General
Fears over soaring energy costs reduce light pollution, Star Count suggests
Tuesday 17 May 2022
A significant reduction in severe light pollution levels, first recorded during lockdown last year, has continued, according to the results of a nationwide star count. Despite lockdown being well and truly behind us, there does not appear to have been a corresponding increase in light levels from outdoor and street lighting. The ‘lockdown legacy’ of […] Read more >
Every cloud has a silver lining (usually!)
Saturday 14 May 2022
A lovely image from photographer Gordon Ridgewell… but the back story is less enchanting… “The storm clouds gather over the mill and the water meadows are waiting but still no rain. It has been very dry over this part of Essex and the crops in the fields are beginning to show the lack of water. Read more >
Can an entire village be decarbonised? Trial scheme at Littlebury might give us the answer
Thursday 5 May 2022
Littlebury’s favourite son, Gordon Ridgewell, sends us the following tale from the village, where a pilot energy scheme is being trialled… What would be needed to decarbonise a whole village? This is the question it is hoped will be answered by a project taking place in Littlebury. Littlebury Parish Council has been asked by Essex […] Read more >
Petition: change the housing methodology that’s costing us greenfield land
Wednesday 4 May 2022
There can’t be many of us who are unaware of the government’s ‘standard methodology’ that is artificially inflating the numbers of houses to be built on greenfield sites. Many local authorities are being forced to remove protection from large areas of countryside when in truth there is no need. In response, a petition has been […] Read more >
Essex Way: join Saturday’s walk from Mistley Towers to Harwich
Thursday 28 April 2022
The 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Essex Way continue on Saturday (April 30) with a walk led by the Essex Area Ramblers. It will take the route between Mistley Towers and Harwich, with the group meeting at the towers at 10.15am for a 10.30am start. For more details, visit the Essex Area Ramblers website. Read more >
Fifty years of the Essex Way and the celebrations have started… here are two walks for you to join
Monday 25 April 2022
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Essex Way and, as the group behind the formation of the 81-mile walk, we are keen to play a big part in the celebrations. The Essex Way was conceived via a competition funded by CPRE in 1972. The route was proposed by pupils at Chelmsford Technical High […] Read more >
All About Solar: your chance to join free event tackling a contentious subject
Wednesday 20 April 2022
It’s one of the countryside issues of our time: the spread of solar farms across our landscape. The subject is brought into focus tomorrow (Thursday, April 21) in a webinar entitled All About Solar, during which CPRE Essex’s own Richard Haynes will be speaking on the impact of solar farms on landscape and heritage setting. […] Read more >
Gordon gives us a taste of spring from Newport
Monday 11 April 2022
We haven’t been treated to a Gordon Ridgewell picture for a while, so let’s put that little anomaly to rest… He tells us: “I went to Newport church yesterday to photograph a Role of Honour they had found and Imperial War Museums Memorials asked if I could get a picture. “After leaving the church I […] Read more >
Last talk of our winter series focuses on the challenges of farming… and also the joys
Monday 11 April 2022
The final talk of our CPRE Essex winter series, entitled Challenges of Farming: Past, Present and Future, was presented by Christy Willett, formerly billed on these pages as an AHDB farmer but who had in fact given up that role in 2020. No matter, she stressed her time with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board […] Read more >
Planning to fail: net zero is impossible without urgent changes to planning policy, CPRE analysis finds
Monday 4 April 2022
Reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is impossible without urgent changes to national planning policy, analysis by CPRE, the countryside charity, has found. A study of all 24 Local Plans outside Greater London that have been adopted since the Climate Change Act was updated in 2019 shows just one local authority has introduced a quantified, […] Read more >