CPRE slams job creation schemesfor destroying countryside

27 May 1998

CPRE slams job creation schemes
for destroying countryside

RURAL job creation schemes were destroying the countryside without providing more employment for local people, the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) claimed yesterday.

It called for a more discerning approach to rural development, saying the “right” questions need to be asked and answered before planning permission was granted.

Alistair Rutherford, head of rural policy, said that all too often development failed to bring the promised jobs or benefits to local communities and ended up increasing traffic on rural roads and damaging the countryside.

The CPRE wants planners and local communities to measure proposed new developments against a checklist of 22 questions such as the impact on the environment, the kind of traffic that would be generated and whether new jobs would go to existing residents.

The Guardians Society supplement examines plans to bring the Rural Development Commission and the Countryside Commission together. Both have different views on what is best for the countryside.

• 
  The Times 27/05/98 page 9
  
• The Guardian 27/05/98 page 8-9 (Society supplement)