Country Life
C.P.R.E. PaounFss.
Real progress of the right sort has-been made by- the Council for the Preservation of Rural England. One may say that the movement begins to take on an historic guise. The ideals can, of course, only be realized by aid of the local councils— Rural District and County Councils—but as in the most feudal of days the landowners have given a lead ; and their action gives promise of great things. Not one but many have recently agreed to schedule beautiful bits of their land as areas to be kept virgin of buildings, if it may be, in perpetuity. " Schedule " in this regard has a strictly technical meaning. Wherever a town or rural planning scheme has been adopted by a local council, the area may be " zoned," and particular districts scheduled for definite uses—or beauties. Once formally scheduled in this way under the scheme the land may be considered safe from the desecration of the jerry builder or advertiser, or other enemy of rural charms. Now the various landowners, some with historic names, who have offered to schedule precious pieces of land, whether on the banks of the Thames or along great high roads, do this for the sake of preservation of the landscape. They have no ulterior Am. But the act may entail certain benefits. As things are, tax-gatherers, especially those concerned with death duties and surtax, may and do put quite imaginary prices on land, on the excuse that it has a building value. Land properly scheduled as agricultural is adequately fenced against this insidious and unfair imposition.
* * * *
Previous page
