and

Peakland Guardian Autumn and Winter 2020

Peaklandguardian 1 In this issue… Notes from the CEO 3 Planning reforms – the wrong answers to the wrong questions 4 Planning ’s future 6 Success for the Loxley Valley 8 Hollin Busk 10 Owlthorpe Fields 10 Doncaster Local Plan 11 – the long game 12 Save our Monsal Trail 13 New OfGEM pylon plans 13 Decarbonising transport 14 Hope Valley Climate Action 15 Hayfield’s solar farm project 16 Greener, Better, Faster 17 Party plans for gothic lodge 18 Britannia Mill, 18 Hope Cement Works Quarry ©Tomo Thompson Business Sponsor Focus 19 Right to Roam 19 New trustees 20 We have been the same Welcome from the CEO Ethel’s legacy 21 CPRE branch since 1927 but since 2002 we’ve also Welcome to the latest edition of the Peakland Guardian. The articles in this edition New branding and website 21 been known as Friends cover a very broad range of our work over the last 6 months. The Trustees and I are Obituaries 22 of the Peak District. We’re now very grateful for the work that the staff and volunteers have continued to put in, in very Membership update 23 going back to our roots: Same charity. Same passion for our local difficult circumstances, in order to protect the landscapes of the Peak District and South CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire promotes the countryside. Yorkshire. beauty, tranquility and diversity of the countryside across the Peak District and South Yorkshire. We work to protect and Over the last 6 months, the pandemic has had little impact on our workload, indeed enhance its unique landscapes for everyone to enjoy now Follow us on social we are exceptionally busy at the moment, however the pandemic has stopped almost and in the future. We campaign for green spaces unspoilt by media all of our traditional fundraising activity. We would be extremely grateful if you could development; environmentally friendly farming and forestry, consider making a donation to support our work – the easiest way to do this is online and thriving rural communities. Please follow, share, like and ‘❤’ at www.cprepdsy.org.uk us to help us increase our social Registered charity number: 1094975 The charity was founded as CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire in 1924 and on Registered company number: 4496754 media reach. Thank you! our new website, social media, and campaigning work you will see us ‘returning to our Cover picture: Walkers on the PDBW ©Ike Walker Back page picture: Stanage Edge as viewed from the Ox Facebook @cprepdsy roots’ at CPRE PDSY. Stones ©Tomo Thompson Julie Gough (our Fundraising and Marketing Co-ordinator, and editor of the Peakland Instagram cpre_pdsy Designed and produced by TMgraphics [email protected] Guardian) is leaving us after seven years to move to Scotland and work for the John Muir Trust – we’re very grateful for her work with the charity and wish her well in her Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com Twitter @cprepdsy new job. A: Victoria Hall, 37 Stafford Road, Sheffield, S2 2SF Through this year of uncertainty, as we approach our 97th year, we continue to do T: 0114 312 2002 E: [email protected] our very best to protect the valuable landscapes around us. We are very grateful for W: www.cprepdsy.org.uk your support. Please stay well, Tomo Thompson, CEO

Peaklandguardian 3 the proposed planning reforms set out the dropped. If this Government is serious wrong answers to the wrong questions, about tackling the climate emergency, it Major new planning reforms – and jeopardise local democracy as a needs to be much, much more ambitious result. on new builds. the wrong answers to the wrong We have long argued that the voices And we are also concerned about of local people need to be heard better in how the Government will ensure that questions planning so that communities can ensure new homes built in rural areas are truly they get the developments they need affordable, supporting the needs of local and in the right places. So, although we people in areas at crisis point with a stark welcome the Government’s commitment lack of available housing – not least for to all areas having a local plan in place, we key workers. also need robust legal guarantees that the The Government’s proposals include public are fully consulted regarding new building on brownfield land – a policy development. we’ve long supported: making use of this We are also campaigning for action neglected land before greenfield sites to address the climate emergency; the should be a priority. But if a brownfield- way that new housing is built can play a first approach is to work, local authorities significant role in this. need to be able to prioritise the building The Government’s aim to deliver carbon of those sites and reject unnecessary neutral new homes by 2050 represents losses of greenfield land. 34 lost years given that the Code for Sustainable Homes aimed to achieve the same thing by 2016 before it was

The 8 changes that could demolish local democracy in planning 1. Central Government will impose mandatory, top-down housing numbers which local authorities will have no choice but to accept. 2. In the new ‘Growth’ and ‘Renewal’ zones, developers will automatically get outline planning permission. The Government are currently • An accumulating 3. Local Plans will no longer have development management policies, so planning consulting on major changes intended to backlog of unbuilt planning applications in your area will only be judged against national policy. reform an ‘outdated’ planning system. They permissions; 4. Your only opportunity to shape this process will be a 6-week consultation window say this would speed up the planning • Not doing enough to respond to the every 5 years to comment on zoning and design codes. If you miss those, you process and allow more building as the Climate Emergency; have no say. That’s a massive reduction in your ability to influence decisions country recovers from the coronavirus • Perpetuating car-dependent affecting your neighbourhood. pandemic. We wholeheartedly disagree. developments in an era when 5. ‘Permitted Development’ rights mean many other changes will happen without the We know that there are some real, walkable, healthy neighbourhoods need for planning permission, and therefore without public scrutiny. long-term problems with the planning are ever more needed. 6. Changes to the developer contributions regime and a new Infrastructure Levy system: But rather than tackling these problems, claim to help provide affordable housing, but the small print shows itmight do the • Not delivering nearly enough the new Planning White Paper - “the opposite. affordable housing; biggest shake-up of the planning system 7. The top-down housing numbers and zoning might spell the end for • Allowing sub-standard homes since 1947” – stands to make the problems Neighbourhood Planning and localism, despite some warm words. through Permitted Development worse. While chasing an invented notion 8. Requirements for new homes to be zero-carbon will be pushed back to 2050, rights; that planning is an obstacle to progress, undermining communities’ efforts to address the climate emergency.

