I've just read that article and was very pleased with the remarks by Simon Jenkins about preservation of the countryside. Hopefully Margaret Hodge, (who I believe represents Hackney, in London) does sincerely think the countryside is wonderful - I know I did when I lived in London though the closest I got to it was weekend walks across Hampstead Heath.

I have been living in the north Wiltshire town of Swindon for the past decade - and am quite fond of the town although it suffers from a poor image because of the many soulless housing developments; out of town shopping centres and industrial estates that sprang up in the second part of the 20th century.

An ongoing campaign to overturn another new development on the historic land adjacent to Coate Water Country Park met with success last year when the government ruled against the development on appeal by the consortium who wanted to build there. The land is special because its associations with the Victorian writer and naturalist Richard Jefferies - Coate and the surrounding land was the backdrop to many of his books including the children's book Bevis. There is also a small partially buried stone circle on the land.
Coate land saved - for now
The land will never be safe though - the (Conservative) council have still given the go ahead for 750 houses to be built there.

I agree totally with Simon Jenkins, once rural land is gone its gone for good and we are left searching for remnants in an old oak on a grass verge or a small copse that by some miracle survived (Swindon has quite a lot of old oaks and grassy verges).

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