APPENDICES TO THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE
TAKEN BEFORE THE ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
APPENDICES
MEMORANDUM BY THE COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE
(RWP 32)
THE ALLIANCE
Remit
1. The Countryside Alliance promotes sustainable
livelihoods, strengthens rural communities and the right of the
individual to choose their own way of life. The Alliance continually
receives views from its rural constituency, and is uniquely placed
to take the political temperature of rural Britain.
Origin
2. The Alliance was formed in 1997 from
organisations representing rural businesses and country sports
interests, plus the Countryside Movement, a body formed with a
mission to educate on rural issues. The Alliance has inherited
each remit.
Empowerment
3. The Alliance is well known as the organiser
of the Countryside Rally of 1997 and the Countryside March of
1998 which amounted to an inspiring act of self-empowerment by
rural people. Most recently we have completed a series of regional
marches in which around 100,000 country people expressed their
concern over the future of the countryside.
4. The Countryside Alliance's support of
country sports is well known. We have welcomed the independent
inquiry into hunting with dogs and look forward to making our
case for the social, economic and conservation benefits of hunting.
The Government's reassurance that there are no plans to legislate
against shooting and fishing is welcome, but reflects a mere toleration
of these activities rather than a recognition of the contribution
they make to country life. We hope that the Rural White Paper
will make that recognition and treat country sports as a valued
part of country life.
Representation
5. Our scope for policy is the United Kingdom,
though we also have thousands of members in the Republic of Ireland.
The Alliance has 400,000 full and affiliate members from the whole
diversity of rural Britain, but with an especially strong presence
from low income rural workers and small farmers. 32 per cent of
surveyed members work in agriculture. Our membership contains
the kinds of people who have most to gain or lose from sensitive
or insensitive countryside policy, and the kinds of people who
are most in touch with what is really happening in rural communities.
We have close relationships with other rural groups.
Organisation
6. The Countryside Alliance has a paid staff
of 72 spread across the United Kingdom. This is supplemented by
thousands of volunteers passionately committed to the countryside
and the rural way of life. Day to day operations are managed by
the Chief Executive. Ultimate responsibility for Alliance policy
rests with the Countryside Alliance board which is democratically
elected by our members in a secret ballot on a one member one
vote basis.
Point of Contact and Policy Making
7. Since the Countryside Rally of 1997,
the Alliance has received more than 12,000 letters and an uncounted
but comparable number of phone calls and emails from rural people
expressing both general and specific concerns. A fair proportion
of these contacts have been from very expert people. The Countryside
Alliance Policy Development Team, working with academic and business
experts on its Countryside Committee, has synthesised these concerns
and expertise into a comprehensive policy platform. The policy
advice herein concentrates on the existing DETR remit, but the
Alliance favours an integrated approach to rural policy. This
highlights the need for a Department of Rural Affairs with an
integrated view of the countryside and discretionary money to
implement programmes with rural focus.
TRANSPORT
8. Lack of transport is an acute rural problem,
and it affects the accessibility of other services such as health,
CABs, daycare, school sports and outdoor learning. There are particular
groups who experience transport disadvantage more sharply. This
includes older people, women (especially with children), the disabled
and the young.
Public Transport, failures and inherent limitations
9. The Government has presented a £150
million package for rural bus services announced in 1997 as a
standard proof of its commitment to the countryside. The funding
was welcome, but the Alliance was dismayed to find this year that
it has made no apparent difference to the rural transport problem.
According to a survey of rural motorists by NOP for the Countryside
Alliance in July 1999:
10. Most people (58 per cent) believe that
the Government's transportation policies have made no difference
to rural areas. Of those who did believe that it has made a difference,
30 per cent believe that the policies have made things worse in
rural areas and 6.5 per cent believe that they have made things
better. According to the poll, rural people are unimpressed with
the £57 million per annum dedicated to public transport funding
in rural areas. 63 per cent believe that public transport has
stayed about the same.
