Falmer in the Metro today

[Lokki 7]

Great I thought, when I opened the Metro this morning to see a large picture of our shiny new stadium staring back at me. What isn't so great is the headline, "Developers threaten our finest landscapes".
The article starts, "Some of Britain's most beautiful countryside is being torn up by developers because rules meant to protect it are being ignored, an environmental group claimed yesterday."


Any commuters got access to a scanner?

 

[Simster]

FFS!!!

 

[Gazwag]

Same in the Telegraph more or less saying its destroying an AONB with a number of other developments around the country

 

[CHAPPERS]

Oh dear.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Do you get the feeling the Nimbys are winning the national press over?

 

[CHAPPERS]

England's nationally protected landscapes are under the greatest threat from development in their history, a report claimed yesterday.

National parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), both set up by previous Labour governments, are the victims of an assault on the rules under the eye of the present one, says the report by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE).


Such "jewels in the crown" as the Lake District, Peak District and Northumberland national parks, the Lincolnshire Wolds, Kent Downs and Dorset areas of outstanding natural beauty are all on a threat list drawn up by campaigners.

They say that rules protecting the environment for the public's benefit are being challenged more than ever as a result of a buoyant economy and a Treasury, under Gordon Brown, that increasingly favours ignoring environmental rules in favour of growth.

The nine locations on the CPRE's threat list are:

•Lake District National Park: a two-mile dual carriageway bypass on the A590 in open countryside around the hamlets of High and Low Newton. Work has begun.

•Peak District National Park: proposal to renew activity at Backdale Quarry, north of Great Longstone, Derbyshire. Public inquiry awaited.

•Plans to upgrade the Mottram-Tintwistle bypass would cut into unspoilt moorland, a nature reserve and part of the national park. Public inquiry expected

•Blackdown Hills AONB: plans by Nigel Mansell, the former racing driver, to develop Dunkeswell racing circuit in the West Country. Partly approved despite conflict with AONB policies but full planning decision awaited.

•Dorset AONB: plans to bypass a stretch of the A354 north of Weymouth which the CPRE says would damage the South Dorset Ridgeway and the Bincombe Valley. Concerns for Dorset Wildlife Trust's Lorton Meadows Nature Reserve, ancient woodland in the Woodland Trust's Two Mile Coppice and an area of archaeological interest. Planning application published.

•Kent Downs AONB: plans by Imperial College for housing and science park at Wye, despite development land and planned housing nearby. Proposal.

•Lincolnshire Wolds AONB: wind farm at Fen Farm, near Conisholme. CPRE believes it will cause "visual intrusion" into the Lincolnshire Wolds AONB. Approved.

•North Pennines AONB: proposed wind farm at Plenmeller near Haltwhistle considered by the CPRE to be a "visual intrusion". Planning application expected

•Sussex Downs AONB: new stadium for Brighton FC and transport interchange at Falmer, within proposed Sussex Downs park. Permission granted by John Prescott is subject to legal challenge.

Tom Oliver, the head of rural policy at the CPRE said: "The whole basis on which the nation's most beautiful countryside is there to be enjoyed by us all is called into question by this series of damaging proposals.

"Protected landscapes are only protected to the extent that the Government and local authorities obey their own rules. Time and again, it appears that the Government or a local council is tearing up the rules when a significant conflict arises between one of our finest landscapes and another interest.

"What is the point of having laws that protect our precious countryside if they are ignored when it really matters?'

"Threat has become reality with work starting on the A590 High and Low Newton Bypass this month. It got the go-ahead despite running for its entire length through the Lake District National Park."

f***ing Torygraph.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Get your letters in, everyone

mail@ukmetro.co.uk
dtletters@telegraph.co.uk

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Good coverage on Radio Four's Today programme - including an interview with Martin Perry and a contribution from the Royal Town Planning Institute, making the point that the CPRE are talking bollocks.

http://www.northstandchat.biz/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83905

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

Do you get the feeling the Nimbys are winning the national press over?

Even if they are, it's just as well that it's the High Court and the government who'll decide on Falmer, not the national press.

 

[Curious Orange]

Someone should send in two photos - one of the rolling South Downs that we all love and don't want being built on, and the second of the University buildings that are being demolished to make way for the largest of the stands.

 

[Beach Hut]

Page 13 no less - very nice picture of the model of the ground

 

[Gazwag]

Even if they are, it's just as well that it's the High Court and the government who'll decide on Falmer, not the national press.

But it would be nice to see some pro-stadium press telling the f***ing TRUTH rather than constantly having moan and try and put right the bad press in letters pages etc that few people read.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

The Daily Telegraph is not the sort of paper in which you expect to find the truth about government decisions, gazwag

 

[Rougvie]

Was the club aware of this CPRE media frenzy today ?

There doesnt seem to be any sort of reply or press statement in either of the two articles I have read so far.

Its fair enough to stick Martin Perry on the obscure Today programme, but wouldnt it have been more productive trying to get him on 5live ?

 

[dwayne]

To be fair there's a quote from the club in the metro one, about the field being a sh*t heap.

 

[Beach Hut]

Was the club aware of this CPRE media frenzy today ?

There doesnt seem to be any sort of reply or press statement in either of the two articles I have read so far.

Its fair enough to stick Martin Perry on the obscure Today programme, but wouldnt it have been more productive trying to get him on 5live ?

They should have been as there was a post about this a day or two ago.

 

[Rougvie]

I stand corrected.

 

[Rich Suvner]

Lord B - I would rather have coverage in the Metro and Telegraph than Radio 4. Paper there for the day across the nation and capital. Radio broadcast had to be heard at the time of broadcast, amongst small audience.

I have to say that my biggest gripe with DK is that here is a man who made his living in PR, and he's losing the PR battle badly imo at the moment to a NIMBY movement from a tiny village.

 

[The Clown of Pevensey Bay]

"The obscure Today programme" is Britain's most listened-to breakfast show, with a daily average of 5.87 million listeners in the last quarter.

Five Live breakfast has an average of 2.26 million listeners, according to the last survey.

And Martin Perry was on it anyway -- at 0858

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Was the club aware of this CPRE media frenzy today ?

There doesnt seem to be any sort of reply or press statement in either of the two articles I have read so far.

Its fair enough to stick Martin Perry on the obscure Today programme, but wouldnt it have been more productive trying to get him on 5live ?

The arrangement with the BBC was Radio 4 first, then 5Live..