4 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 5 The current Issues and Options paper travel options, retains key community certainly contains visionary rhetoric: ‘we infrastructure and services (shops, Planning Sheffield’s future want Sheffield to become a fair, inclusive surgeries, schools) and helps regenerate and environmentally sustainable city’. We the city centre. Planning. Sheffield. Countryside. Green use planning system is central in providing fully support that. The document also The Council’s review into how the Belt. These are words that run like a stick democratically-accountable solutions. states that ‘in 2015, Sheffielders said loud current Green Belt performs against its of rock through the core of our work. It is therefore a crucial time to start and clear that they don’t want to see five purposes, as specified in national Since the 1920s, we have helped prevent re-planning Sheffield’s future, which was building on Sheffield’s countryside and policy, shows that virtually all of Sheffield’s urban sprawl, created England’s first the subject of the Council’s recent ‘Issues Green Belt’ and the Council still agree. But Green Belt should be retained. We Green Belt and argued for its protection and Options’ consultation on its emerging of course, this is an options paper so all support most of this analysis and also and permanence. Our next door Local Plan ‘The Sheffield Plan. Our City, Our ideas need to be on the table to ensure a recognise that some limited cases could countryside is one of Sheffield’s finest Future’. Sadly much delayed by internal fair and democratic process. be made for removing Green Belt through assets, and a vital underpinning for ‘The politics, this is the first step along a long To that end, a core issue for CPRE are limited urban extensions, but only where Outdoor City’ brand. journey to having new planning policies the spatial options for accommodating the exceptional net gains in sustainability At the same time, our countryside has in place by 2023 or so. Whilst the delay Government’s targets of the 40,000 new could be delivered. These are sometimes never been under greater threat, with is regrettable, leaving the ‘door ajar’ to homes that are needed in the city by 2038. termed ‘confident bites’. three crises to address: the climate crisis, inappropriate speculative developments, The Council have presented three crude What’s next? After the consultation the ecological emergency, and a dearth of the flip side is the opportunity to create options with varying degrees of building in closes, we will be working hard with affordable, sustainable homes fit for the a radical, innovative plan that will deliver the Green Belt. Option A allocates no new many local communities, to ensure that 21st century. And despite the seemingly an urgent step change to address the Green Belt homes (focusing instead on the politicians and planners move forward constant attacks by Government on the climate, biodiversity and housing crises urban renewal, including brownfield sites); with policies that maximise the protection planning system, trying to whittle it away we face. B looks to allow 5,000 homes in the Green of local countryside by the imaginative in the name of economic growth, the land Belt and C proposes 10,000 houses (or regeneration and re-greening of our city. a quarter of all new homes) in the Green As an old CPRE campaign put it, we need Belt. to ‘go to town to save the countryside’! We clearly favour Option A. This not We urgently need financial support to only protects precious countryside but carry on this vital work. Details to give are also helps support more sustainable on page 23.

