AN environmental charity is launching a campaign at agricultural shows across the county to protect Devon landscapes from 'greedy developers' and 'bad planning'. 

Devon CPRE will be at the Chagford Show on Dartmoor today (August 15) raising awareness of its Defend Devon campaign. The campaign aims to protect farmland being taken out of agricultural use - for new build houses, solar panels and so on. 

Devon CPRE chair, Steve Crowther, said: “We’re taking our Defend Devon campaign out to county shows this summer because the kind of people who will back us flock to events like these. It’s very clear from the hundreds of people we have talked to on our stand in recent weeks, and the new members we have recruited, that there’s widespread agreement that Devon needs protecting.

“Every year Devon CPRE fights more than 100 unsuitable planning applications to preserve our precious landscapes and farmland. Why? For several reasons. We want our county’s world-leading pasture land used to produce food. It makes sense to put solar panels on rooftops and brownfield sites rather than on productive farmland.

“We also know there’s a need for new homes in Devon, but not just any new builds. What Devon needs are homes our young people can afford to live in, not more luxury boltholes and Airbnbs that put real communities further and further out of the reach of the younger generation.

“If you care about these issues, love Devon’s incredible landscapes and want to protect them from inappropriate development of one kind or another, join Devon CPRE and become a Devon Defender. We need you alongside us to defend Devon and everything that makes it a wonderful place to live.”

The Defend Devon campaign will run alongside the Grass not Glass campaign against solar farms on agricultural land, and the charity's fight to combat the Rural Housing Crisis by campaigning for the right kind of homes in the right places. 

Steve Crowther added: “An annual subscription to Devon CPRE costs the price of a monthly pint for individuals. 17 pence a day, surely a small price to pay to Defend Devon?”