Bill Bryson, author and President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), will today (Wednesday) address delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham on the value of Our Local Environment. He will then participate in a Q&A from the conference floor with Peter Ainsworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Eric Pickles MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. It will be Bryson’s first visit to a Conservative conference and his first invitation to set out the views of CPRE at a political party conference. He will be taking the opportunity to launch a new CPRE pamphlet on Communities and the countryside. This contains a speech by Conservative leader David Cameron which is being published as part of CPRE’s work to develop an attractive and influential vision for the countryside in 2026 – CPRE’s centenary year. Commenting on the occasion, Bryson said: ‘CPRE has been a leading voice in the countryside debate for 80 years. We’re non-party political but I’m honoured to represent CPRE, and share this platform on a critical debate. It goes to the heart of our work – how people should be able to influence the local environmental decisions that affect their lives. Of course global environmental issues – especially climate change – matter hugely. But people’s concern about the environment usually starts at a local level. It starts with the decisions affecting their street, their village, their local piece of countryside or Green Belt. If we want people to care about the global, we need to start local.’

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1 October 2008
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