The leader of a Dorset-based agricultural organisation has responded to the government’s 25-year green plan to protect and enhance the environment. 

In a speech last Thursday, Prime Minister Theresa May announced the landmark plans which aim to leave the country in a better state within a generation. 

The Countryside Land and Business Association (CLA) has responded to the proposals and Will Bond, CLA Dorset branch chairman and landowner, says farmers and landowners will play a “crucial role” in delivering on the vision set out by the Prime Minister. 

He said: “The plan acknowledges the range of ‘public goods’ that are delivered across our countryside. It is farmers and landowners that deliver these ‘goods’ from investing in improving soil quality, to reducing flooding risks to homes and businesses and managing woodland. 

“For instance, here in Dorset, sensitive and responsible management of the environment and landscape is a vital element of maintaining a strong visitor economy.

“It’s something that CLA members have been doing for generations and continue to do effectively today working in Partnership with the AONB team and Natural England.”

Mr Bond said the Dorset CLA has welcomed linkages made in the 25-year environmental plan to ‘grand challenges’ set out in the government’s new Industrial Strategy, published in November, and particularly to the challenge of creating clean growth.

He added: “Dorset’s rural economy can play a big part in that and we look forward to working with the Dorset Local Enterprise and Nature Partnerships to meet the challenge.”

However there is “more work to be done” to make the plans more specific, Mr Bond says. 

He said: “Much of what is proposed will require significant investment from a range of sources, consistently delivered over decades.

“If we are to achieve the clean growth that the government wants, we need much greater clarity than this plan provides on the role of the local planning system. If we are to deliver on our environmental ambitions as a nation we have to rethink much of how we live and work. 

“Too often the impulse in the planning system is to interpret environmental responsibilities as a need to slow or hold back development, whereas it is by encouraging and harnessing growth that we are more likely to succeed.

“Dorset’s environment has been a long time in the making, and generations of good management and care has meant that today it stands in pretty good order. 

“As we look to the future, and to the challenge of leaving our county’s environment in a better state than we found it, we will need to recognise that it will many years to achieve.”