The role of the private car in the countryside
11. The NOP research found that 88 per cent
of rural households own or use a car, somewhat above the national
average of 65 per cent. As past Rural Development Commission studies
have shown, this high rural figure represents need, not affluence.
The Government's emphasis on public transport and distaste for
private vehicles reflects an exclusively urban perspective. In
the countryside, the dispersion of journeys, destinations and
population density do not allow public transport to function in
the same way as in urban areas. Cars, whether private cars, shared
cars or taxis are not antisocial; they are essential. Buses cannot
meet many social, working and business needs when the frequency
and connectivity of services falls below the levels that can be
sustained in towns.
The cost of motoring
12. High fuel taxes penalise rural life,
because rural people need to drive longer distances, and there
are multiple knock-on effects such as an increased cost for police
patrols, which is accelerating the centralisation of police services.
Research by the Countryside Alliance shows that the most urgent
need for rural schools is effective, affordable transport. Some
Head teachers have seen a threefold escalation of transportation
costs in the last two years. This increase now means parents are
subsidising compulsory parts of the curriculum, such as trips
to the local swimming pool.
13. The Budget announcement that the fuel
tax escalator will be discontinued and that a system of parking
and congestion charges will take on the job of discouraging people
using cars is welcome, and in line with the Alliance's pleas.
Unfortunately the fuel taxes remain and are punishing rural dwellers
disproportionately. Presently, the UK tax burden on fuel is the
highest in the EU. Rural groups and Parliament must be vigilant
against any clawing back of revenue lost through the demise of
the fuel tax escalator.
Resocialising the car
14. The countryside has a large number of
private cars and a reservoir of underemployed and seasonally employed
workers. There is therefore a striking opportunity to bring these
two resources together as a transport solution. Income tax and
benefit rules should be adjusted to permit a new form of rural
taxi service, making the most of available labour and vehicles.
Tax rebates should be applied to diesel for rural taxi services.
The Rural White Paper
15. Should include a means of measuring
how far the transport needs of rural areas can be met by a realistic
subsidy regime for buses. Policy should be developed to maximise
the use of private cars as taxis or pool cars.
HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
AND PLANNING
Realistic projections for housing need
16. The Countryside Alliance does not accept
the finding of the Stephen Wolf report nor the National Housing
Federation's report of November 1999, both of which claim a need
for more than a million new houses in the South East region. Each
uses projections based on the assumption of no change in social
policy and no progress in the economic development of regions
other than the South East. The population in England is static.
Ongoing demographic changes imply that more living space will
be needed to accommodate people living singly. The problem with
Government's target of 60 per cent brownfield building is not
that it is too low, but that it has implicitly accepted dubious
projections for building need.
17. Yet there are policy options that would
decrease the formation of new households, including: re-regulation
of the private rented sector, tax incentives for building refurbishment
and revision of personal tax and benefits for families caring
for elderly relatives at home. Economic growth and the housing
market in the South East has a gold-rush character and may be
unsustainable. Macroeconomic policy and the remit of the RDA's
should be designed to prevent the South East from sucking human
capital and property value from the regions and destroying itself
in the process. This difficulty faces all the regions, the South
East is merely the most acute at the moment.
Planning and consent
18. A process needs to be designed so that
developers and planners can go into a community to discuss developments,
and for the community to work through the merits and demerits
of proposals and any justified or unjustified resistance to the
proposals. "Nimbyism" is not a good basis for resistance
to planned development. Whether or not a given development is
justified should be judged on the core concept of rural livelihood.
Planning gain
19. There is little evidence that planning
gain agreements for affordable housing have delivered genuinely
affordable housing where profitable developments have been granted
planning permission. The planning gain system should be put on
a regular basis, audited for effectiveness, and local communities
should have access to the process. Encouragement for partnerships
between parish/local councils and housing trusts to identify housing
need and the best ways of supplying this housing must be integrated
into any development not as an incentive to allow otherwise inappropriate
development.