Mayfield Valley, Sheffield 6 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 7 culminating in resounding refusal of a website judge fully planning permission for an unsustainable attracting its impact on new township. And for CPRE Peak District thousands of biodiversity, and South Yorkshire, the culmination of views, and social landscape, years of campaign work with our local media channels climate Lovely community. with hundreds of change, The bats share some of the buildings followers. design quality, with local businesses and a handful of The bat clips sat pollution residents. But most of the old refractory alongside photos and the Loxley works have stood derelict since of barn owls, remediation of Hepworth plc abandoned production in badgers, other derelict land. the 1990s, prompting protracted debate wildlife, charismatic It would about what happens next. industrial relics, have been This is no ordinary ‘brownfield’ site. winter floods, pints all It occupies wooded Green Belt in a overburdened rural round had Valley beautiful river valley, beyond Sheffield’s roads, secluded we not been urban footprint and right next to the Peak woodland paths, campaigning By David Holmes, Friends of District National Park. CPRE PDSY and our nudging into through the Loxley Valley local groups have long argued it needs people’s busy a global Daylight was almost gone, the trees outstandingly sensitive redevelopment. lives to remind pandemic that around Loxley Old Wheel dam reduced to Sadly, this has meant disagreement them what was at stake if the city got this prevented us even meeting. silhouettes reflecting atmospherically in with successive site owners who’ve wrong. If the planning decision had gone the the water. We’d timed it just right to catch seen mass housing as the only viable The response was astonishing: other way, it would have been game Daubenton’s bats out for their first feed solution. We hoped for better in 2018 around 900 objections from concerned over. Now we wait for the landowners on a late May night, silent but for our bat when new owners Patrick Properties local people, many of them detailed and to make their next move. If they appeal, detector gunning its sonar soundtrack. held a workshop to explore a possible eloquent. Superbly argued landmark an informed, energised local community More in hope than expectation, I award-winning and sustainable solution. objections from CPRE PDSY, the Peak will present its arguments to a planning pointed my iPhone at the action and We were told further public consultation District National Park Authority, the inspector. We hope they might instead pressed record. Success! A little dark and would follow, with hopes of a detailed Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust, press rewind and genuinely explore grainy, but one of the bats performed planning application respecting the site’s the Sheffield Climate Alliance, local MPs, a consensual, sustainable solution. spectacularly for a perfect thirty seconds sensitivity. councillors, political parties and so many Times have changed since 2018. We’re while a friend provided commentary. Then the line went dead. A year later, others. in a post-Covid, bio-depleted climate- The video clips attracted hundreds of Patrick reconvened the workshop to tell On 15th September Sheffield city breakdown world. Those bats, their views next morning on our ‘Friends of the us they proposed an outline planning councillors voted unanimously for their wildlife neighbours and this remarkable Loxley Valley’ social media platforms. We’d application for hundreds of houses. They officers’ verdict that the application should site deserve better than another housing detected bat activity right through the half- had hoped to explore other options, but be REFUSED. They said the proposed estate. An award-winning green gateway mile-long abandoned factories in the heart the market was unfavourable. development would damage the Green from The Outdoor City to its national of the Loxley valley. Regrettably, that forced us into an Belt, harm the Loxley valley’s special park? Why not?! It was another instalment in a social adversarial planning battle. Friends of character, be remote and unsustainable, media campaign the Loxley Valley came into being. Within and didn’t justify building on a flood plain. months we had over a hundred members, And it was too vague to

8 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 9 Hollin Busk saved! We celebrated again when a long campaign, working closely with the Friends of Hollin Busk, to stop 85 houses on this green field site succeeded. Town Council and local MP Miriam Cates had also opposed the development. Although recommended for approval by planning officers, despite the significant visual impact on a designated ‘Countryside Area’ in the local plan and potential heritage impacts, City councillors again disagreed and refused permission. We had consistently opposed an initial, and later amended application as Motor and Aqua Park, Huggins Lakes inappropriate and not needed to meet Sheffield’s housing needs. Although it is likely that the developer, Hallam Land Management, will appeal, they have not done so yet. Meantime, our priority is to ensure the area is upgraded from ‘Countryside Area’ to Green Belt to give it its fully deserved protection. We will be doing Doncaster’s climate dilemma this through our response to the emerging Sheffield Local Plan (see p6) We are fast approaching the last formal achieving the UK’s national net zero target stage of trying to get Doncaster’s Local of 2050. Unbelievably, there are no targets Sadly, we have recently learnt that Plan right. Over the past year or so, we enshrined in the plan for any of the many Avant Homes are appealing the decision, have commented on their proposed low carbon steps that must be taken. This Owlthorpe meaning a public inquiry will be held plans and policies and soon these will be is the antithesis of good planning and its sometime in 2021. We are currently examined by an independent Government tenets of ‘plan, monitor, manage’. housing refused! deciding how we can best work together inspector in front of an audience of Belatedly, Doncaster’s Climate with our campaign partners to ensure We celebrated with the Owlthorpe developers, Council planners, local people Commission has issued an interim the most effective representation at the Action Group (OAG) and the Sheffield and and interested parties such as ourselves. position statement recommending the