4 OCTOBER 1930, Page 16

Now the county councils, whose powers have been greatly extended

by the Town Planning Act, have at last awakened to their opportunities. Stimulated and indeed educated by the experts of the C.P.R.E.—another Intelligence Bureau of the best sort—they follow one another in devising Regional plaits for the protection of their counties. The Regional Survey produced the other day by Berkshire, the guardian of some of the most lovely reaches of the Thames, marks a new chapter in the history of the County Council. This most various county with its incomparable English river and Down, as well as its woods and farms and commons, means to protect itself, especially to save selected views from the outrage of any unfit and uncomely building. More power to the elbow of every C.C. that produces a Regional plan and to the Council for the Preservation of Rural England in all its activities. But—may I say it 9—the worst, and to some eyes the ugliest, offence against the use and beauty of England is totally disregarded by both Councils.