The Rural White Paper
20. Government should re-evaluate all present
predict-and-provide-targets. There should be research from scratch
on how to attain a zero or near-zero house building policy through
social policy to reduce new household formations. The issue of
rural homelessness and affordable housing must not be confused
with profit-driven house building.
Conservation
21. Conservation was practised by rural
people through cultural, traditional, intuitive means long before
it had an academic or political existence. The landscape of the
British countryside is a man made landscape. It was produced as
a consequence of economic activity over centuries. It must now
remain an economic product and not a system preserved by subsidy
or regulation. Despite the popular caricature of the despoiling
farmer, conservation is a key part of rural culture, and a part
of rural livelihood. Conservation projects should not be managed
as if they were a modern invention. The Governments consultation
paper on SSSIs: stated "a paramount objective is to retain
the support and commitment of land owners and managers of SSSIs".
The consent of local people, and traditional skills within the
community should be used and developed.
22. The Countryside Alliance welcomes the
new wildlife legislation which was announced in the Queen's Speech,
on the increased protection for important sites, but the Government
must create the conditions in which people will preserve sites
because they see value in them, not because there is penalty for
failing to do so.
Pesticide tax
23. The Countryside Alliance believes that
a pesticide tax as conceived in the 1999 consultation paper is
not justified by existing patterns of pesticide use in British
agriculture, and that it would be counterproductive. Better land
management needs encouragement through further CAP reform and
improved agri-environment schemes. A "sin tax" on pesticides
is not capable of bringing about the fundamental changes in land
use that are required when it is simply offset by inappropriate
subsidy of food production and global competition.
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and National
Parks
24. The Countryside Alliance is concerned
about plans to apply the planning regime that has been established
for National Parks to Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. AONBs
do not have the funding nor administrative infrastructure properly
to monitor effects and side-effects of the proposals, and there
are no plans to give them the same resources as National Parks
have. In general, any ad hoc reassignment of the function or definition
of administrative categories invites all kinds of ill-effects.
In AONBs as elsewhere, livelihoods should be considered in all
consultation and decision making. The sustainability of any landscape
is intimately connected to the sustainability of the communities
that reside in it.
25. While the Countryside Alliance welcomes
any news of habitat and landscape protection such as the proposed
designation of the two new national parks in the New Forest and
the South Downs, we should not forget the restrictions and regulations
such as the rigid planning controls that come with it. Consideration
needs to be given on how these regulations will affect those who
live and work within the boundaries of a national park.
Country Sports and Conservation
26. As stated in the United Kingdom Biodiversity
Action Plan (1994) country sports have a long history in the United
Kingdom and are enjoyed by a great many people. Country sports
underwrite conservation aims, because the sporting value of land
depends on well conserved habitat. Country sports enthusiasts
undertake a large amount of unpaid conservation management throughout
the year, and this benefits biodiversity and other countryside
users. For instance, fox-hunts throughout the country traditionally
practise hedge-laying for its recreational value of creating jumps
for mounted followers. This practice increases the conservation
value of hedgerows by encouraging dense growth and binding the
vegetation together. The use of traditional methods is crucial.
Hedgerows trimmed in a less labour intensive way, using tractor-mounted
flails, tend to develop gaps and discontinuities which significantly
reduces their ecological value as wildlife corridors.
27. The contribution to biodiversity that
results from habitat management for shooting has long been documented
and recognised. Research has shown that a large amount of habitat
is created for shooting. A recent study has shown that on estates
releasing pheasants, 61 per cent had planted new woodland, compared
with only 21 per cent where no releasing took place.
28. In addition, habitat managed for shooting
benefits many non-quarry species. As a result, over 50 per cent
of the 18 million acres of land managed by gamekeepers has some
type of conservation or landscape designation. Contrary to the
national decline in song-birds, on shooting estates song-birds
have found a refuge. Country sports enthusiasts are also responsible
for the management of many wildlife sites. Wildfowling clubs own,
lease or manage 105,000 hectares of coastal zone (of which 90
per cent are SSSIs) and 80 per cent of small woodland in Britain
is managed for game.