inquiry. Please help us carry on the fight Rotherham Wildlife Trust (SRWT) after a Guided by our planning consultant, Borough deliver an 85% reduction in by contributing to our new Green Belt great team campaign resulted in Sheffield Andrew Wood, our final statements net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 appeal, our ‘defence fund’ to support this councillors refusing permission for Avant are written and our team is ready for and net-zero emissions by 2040. At our vital work! Homes to build a sprawling, mediocre four weeks of intense discussion and request, this is now a core reference housing estate on an amazing greenfield arguments. document for the coming examination. site near . Our clear focus throughout is In relation to key policy areas within the Working together with local MP, Clive Doncaster Council’s failure to integrate the plan, we are lobbying hard for the carbon Betts, we helped make clear planning climate emergency into its plan, and the and climate change implications to be arguments about density and design radical carbon reductions needed. These integrated so that we are not ‘locking in’ that led to a reversal of the planning are crucial years where fundamental shifts unsustainable patterns of development for officers’ recommendation to approve. in the way we plan new developments years to come. The campaign gained great coverage must change. For Doncaster this is We know this is one of the hardest in local and regional press, coinciding especially challenging, where economic challenges for planning and for with a national CPRE story on the value development is often focused on desperately under-resourced local of local green space at the height of distribution, road and air transport. authorities. But as a country, region, town the pandemic. The Council’s planning Sadly, and despite constructive or city, we simply cannot afford to let this committee decision was also the first to suggestions from us, the Council’s plans lie – it is too important. Whilst industry be taken virtually and our lobbying helped and policies simply do not take enough and individuals must all take action too, to ensure that all the key objectors were account of this existential challenge. Its not use the land use planning system to allowed to have their say. policies may have been fit for previous address climate change head on would be climate targets (e.g. 20% CO2 reductions folly beyond description. by 2020) but do not scratch the surface of 10 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 11 and National Grid has considered removing the pylons and undergrounding Save our Monsal Longdendale the overhead wires. However, Transport for the North and Trail – the long game Highways England see Longdendale Longdendale, stretching from Mottram in as the lynchpin in a Southern the west to Thurlstone Moors in the east, Strategic Development Corridor based on has some magnificent countryside. From dualling the A628 corridor, with a 5.7mile the reservoirs in the valley bottom to the tunnel under the high moors. This would Outline plans to reopen the Matlock (for it to need to be in the Park) and be wooded slopes rising to the wilder peat connect the M67 in with railway through the Peak District in the public interest. In addition, this moorland it provides many benefits to the M1 near Barnsley. With only a select are at an early stage but have reached the is a sensitive environment with strong us all - drinking water, flood mitigation, group of stakeholders engaged in the Department for Transport. The MEMRAP protection for White Peak habitats and carbon sequestration and extensive development of the idea, this is a vision (Manchester & East Midlands Rail Action geology. opportunities for open-air recreation in being progressed behind closed doors. Partnership) bid to the Restoring our The potential impacts on recreation a dramatic landscape. It is crossed by no This summer we set up a survey which Railways fund would allow a full study and quiet enjoyment in a tranquil part less than three national trails – the trans- asks how we value the countryside of of its proposed freight and passenger of the National Park are also potentially Pennine trail, the Pennine Bridleway and Longdendale now and what changes, if services to be undertaken. At present a showstopper. The 9-mile Monsal trail the Pennine Way. any, people would like to see to make it there’s insufficient evidence to form an is immensely popular with walkers, Much of it lies in the Peak District even more special than it is. The survey is opinion of this latest scheme. We objected cyclists, horse riders and the less mobile. National Park’s Dark Peak with Black Hill open to everyone to answer and you can to the 2004 proposal and will assess Topographical and ecological constraints to the north and Bleaklow to the south. take it now (link). our stance once we understand its full would make it virtually impossible to But the stretches outside are equally Our aim is to hear as many disparate impacts. create a replacement trail of equal beautiful, such as Swallows Wood, Warhill voices and views as possible and The project has some tough tests character and quality. If you value the and Harrop Edge, despite being hard ultimately to collaborate with local people to pass if it is to go ahead. As a major Monsal Trail you can sign the petition here pressed by suburbia. As we all know, the and visitors to realise a future that would development in the National Park, it https://www.change.org/p/department-for- future of all of this countryside is in the sustain Longdendale and all it has to offer must show exceptional circumstances transport-save-the-monsal-trail

balance as the climate emergency unfolds for the long term. A6024

Chew with huge losses in Reservoir wildlife. New OfGEM pylon plans As we attempt to Pennine Way Hayden Bridge We will soon be seeing dramatic improvements in landscapes in National address these threats Woodhead Tunnel Woodhead Parks and AONBs. The regulator OfGEM has allowed the transmission

