House of Lords event to launch CPRE’s farming and hedgerows report

Last week, CPRE and Farmers Weekly launched the Farming and Hedgerows: stretching the boundaries report at a reception in the House of Lords attended by MPs, peers, industry stakeholders and CPRE Norfolk trustee, Sandra Walmsley.

Over 150 attendees from across the sector attended the launch and the report received excellent media coverage, showing the popularity of hedgerows and our #40by50 campaign.

After a welcome from the Chair of CPRE, Baroness Hayman, Shadow spokesperson for the Environment gave an enthusiastic speech talking about her passionate concern for hedgerows. She was followed by the Hon. Mark Spencer who talked about what the government are planning to do on the environment.

Sandra took the opportunity to meet with MPs and representatives from other local CPRE groups and talk about our local hedgerow projects.

Sandra recalls that her conversation with Ian Brown, Chair of CPRE Northumberland was interesting.

A “retired” farmer, he has developed a new degradable plastic which will help hedgerows which is shortly to go into mass production. The plastic covers which are used to protect saplings from predators are unsightly and degrade very slowly. This new plastic will degrade over four or five years, the time they need to be in place to protect the seedlings, but will not be a more or less permanent ugly feature of our countryside.

The success of the report will be kept going into next year, starting with CPRE’s Tom Fyans meeting with Defra Minister Trudy Harrison to make the case for a 40by50 target to be included in the Environmental Improvement Plan. Fingers crossed we’ll see the real change from the top that is needed to restore hedgerows across the UK!

Download and read the Farming and Hedgerows: stretching the boundaries report in full.

You can also read CPRE’s news story containing a summary of the report.