News
The revised NPPF is out! Not bedtime reading maybe, but it’s going to play a big part in planning policy
Thursday 29 July 2021
A revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework has been published this month (July) – see here. The new incarnation follows this year’s consultation, which focused primarily on incorporating design codes and building-beautiful recommendations. The full government consultation response can be found here. The original comments made by CPRE to the consultation are here. […] Read more >
With England’s big day looming, Gordon offers a special selection to whet the appetite
Friday 9 July 2021
A veritable cornucopia from ace photographer Gordon Ridgewell as a little hors d’oeuvre in preparation for England’s date with football destiny on Sunday. The man from Littlebury rarely misses an opportunity to strike with the lens and we present here the results from his latest wanderings… as ever, Gordon has a tale behind the picture to […] Read more >
A forgotten song
Friday 9 July 2021
Turtle doves were once common summer visitors to Essex. Now we only rarely hear their purring… and writer Anne Boileau misses it “The winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our […] Read more >
Staycation with a Bicycle… on to the Blackwater
Wednesday 7 July 2021
Late May 2021 In the second of her blogs, Christine Knight reports back from the remote Dengie peninsula, where she and husband David took their bikes in late spring. Having both been born and bred in Essex, there are not many tourist spots or towns that we haven’t visited over the years, but, being the […] Read more >
Lower Thames Crossing: Community Impacts Consultation begins this month
Monday 5 July 2021
The next round of public consultation on the Lower Thames Crossing begins on Wednesday, July 14, and runs for eight weeks until Wednesday, September 8. Highways England says: “This Community Impacts Consultation will give people the opportunity to review and comment on our plans to build and operate the Lower Thames Crossing, and how we […] Read more >
Our AGM will be held on Saturday, October 2
Monday 5 July 2021
This year’s CPRE Essex Annual General Meeting is being held on Saturday, October 2, ‘virtually’, via Zoom. It had been hoped initially to run the event with a ‘mixed’ structure, some people being present in person and others joining us through Zoom. However, with the easing of restrictions likely to have been enacted only a […] Read more >
Letter: solar farms and the wrecking or our landscape
Friday 2 July 2021
With the report that proposals for solar farms in Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire have doubled over the past five months, this letter to the Saffron Walden Reporter from Richard Haynes, a member of both CPRE Essex and the Uttlesford Local Plan Community Forum, could scarcely be more pertinent. For more on the subject of solar […] Read more >
High Court challenge puts Lower Thames Crossing in the spotlight
Thursday 1 July 2021
The future of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing was highlighted this week (Tuesday and Wednesday, June 29-30) when a legal challenge against the government’s roadbuilding programme was heard in the High Court. The challenge was brought by the Transport Action Network and targeted the Department for Transport’s £27.4 billion roadbuilding scheme (labelled Road Investment Strategy […] Read more >
Staycation with a Bicycle
Thursday 1 July 2021
Christine Knight and husband David, CPRE Essex chairman, have dusted down the cobwebs and taken to their bicycles as they reacquaint themselves with the glories of the Essex countryside. Here, in the first of a series of articles or ‘blogs’, Christine tells how the couple ventured to the idyllic borderlands shared with Suffolk. May […] Read more >
Free walks can boost our mental health and help us understand rural matters… and the dog can come, too!
Tuesday 29 June 2021
A series of free country walks in the county has been planned to enhance mental well-being and improve understanding of the new Countryside Code. Farming Community Network Essex is developing its pastoral care with the monthly guided walks, known collectively and further afield as Walky Talky. The speakers on the walks will quietly help refine […] Read more >