at Whinash in Cumbria.

6. CPRE supported the recommendations of the Government’s Affordable Rural Housing Commission which reported in May 2006 and is keen to support sensitively designed and sited affordable housing built to meet local needs.

7. CPRE has campaigned since 1928 to reduce the impact of overhead power lines. Working with Ofgem and United Utilities the Friends of the Lake District (CPRE’s county representatives in Cumbria) have been seeking to reduce the visual intrusion of overhead lines. The first line to go underground was at Leighton Moss in the Arnside and Silverdale AONB in the autumn of 2006. For more details on CPRE’s campaigning over the years on this issue contact Oliver Hilliam on 020 7981 2800.

8. CPRE has argued strongly for social and environmental priorities to be given greater prominence in the final version of the Regional Spatial Strategy. However it is highly likely that the plans will approve a massive increase in new housebuilding over the next 15 years which will have a major impact on countryside throughout the North West.

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