The Chairman's message

From Chiltern News magazine. Issue 188

Now we are into British Summer Time and the days are longer, we can all feel better and brighter. I have been listening to John Norris reviewing the winter rainfall and he considers that there was so much we can almost look forward to a summer without hosepipe bans, so there is a reason to be optimistic.

We can also look forward to an interesting summer in the Society as we welcome Jenny Gilmore to the new post of Director from 21 April. Jenny will be filling the development role, where we do not have sufficient skilled volunteers to take on the necessary challenges. Jenny’s background is one of latterly developing a school fund raising programme and previously a successful career in marketing. She and her family live in Hertfordshire and she has childhood memories of paddling in the river Chess. We look forward to welcoming Jenny into our Society and working with her as she finds her way round our activities. Jenny will introduce herself to you in the next issue of Chiltern News.

On a more controversial note, there is the inconvenient truth that the Chilterns are under assault on all sides. Whether it is the development plans for new football facilities and other buildings in the Luton area, yet more blocks of luxury apartments in the South Bucks area, or more and lower flights over the rural areas plus a new runway at Heathrow for ‘growth’, it sometimes seems the proposals are all my problem. Well, I have news for you – they are also your problem, because I believe the main enemies of the Chilterns are not the developers and commercial interests who will always be with us, but our own inertia (too busy), apathy (not interested) and fatalism (it’s already been decided). We will get the environment we deserve.

The Chilterns area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB), along with other such designated areas, are described by the Government on the Natural England website as ‘the jewels of the English landscape’, yet the Government seems continuously to place ‘growth’ (of population, housing, the economy) ahead of the environment which they have designated themselves. The current DEFRA slogan is ‘enabling everyone to live within our environmental means’. It seems to me that the Government speaks with a forked tongue, long on rhetoric, short on action and, in reality, favours commercial interests over the environment.

Fifty million day visitors (Government statistics) come to the Chilterns each year from London and the surrounding towns for quiet enjoyment of the countryside, yet it seems this last green lung for London is being submerged under the same Government’s assault in favour of growth. Let us be vigilant and active to promote the Chilterns as a special place for enjoyment and interest, which is welcoming to all for relaxation.

Commerce has many eloquent advocates, the environment only a few, and even those are labelled as slightly odd; but we know differently. Do yourselves a favour, write now, today, to promote stronger action for the environment and the Chilterns in particular, to Hilary Benn, MP, Minister for the Environment, at DEFRA, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3 JR. www.defra.gov.uk. Send a copy of your response to our Society office, so we know how better to represent your views. Go on, get passionate about the Chilterns before it’s too late!

John Taylor
Chairman
The Chiltern Society