Woodhead Reservoir through renewable A628(T) Dismantled railway operators to spend up to £500 million to underground overhead electricity Crowden energy, low carbon travel, wires and remove pylons. National Grid has used the money to bring three Rhodeswood Torside Reservoir changes in payments Reservoir Valehouse Longdendale projects - in Dorset, Snowdonia and the Peak District - successfully through Reservoir Arnfield B6015 Reservoir Torside Clough to land managers and Bottoms the development and planning process. In Barnsley we can look forward to Reservoir farmers, better insulated Hadfield a new pylon-free gateway to the Dark Peak. Mottram-in- Swineshaw buildings and less waste, Reservoir Bleaklow Longdendale Bleaklow Head Stones Despite these successes OfGEM has set the allowance for the next what does the future of Old Hattersley HernClough control period at only £465million. This would not cover the costs of all the Longdendale look like? A6016 Broadbottom pipeline projects identified by National Grid, would stifle ambition and would What should be done for Glossop A57 Charlesworth Hurst not allow delivery of the significant visual amenity benefits the public are Reservoir Pennine Way the next 40 years? seeking. In the 1970s the Based on research by Professor Richard Cowell of Cardiff University Peak District National Park Authority that we commissioned with our partners, we argued strongly for a much pursued actions which has given us higher allowance, of at least £725million. This would be based on the median the Longdendale we have today. United willingness to pay and would have an acceptable impact on the public purse. Utilities has undertaken substantial tree A sum of this size would allow re-consideration of the most visually harmful planting with renewal of native woodland in Longdendale, and hopefully lead to removal of its pylons. 12 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 13 Decarbonising Transport Hope Valley Climate Action By Roger Clark Without such a national budget and pathway, city regions and local authorities are stumped when trying to develop their own Net Zero budgets. Many have set challenging targets in response to the climate emergency and look to Government for support in meeting them. Without a national framework all efforts station looking west will appear ad hoc and potentially be ineffective in meeting legal requirements. Travel and transport is a Just before the UK went into the Once a single carbon budget has been particular focus: our survey, with nearly In June 2019 Transition Hope Valley Covid-19 lockdown, the Department for set for all transport modes, transport 500 respondents, revealed an appetite for organised a public meeting in Hathersage Transport (DfT) launched a consultation on policy, planning and investment, and sustainable travel. We have organised a to discuss climate change. The Memorial Decarbonising Transport – the Challenge. travel choices can then follow a hierarchy demonstration ‘bike bus’ for students to Hall was full to overflowing. After the Bad timing and rather late in the day as that mirrors the carbon footprint of the cycle safely to Hope Valley College.; and spring of Greta Thunberg and Extinction to date DfT has flagrantly ignored the different modes of travel – active travel we have arranged a ‘try before you buy’ Rebellion, and David Attenborough’s stark Committee on Climate Change advice, first, followed by public transport with car e-bike event. warning on TV, there was a big appetite by allowing transport emissions to rise travel last. All schemes that undermine Our Chair, Jeremy Wight, says “For for learning more about this huge threat to and excluding international aviation and achievement of the decarbonisation me, the most gratifying development has our civilisation, and doing something about shipping from the UK carbon budgets. milestones would be abandoned, including been the discovery that there are so many it. So Hope Valley Climate Action was born. Transport is now the largest source HS2 and the roads programme. The like-minded people in the Hope Valley, A lot has been achieved since. Action of carbon emissions in the UK, at 169 billions of pounds saved could be used who recognise the threat we face, share groups have been set up on energy, food MtCO2e and the only sector in which to deliver high speed broadband across a determination to do something about it, and farming, travel and transport, and emissions have increased since 1990. the country and to support active travel and are prepared to put time and energy rewilding, with village groups in , The scale of the challenge to meet the and free bus travel. These large sums into making a difference”. Hathersage and Grindleford. The National obligations of the Paris Climate agreement give a measure of the scale of investment What are the prospects for next year? Park Authority, all our local councillors and restrict the increase in global needed to decarbonise travel. The £2bn To make the Valley a national pilot for and Robert Largan, High Peak MP have average temperatures to well below 2°C announced earlier this year by DfT for sustainable travel, with safe walking and endorsed our work. We have planted is enormous. In the worst case forecast active travel pales into insignificance when cycling routes for everyday use, excellent trees and established dialogue with the UK 2030 transport emissions could rise Greater Manchester’s Beelines for walking public transport, and reduced use of farming community. We have established above current levels and in the optimistic and cycling needs £1.5bn to be completed. private cars by visitors and local people. forecast are only 10% lower than 1990 links with other concerned groups in To push for improved home insulation, and levels. the Valley, across , and in to explore increased renewable energy Unfortunately, Decarbonising Transport Sheffield. We have distributed a regular generation. To work with farmers towards gave no hint of this urgency and seemed newsletter to nearly 400 supporters. the environmentally and economically set on business as usual. There was no We have kept going through the Covid sustainable farming of the future. To do sign of CPRE’s top priority - a legally- lockdown, with Zoom enabling the CEO of all this, and more, we need you to get binding, national, single, net zero carbon The Wildlife Trusts and the Policy Director involved. budget and reduction pathway for the of the National Farmers Union to join our Please visit our website https:// transport sector as a whole, including meetings. On December 14th we welcome hopevalleyclimateaction.org.uk/ or contact international aviation and shipping. Nor Fiona Reynolds, Chair of Green Alliance, us at [email protected] were there any clear milestones in line former head of the National Trust, and with the legal requirement for Net Zero by President of Friends of the Peak District 2050 and the urgency for action. (CPRE PDSY) as our guest speaker.

