What We Care About
What gets built and where
Places to live that are good for people and nature.
We want to ensure that growth and development take place without destroying local landscapes or threatening liveable communities. The regeneration of brownfield sites – land that’s previously been built on, and now sits derelict or vacant – is one way of building homes while protecting the countryside. We’re working with local partners and urging the government to create well-designed places that people want to live in and that have great public transport links.
Local Planning
We want to see a planning system that enables local communities to influence planning decisions, deliver more affordable housing, protect countryside and green spaces and address the climate and nature emergencies.
Planning at the local, regional, and national levels is pivotal for ensuring that growth and development can occur without destroying local landscapes or threatening liveable communities. Sensible planning balances demands for growth, housing, infrastructure and industry with the inherent value of a beautiful countryside and the environmental, economic, and recreational services that unspoilt areas provide.
We play an active role in promoting and protecting a sustainable and liveable countryside for the future. We have helped a number of towns and villages to resist unsuitable or damaging developments, as well as lobbying to support positive growth for communities, like the development of appropriately-scaled rural affordable housing projects.
Leicestershire is a beautiful, vibrant county. It has remained so, and will remain so in the future, through the efforts and dedication of passionate people. If you are interested in helping to defend your local community and in helping to promote sensible and sustainable planning throughout the county, join us today as a member, a volunteer, or a supporter.
Landscape & Nature
Leicestershire’s landscape is diverse, rich, and worth protecting. The county’s landscape is generally gentle and agricultural, shaped by centuries of mining, and with only a small amount of forest cover. As such its natural beauty and regional distinctiveness, sometimes go unremarked. However, the countryside is surprisingly diverse.
Eighteen Landscape Character Areas have been identified in the Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland Landscape and Woodland Strategy. These range from the unique volcanic highlands of Charnwood Forest to the floodplain of the Soar Valley, from the rolling pastureland of the Laughton Hills to the mixed agriculture of the Wolds, and from the dramatic landscape of the Belvoir Scarp to the industrially significant Coalfields. Parts of Leicestershire have been included in the National Forest.
Sustainable Travel
We want to see alternatives to car travel and road-building, so that we can all get around more easily, sustainably and healthily.
A CPRE report from 2017 has shown that major new roads can actually generate more traffic and the resulting pollution. We’d like to see a more robust public transport system, along with the prioritisation of walking and cycling.
Sustainable development can lead to sustainable transport by allowing people to access local services by foot, cycling or public transport instead of having to drive. We want everyone to have genuine, sustainable travel choices, keeping cars off the road and pollution out of the atmosphere.
Homes People Can Afford
We want to ensure there are enough low-cost homes to rent or buy in Leicestershire’s rural villages and market towns.
Villages across the country are suffering from a drain of local people who have to move away from the community in order to find affordable homes. Consequently, these villages may become ‘dormitory’ settlements and cease to be thriving communities. They lose their local services, such as shops, post offices and pubs, simply because not enough local people use them. In order to sustain these villages, more affordable housing needs to be built.
We see it as important to the future sustainability of local communities under threat that they have a socially diverse population. Local people shouldn’t be driven out by not being able to afford houses in communities where they grew up and have family connections.
CPRE Leicestershire supports a policy of providing affordable housing in rural communities through the use of ‘rural exception sites’ that involve small developments of affordable homes, both for rent and shared ownership, next to, but outside village envelopes.
Climate change & energy
The transition to low-carbon energy is one of the biggest challenges facing our countryside today.
Leicestershire has a long history of energy production, and as we move away from fossil fuels, new forms of development, from solar to infrastructure, are increasingly shaping our landscapes.
We support a balanced approach: one that enables renewable energy while ensuring decisions are made with proper consideration for local communities, landscapes and long-term environmental impact.
Our work in Local Strategic Energy Planning focuses on helping communities better understand and influence how land is used for energy.