It was really useful to sit down with the Great Ouse Valley Trust this week to discuss a range of issues relating to their work.
The Trust is trying to achieve full National Landscape (what used to be known as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) designation for the Ouse Valley and Washes and to achieve designation as a Valued Landscape (Regional Park) from Huntingdonshire District Council and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA).
If successful it would make it the only National Landscape in the whole of the East Midlands and East Anglia; a real benefit for tourism in the district given the development of Universal Studios Bedford and also the proposal to back ‘Option E’ in Local Government Reorganisation, a Huntingdonshire only unitary authority.
The Trust has proposed putting forward a business case for self-designation as a national landscape, setting out the need to protect and conserve the value of the landscape - a proposal I wholeheartedly support.
My thanks to Graham and Ian for taking the time to talk me through the Trust’s plans and I look forward to supporting their push for designation as a National Landscape.