The Rural White Paper
29. Should understand conservation as the
sustainable utilisation of natural places and species—a
philosophy which has eclipsed an earlier view of conservation
as a question of keeping humans away from nature. The public should
be encouraged to take an active role in conservation through projects,
such as Biodiversity Action Plans and joining conservation organisations,
so as to provide a deeper experience than tourism and recreation
can. This is an area that we are promoting to our members and
we would be pleased to take part in a suitable Government initiative.
30. Farming must remain at the centre of
land management and the rural economy. Without the activity of
farming the countryside ceases to be anything other than sparsely
inhabited suburbs. The role of country sports should be acknowledged,
and the Labour Party Anglers' Charter should be revised as a Government
document.
31. More land owners and farmers should
be brought into agri-environment schemes.
ACCESS TO
THE COUNTRYSIDE
Ideology versus real access needs
32. The Government has pledged to establish
a statutory right of access to certain categories of landscape.
The mapping, the rights of farmers and landowners and the conduct
expected from walkers have been deferred for some time, leaving
the new Countryside Agency to discover how a simple idea is extremely
complex in practice. The interests of visitors to the countryside
and the interests of people who work and live there must be made
as congruent as possible, but where they differ, the local community's
livelihoods must come first. The voluntary approach to access
must be tried in preference to a coercive statutory approach wherever
possible. The Alliance is extremely concerned that Local Access
Forums, as presently envisaged, will not be local enough nor representative
enough to meet their responsibilities.
33. Education for a new wave of visitors
to the countryside is the first line of defence against abuses,
but educational programmes for access should go far beyond a new
"countryside code". They should not be just rule books
or ersatz wildlife programmes. They should take in the human dimensions
and the whole reality of the countryside.
34. The case must be pressed for better
access to green spaces near towns, where it is most needed. Fresh,
well conserved amenity countryside is needed to flesh out the
network of linear access routes and community forests. This case
that has been neglected due to the misplaced priorities of campaigners
for a right to roam. They have shortchanged the urban public.
Rights of Way
35. The funds available to Highways Agencies
for dealing with rights of way do not reflect the importance of
what is at stake in terms of developing sustainable transport
and knitting together accessible countryside, business and amenities
into a whole. The historical discovery process for rights of way
has been made burdensome and irrelevant by contemporary needs,
and should be wound up.
Communities need to participate in the management
of rights of way, having access to highway authorities decision-making
though their parish councils. This participation is necessary
to inform decisions on access for vehicles and crime problems
associated with some rights of way.
Riding
36. The existing contribution and potential
of horse riding needs to be understood when designing policy on
access and tourism. Horse riding has the capacity to educate young
people from towns and countryside in developing an ethical, working
relationship between humans and animals that goes well beyond
simple pet-keeping. The growing practice of concreting bridleways
to turn them into cycle paths may be intended as a contribution
to sustainable transport, but it does have a cost to horse riding.
The Rural White Paper
37. Should aim to supplement the access
provisions of the 1999 Countryside Bill by developing the access
that people really need. It should mark a return to the partnership
principle, and maximal use of voluntary access. It should be informed
by better research on economic consequences of right to roam instead
of simplistic market research on how popular it would be.
CONCLUSION
38. Expectations for the Rural White Paper
are running very high. Agriculture, rural villages and market
towns all feel they have been forgotten by their Government. Recent
announcements such as the Countryside Bill contained in the Queen's
speech are no encouragement. While the goals of recreation and
wildlife protection are admirable the Bill's intention is to impose
a solution from outside through legislative force. The only lasting
solutions for the countryside will come from the countryside.
It is Government's role to foster an environment in which such
solutions can be implemented in partnership with those that must
live with the results.
November 1999
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