Local MPs urged to help protect their countryside

Countryside campaigners are presenting new constituency maps to a wide range of MPs including Eddisbury MP Antoinette Sandbach and Crewe & Nantwich MP Edward Timpson. The maps illustrate the planning status of their constituencies' countryside.

As part of a nationwide initiative, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has sent a detailed constituency map to local MPs. This is the first time crucial information about the countryside has been presented in this way for local politicians.

Designed to be displayed in MP offices, the full-colour A3 map shows land with planning protection, including Green Belt and National Parks, and areas at risk from development. It also shows where local authorities have up-to-date local plans. As a result MPs should have a better understanding of the countryside in their area and how well it is protected.

CPRE's Cheshire branch hopes that the new map will encourage MPs to help protect their constituency's countryside from inappropriate development, and ensure that much-needed new homes are built in the right places.

To meet housing need without harming precious countryside, CPRE is calling on local MPs, Government and local planning authorities to work together to:

• Put in place more effective policies to ensure suitable brownfield sites are redeveloped before allocating greenfield sites for development
• Provide better protection for our precious Green Belt, AONBs and National Parks, as well as our wider countryside that provides valued, local green space
• Achieve comprehensive, up-to-date local plan coverage as soon as possible.

CPRE has recently found that nearly three quarters (73%) of English councils do not have an up-to-date local plan in place including Cheshire East.

Community-led local plans allow people to direct the future of development in their area, protecting valuable countryside and identifying suitable sites for much-needed affordable homes.

Alongside the new constituency maps, CPRE has released an interactive map illustrating the planning status of local plans for all constituencies across England.

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