14 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 15 • Whether or not they would consider hydro scheme, with at least 50% investing in any community share issue strongly supportive Community Solar offered • 85%+ support in principle a solar farm • Their degree of support, and own within the parish By Laurie James, Sustainable Hayfield ideas, for what any community fund • A striking almost 80% said they would derived from operating profits might be consider investing in any community put to. share offer, and The survey – undertaken over about 10 • Improved insulation and tree days – resulted in almost 200 returns, 16% planting/’rewilding’ were the most of all households. This is encouraging. popular uses to which a community Work is being done to analyse responses. fund could be put. The parish of Hayfield, on the western newsletter postings, and extensive use But already it’s clear that, of those This all represents a good edge of the Peak District National Park, of local social media. It staffed a street responding: start. Enquiries can be made to has a profile whose scale belies its size: a stall to discuss prospects with villagers, • 80%+ support, or strongly, support [email protected]. start point for the Kinder Mass trespass, and is stressing the need for any farm to energy supply from a solar farm or a historically popular base for walkers and be softened by judicious tree and shrub fell running and, lately, for mountain biking. planting. But its profile may have a new element The approach taken has resulted in Greener Better Faster thanks to the energy generation revolution some positive engagements. Hayfield The transformational change needed electricity bills and lift millions of people underway in the UK. Local enthusiasts Parish Council supports the completion of across society to reach net-zero out of fuel poverty. from Sustainable Hayfield, a ‘green group’, the feasibility study in principle. The local emissions will touch every sector and And by using renewable energy have secured government funding to carry MP is interested in the scheme’s progress. every community. The places we live sources, we will move towards a green out a feasibility study into prospects for a A local shop agreed to receive completed, and the ways that we travel around, energy future that provides jobs and solar farm in the parish. The aim is to help hard copy, survey forms. Research has our livelihoods, the food we eat, and opportunities to rural communities. ensure supply of local green energy to been done on the impact of solar farms the countryside itself – the landscapes, Putting the countryside at the centre local people. on local biodiversity. Initial constructive habitats and wildlife living within it – are all of our transition to a net-zero future is The impetus comes from knowledge discussions have been held with the local going to change. therefore crucial. CPRE’s new manifesto: that energy generation in the future planning authority and with CPRE officers. The countryside itself can provide ‘Greener, better, faster’ sets out how will look very different. Coal as a fuel In seeking community views, many of the solutions to tackling climate the government can best achieve this. It is now almost gone, and there are real Sustainable Hayfield’s approach has been breakdown. Better still, these changes will focuses on five areas: Thriving landscapes; questions about the future of (equally informed by the CPRE’s model, set out in bring a host of other benefits to people Planning and building; Food and farming; fossil-fuel based) gas. The government its report ‘Future Energy Landscapes: a and wildlife. Transport and Energy. has committed the UK to be net zero new approach to local energy planning’, By planting more trees and hedgerows, At CPRE, we celebrate our countryside carbon emitting by 2050, and is taking co-authored with the Centre for restoring peatlands and moving towards for its inherent beauty and what it first steps to ensure future domestic and Sustainable Energy. a more sustainable way of farming, we represents for us culturally as much as commercial energy needs are met largely Local residents were asked can use nature’s toolbox to capture for the food, fresh water and mental and by renewable sources. And more of that greenhouse gases from the air, while physical health benefits it gives us. We’re will be generated locally. about: revitalising our natural environments. proud to promote, enhance and protect • Their relative support/opposition to a Any significant solar development By shifting to sustainable public our countryside for everyone to enjoy, and range of renewable energy generating must be sensitive to the character of transport and more walking and cycling, we recognise the huge risk the climate technologies local landscape, and the local community. we will cut emissions and reduce air emergency poses to this. • What is important to them about any So Sustainable Hayfield’s Energy group pollution, while improving our wellbeing We need your help to continue this vital renewable energy supply (e.g. locality, is keen to get any proposal as right as and reconnecting our market towns with work; to lobby and campaign and hold the affordability, scope for involvement) it can. It has engaged consultants to increasingly isolated rural communities. government to account. Please make • Whether they support in principle the map potential sites; and undertaken a In improving the energy efficiency of a donation to our appeal today. development of a solar farm in the household survey in the parish, involving our homes, we will reduce the demand parish door-to-door deliveries to 1200 homes, for new energy