Areas of beauty are inviolable

Mar 25 2010 Buckinghamshire Advertiser

PEOPLE can argue about whether high-speed rail links are of national importance or not.

The question we should be asking is whether Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are of national importance or not.

By publishing a preferred high-speed rail route through the heart of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the government seems to be indicating that it does not regard AONBs to be of overriding national importance.

The idea of AONBs was established by the Labour government in the 1949 Access to the Countryside Act, in which it was recognised that AONBs were a special landscape that needed to be safeguarded for future generations.

There are only 40 such designated areas in the whole of England and Wales, covering less than 15 per cent of the land mass of the whole country. It is the statutory duty of the AONB to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of its area.

The Chilterns AONB was established in 1965 with all-party support, when it was realised that the 833sq km that make up the Chilterns AONB needed special protection if it was to preserve its unique landscape and tranquillity in the increasingly pressured south-east of England.

The pressure on the countryside has increased even more in the last 50 years or so. The need to protect the AONB, an area where people can seek peace, tranquillity and unspoiled countryside, is, in our view, even more acute.

The Chiltern Society is a non-political body whose members are dedicated to conserving, enhancing, enjoying and promoting the whole of the Chiltern Hills area, including the AONB.

The society is the largest voluntary environmental group in the area and we will be actively canvassing the views of all our 6,500 members before giving our detailed response to the High Speed Two proposals later this year. If you want to be part of that consultation and influence decision making through the society, you can join us via our website, www.chilternsociety.org.uk, write to us at The White Hill Centre, White Hill, Chesham, HP5 1AG, or call 01494 771 250.

JOHN TAYLOR

Chairman The Chiltern Society

Via email