By George! Before the election Osborne presented himself as a fervent Green
You’d never believe it now, but not long ago George Osborne was deeply green. Or so he said. On November 24, 2009 – less than six months before the election – the Chancellor who now wants to boost...
View ArticleTelegraph readers fend off the Treasury to save the countryside
It’s time to heave a huge sigh of relief. After a bloody Whitehall battle – spurred by a seven-month Daily Telegraph campaign – the Government has beaten a remarkable retreat from its attempt to...
View ArticleThe Dead Sea is dying
If you keep a sharp eye open as you drive the world’s lowest road, along the Israeli side of the Dead Sea, you may spot a short black line painted on a cliff face some feet above your head. It was made...
View ArticleLoosening the Green Belt – courageous or foolhardy?
"Courageous”, as you’ll recall, was Sir Humphrey Appleby’s most damning description of government policy. If the Yes Minister mandarin were now ensconced in Eric Pickles’s Department for Communities...
View ArticleHistoric towns face a real and present danger
Historic towns right across the country are coming under threat from insensitive development that jeopardises their unique characters. In a special article in place of my column this weekend, Louise...
View ArticleMinisters get another fright over planning, but seem incapable of learning...
If ministers had the slightest doubt that their ill-conceived planning reforms were politically explosive, it will have finally been dispelled when the Government narrowly escaped defeat in the House...
View ArticleLabour's house of cards just came crashing down
It was when I read Hilary Benn's piece on our website that I heard it – a great big thunderous clanging sound, about a thousand times louder than a penny dropping. Looking around, I realised what it...
View ArticleCan our unique national parks cope with this new onslaught of development?
Despite repeated promises by ministers to safeguard them, England's ten national parks are now under unprecedented threat from developments ranging from mining to fracking, from roadbuilding to burying...
View ArticleWill this Government mainly be remembered for ruining the countryside?
Villages all over England are "under siege" from builders, who threaten to swamp them with new developments by exploiting loopholes in the Coalition's controversial planning policies. MPs from all...
View ArticleWill planned estates in this Downton Abbey village finally bring home...
Tonight a local council will decide whether severely to embarrass the Prime Minister in his own backyard. For if the West Oxfordshire District Council's planning committee gives the go ahead for a new...
View Article