supplies. This will lower 16 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 17 Sprawling development The right to roam is the right to threatens historic village We’re concerned about an application to build new reconnect housing on and around the Britannia Mill near Buxworth. Ours is a wild and a beautiful island. But we are The mill site is allocated for housing in the High Peak excluded, by law of trespass, from 92% of its Local Plan and we have no problem with that as it is a countryside and 97% of its rivers. The Right to brownfield site, subject to sustainable design, active Roam campaign aims to extend the Countryside & travel and low carbon systems being core to the Rights of Way (CRoW) Act which, in 2000, gave us development. partial rights to roam over about 8% of England. However Rivertown Developments, who own the site, At the end of the Second World War, the Attlee want to sprawl out onto green belt and greenfield land government looked into granting a full Right to to the north and south east with poor quality, low density Roam in England, similar to that of Scotland today. housing. This would cause a merger with the historic But of all the post-war new order proposals, the village of Buxworth, contrary to green belt policy and also Right to Roam was deemed a step too far by the affect the setting of Bugsworth Canal Basin which is a landowners in the House of Lords, and rejected. nationally important heritage site. People are still blamed for not following rules but the problem is not a lack of This is a typical example of a poorly designed, car regulation, it is lack of education. Littering, dog fouling and sheep worrying are all dependent housing estate which should be banned. We already crimes. The rules exist: there is already a Countryside Code. It should be taught need instead a compact, sustainable, walkable community in schools so that we all understand the practical and moral responsibility we owe to estate which will help meet High Peak Borough the land, its community and its owners. Council’s target of zero carbon emissions by 2030. For more information and to continue this conversation visit www.righttoroam.org.uk/ Party plans for Gothic Lodge Business Sponsor Focus Thornseat Lodge, the crumbling but still imposing Victorian Gothic shooting lodge on Pure Outdoor the edge of Bradfield Moors, has long been Since 2006, Pure Outdoor Ltd. have neglected and is in serious disrepair. An provided UK and Overseas Hillwalking, application to convert it to five holiday lets Navigation, Rock Climbing, Caving, First may be the last chance to save anything of Aid, Winter Skills, Mountain Guiding, historic value. Corporate Training and Group Events from However, the restoration is accompanied their base in the village of Bamford in the by a proposed wedding/event venue, for up Peak District. Their aim is to provide high Guy Wilson to 150 guests with 80 car parking spaces, quality, low instructor/client ratio courses on the footprint of the former stables and which are accessible to all, and as well as local hospitality providers. Whether you courtyard. This would bring noise and having the original National Park to work climb, walk, cave or bike, Pure Outdoor disturbance, potentially with outdoor PA in, they have excellent facilities at their have courses to suit all levels which can systems, loud music and fireworks, right on the edge of the Bradfield Moors. Adventure Hub base including indoor and be viewed on their website at www. The moors are an area of immense tranquillity, and an extremely important and outdoor meeting facilities and a climbing pureoutdoor.co.uk strongly protected habitat for wild birds. In addition, the traffic generated would use and bouldering wall – after all it isn’t sunny We are very grateful to Guy and the the network of quiet lanes in Bradfield Dale so popular with walkers and cyclists. These on every day in the Peak !! Founded by team for allowing the charity to use the lanes are steep and narrow with blind bends, and pass through villages such as High Guy Wilson, the company contributes to meeting rooms (and the excellent coffee and . At a time when active travel is so important these lanes should be the local economy by attracting clients machine) on occasion. The Peakland protected from intimidating traffic both for their valuable role in improving people’s from all over the UK (and the world) Guardian is also available from their base quality of life and to enhance their character and tranquillity. to attend courses, many of whom use if you’re passing. 18 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 19 Welcome New Trustees Ethel Haythornthwaite - her legacy Julie Parry, Chair for Sheffield and the Peak District Julie has over 30 years’ experience as a teacher and leader in schools, husband in 1916. She was widowed and often in areas with few natural advantages. She has extensive experience heartbroken by the age of 22. of bringing about significant improvements in the education offered to Desperate to distract her, her family the children in her care. In retirement, Julie maintains a strong link with encouraged her to visit the countryside education as a Trustee of a leading Multi Academy Trust. Julie has a life- where she noticed many developments long love of the natural world and is a keen walker in, and photographer which she considered to be inappropriate, of, her local countryside and the wildlife and plant life to be found there. badly designed, or in the wrong place. She particularly disliked the advertising Ruth Knighton hoardings lining the country roads and Ruth grew up in rural Staffordshire and has been living in the Peak ugly and badly sited