‘Beauty betrayed‘, published by CPRE National Office this month, is a major new report into development in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).
It shows there has been an 82% increase in new housing units given planning permission in England’s 34 AONBs in the past five years, despite repeated commitments by the Government to ‘maintain national protections for AONBs for the benefit of future generations’.
This represents almost 15,500 housing units since 2012, while the number of housing planning applications has more than doubled in that time
Of the eight AONBs under most pressure, three are in Oxfordshire – the North Wessex Downs, the Chilterns and the Cotswolds. The latter tops the list with 62 housing schemes coming forward over the last five years.
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