Cic Upcott gives The Chiltern Society's response to new developments.

In celebrating its 40 years' existence, there has been a delving into the past to see what has been happening over those years.

The society was founded because of what was happening to and in the Chilterns in 1965: similar problems and concerns still exist today, the whole area is considered to be under grave threats, and many of these concerns were cited in the society's responses to these Spatial Strategies before the public in recent months.

Having intensely studied more than 1000 pages of consultation documents and technical reports, the planning group of The Chiltern Society has submitted the society's responses to the two regional assemblies that cover the Chilterns. Like many other organisations and individuals throughout south eastern England, the society has questioned the wisdom of concentrating so much on future economic growth and housing development in the south of the country.

More particularly, the society has expressed serious concern that both EERA (East of England Regional Assembly) and SEERA (South East England Regional Assembly) draft regional plans fail to give sufficient regard to the special and distinctive character of the Chilterns and the need to protect, explicitly in these plans, the natural and cultural heritage of the wider Chilterns for future generations. The society's principal recommendation was that "The South East Regional Assembly, in conjunction with the East of England Regional Assembly, should identify the wider Chilterns area as a special sub-area within which specific policies will apply to ensure the sustainability of its distinctive qualities."

It is proposed that that sub-area should include a buffer zone stretching beyond the Chilterns AONB and the Chiltern heritage towns that lie outside it.

It is a fact that the whole wider Chilterns, stretching across four counties for more than 650 square miles, is a natural and historic sub-region in its own right. It has a 325-square mile Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at its heart, across those same four counties, and a statutory Chilterns Conservation Board was recently confirmed to continue its work in the whole AONB, regardless of its split between two regional Assembly areas. The Chiltern Society is a major partner in that effort, and shares the concern at the damage that will be done to the special natural environment of the AONB by large-scale housing and increased economic development close to its boundaries.

The response includes the likening of the Norfolk Broads wider area to that of the Chilterns, each with a tightly drawn core area with a national designation, within a wider non-designated area of high natural and built heritage value. Attention is also drawn to the proposed creation of special measures to protect the New Forest and the Isle of Wight, both in SEERA, and the suggestion that the Chilterns should be similarly treated.

The society also seriously doubts the appropriateness of including Chiltern market towns such as Henley, Marlow, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross in the proposed Western Corridor and Blackwater Valley Sub-region. These are recognised as gateway towns to the Chilterns, on the periphery of the sub-region, and though they will inevitably have a role in providing economic support services to the Western Corridor, they are socially and culturally more orientated to the Chilterns than to the M4 corridor.

The whole response also points out the failure to plan and, above all, make financial provision for vital infrastructure, from water, roads, schools, hospitals etc, to security on the new estates, where examples of social instability are already being reported. There is more to dictating more houses for the people' than words on paper.

Copies of the society's detailed responses to SEERA and EERA are available by e-mail from office@chilternsociety.org.uk