petrol stations in District for a number of years. With over 22 years’ HR experience isolated country lanes, and all the litter within the NHS, Ruth currently holds the position of Head of everywhere. And so began her life’s work. Human Resources for a local NHS trust, leading the development Jean worked for of Workforce Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion. She is a keen cook, Ethel, and the man traveller and hill-walker with a passion for the natural world, who later became specifically the conservation and protection of bird-life. When not her husband, Gerald working, Ruth can often be found on top of a hill with her energetic Sheffield born Ethel Haythornthwaite Haythornthwaite, for border collie, Maggie, looking for skylarks. (1894–1986) was a formidable and 37 years at the charity nationally respected environmental Steve Tivey now known as CPRE campaigner, and a pioneer of the Peak District and South Steve has had a 40 year career as a countryside and rights of way countryside movement. Yorkshire. manager, working for South Yorkshire County Council, Barnsley In this illustrated online talk, Jean View it now on our MBC, Cheshire County Council and Sheffield City Council. He is a Jean Smart Smart offers a peek into the life of an YouTube channel. Link former adviser, on countryside access issues, to the Association extraordinary Sheffield woman who from our website: www.cprepdsy.org.uk of Metropolitan Authorities and was a member of the House of pioneered countryside protection and Commons Rights of Way Review Committee. His Interests include hill town and country planning with steely walking, travel, natural history and photography. Steve lives on the determination and a genius for influencing eastern boundary of the Peak on the edge of moorland. and persuading. Ethel was born to self-made VACANCY Treasurer businessman Thomas W. Ward and Mary We’re currently looking for a treasurer. If you have skills in book-keeping, accounting, Sophia Ward (of the Sheffield Bassets financial forecasting, and IT preferably with experience of Quickbooks or similar sweet company), and married her first packages, we’d love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] or call 0114 312 2002 for more info. Have you seen our new website? www.cprepdsy.org.uk Since the 1920s we’ve been CPRE Peak District & South Yorkshire but since 2002 we’ve also been known as Friends of the Peak District. We’re going back to our roots: same charity, same workload, same passionate commitment to the fabulous countryside in the Peak District d South Yorkshire (and NE Derbyshire). Basically business as usual! Just a new livery...

20 Peaklandguardian Peaklandguardian 21 David Wilson 1926-2020 “The natural world nurtures and nourishes us, our physical health and We were sorry to learn recently of the our mental wellbeing. It is our first line of defence against the climate death, aged 95, of David Wilson, a lifelong emergency; and our haven of adventure, beauty and tranquillity. It member of our branch. He was given membership at an early age by our founder, cleans the air we breathe and the water we drink. It captures carbon Ethel Haythornthwaite, as he was part of the and saves our towns from flooding. We deliver a unique service by extended Ward/Irons family, linked in part through Sheffield’s metal industry. His father, supporting local communities to campaign for it and help protect it. Ronald Wilson, ran the Sheffield Smelting Please support our work. Visit www.cprepdsy.org.uk and donate today. Company but instilled in David a deep love of the countryside, especially the Peak District. Thank you” After volunteer recorder roles in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, David went on to lead the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) through rapid expansion and success in the 1960s, leaving to become a well-regarded book dealer. He always kept an eye on his beloved Peak patch, notifying us of potential threats. He contributed generously to our appeal to restore the Ward family graves plot in 2018, though sadly did not attend the celebratory event. We are also immensely grateful for a legacy he has left us to carry on our vital work.

John Foster 1920-2020 It was a great sadness to learn of the death of the Peak District National Park’s inaugural director, John Foster, just weeks short of his 100th birthday. But we give thanks for his immense formative contribution to the Peak District and to countryside conservation across the UK. He took the reins at the PDNP in 1952 and stayed till 1968. He was a deft and charismatic leader, artfully bridging the gap between the often divergent views of local county councils and conservationists such as ourselves. He worked closely with the Haythornthwaites and also helped establish many elements of the national park scene we now take for granted: information centres, a ranger service and the mountain rescue teams. It was no real surprise, as a Scot, that he would return home to become the first director of the Countryside Commission for Scotland. In his long retirement he was still incredibly active, driving the development of the John Muir Trust among other causes. He still retained a strong interest in the Peak District, being a great supporter of our organisation and providing incisive and helpful analysis of our campaigns, notably our work to underground intrusive electricity infrastructure. He will be sorely missed. Curber Edge ©Tim Mackey

22 Peaklandguardian CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire Registered charity number: 1064975 Registered company number: 4496754 Victoria Hall, 37 Stafford Road, Sheffield, S2 2SF 24 Peaklandguardian