NATIONAL PARKS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 151, 23 December 1929, Page 11

NATIONAL PARKS

THE BUNGALOW HORROE

PRESERVATION' OF NATURAL

BEAUTY

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, ISth October

A National Conference for the Preservation of the Countryside is meeting in Manchester. The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, the president, in his address, said that a great deal of damage had been done during the past twelve months. Hundreds of thousands of trees had been needlessly cut down.-

On the other side, public opinion was more strong, more determined, and better directed. People wero conscious that rural England was threatened in every direction.

"We should understand clearly," he added, "that statutory powers exist that are never enforced. It is not so much Parliament that is to blame as local authorities in not using the powers that Parliament has given them." (Cheers.)

Lord Bledisloe, in an address on "National Parks," declared that they wero powerful national buttresses against vandalism of every description. There were many, he continued, who could not visualise a National Park, at least in this country, as a real sanctuary for birds, butterflies, badgers, and harebells without its inevitable violation, on the advent of collective humanity by broken bottles, beanos, banana skins, and banjos. (Laughter.) But that was contrary to the now large experience of the United States and Canada. Occasional vandalism undoubtedly occurs, but to an over-lessening extent. There developed, almost unconsciously, an inclination to be protector and ultimately an amateur policeman rather than a raimcious robber of Nature's treasures. (Applause.)

During the last few months several sites had been suggested as suitable for National Parks in different parts of Great Britain, including the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland and the region known as Snowdonia in Wales. It would be difficult to find any presenting higher claims to consideration than that of the Forest of Dean in his own neighbourhood in Gloucestershire, in spite of the fact that it contained coal mines, which in most cases were hidden among forest verdure until near approach disclosed them.

In the first place, the forest in effect already belonged to the nation, and therefore its utilisation for its new purpose did not involve the expenditure of large sums of public money on land purchase. In the second place, the country surrounding the forest, lying as it did between the most lovely parts of tho Severn and the Wye, had no parallel anywhere in the kingdom for variety of scenic beauty. Thirdly, the locality was noted not only for its rare geological interest, but also for the number, variety, and beauty of its wild flowers, birds, and butterflies, not to mention badgers and other relatively scarce mammals; and, lastly, surrounding the forest there were ancient buildings of architectural beauty or historical interest, th© number ■ and fame of which would hardly be surpassed in any part of this island.

Lord Grey of Fallodon, who was the first speaker on "The Preservation of Fauna and Flora," said the best way of furthering the protection of birds was, he thought, to give support to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Its activity was by no means confined to the protection of rare birds through tho beneficial services of its watchers saving them from extinction; it also worked through the schools, so as to get the rising generation brought up to a humane and interested point of view, so that they were more concerned to observe the life than to bring about the death of birds. The need for the protection of the wild flowers of the countryside was a need that had grown up with tho last generation, because of the changed circumstances of ■ the' life of the people. It was not that there had been any alteration in the disposition of people. The present generation was not naturally more mischievous or more thoughtless than previous generations. Whaj; had caused the danger to wild flowers was the change in tho methods of locomotion. People moved about freely all over the country in a way impossible before. Moreover, the population, formerly small and stationary, was now very largo and mobile. It was this that had increased the danger to the common wild flowers of tho country.

Mr. Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Transport, in a speech at Woolwich, appealed to all the local authorities of Britain to use all tho powers they possess to save the countryside from the horrors of bungaloid and "ribbon" development.

Lord Lytton, president of the Garden City and Town-Planning Association, in an interview with a Press representative, urged that definite measures must be taken without delay to stop tho erection of unsightly buildings along the arterial roads, and suggested that increased powers may bo necessary. "Tho countryside," said Lord Lytton, "is being terribly disfigured, and if 'ribbon' development—which means a string of ugly little houses—is going to spread out along these arterial roads, the whole countryside will be spoilt. "Building development should take place in villages and towns properly planned, away from these roads, and connected with them by secondary roads or lanes. We are making bypasses round towns and villages, and the whole policy will be defeated if you allow villages, with houses along the fringe of the road, to grow up alon" them." °