CPRE is concerned that our landscape is being steadily eroded, resulting in a spreading blandness and loss of character afflicting England's small towns and the countryside in which they are set. As a result our National Office has started a Countryside Character Campaign which aims to:

• Show people why landscape character matters
  
  
• Raise awareness about the loss of landscape character
  
  
• Understand more about why this loss is happening
  
  
• Work out what can be done to prevent loss and, wherever possible, recover and enhance local distinctiveness

As a result of a successful Heritage Lottery Fund Bid, CPRE Hampshire and CPRE Shropshire have been selected to take part in a project for six months of this year to develop the Campaign with the aim of providing further guidance to the other County Branches. At the moment they are being advised to consider:

• Creating a resource on local landscape (ie visual or oral archive etc)
  
  
• Promoting awareness of local landscape (ie involving the community)
  
  
• Influencing landscape change (ie preparing guidelines for developers which could be through Village Design Statements or Parish Plans)
  
  

Once the project gets under way in Hampshire early this year, there will be a requirement for volunteers to assist in many different and interesting ways. If you might be interested then please contact CPRE Hampshire for more details.

Countryside Character survey

CPRE Hampshire is conducting a survey about people's views on the countryside. The results of the survey will help target our campaigns. We would appreciate it if would take a minute to complete the short Countryside Character survey form (PDF file). To read PDF files you will need to download the free Adobe reader:

Important Note (June 2006) - this survey has now been completed. See the May 2006 update.

May 2005