CPRE National Office
Volunteering opportunities
We are always looking for bright and enthusiastic volunteers to help us to stand up for Somerset's countryside. We also need a couple of new Trustees to help strengthen our branch.
Take action
March of the pylons
There are already 22,000 high voltage pylons covering 4,375 miles (7,000 km) of overhead lines across England and Wales. Most of these are in the countryside.
Quarries and minerals in Somerset
Quarrying is big business and it provides many jobs in Somerset and crucial supplies of stone and aggregate for the whole nation.
Large Scale Anaerobic Digesters
AD is a powerful and useful technology for dealing with organic waste matter. In principle, we support such renewable energy schemes, but we have serious concerns where large, industrial-scale AD plants are allowed to develop in the countryside due to their impact on local roads and infrastructure, rural communities and other rural businesses.
Solar farms
Somerset's countryside has been under enormous pressure in recent years to accommodate large scale solar farms, spurred on by the high financial incentives being offered to landowners.
Energy matters
It’s almost impossible to consider modern life without electricity. With more people wanting more electricity, the subjects of how we generate it and how to use it more wisely was never more important than now.
Climate change is real. It is already taking its toll on the English countryside. And if it isn’t stopped, within a few decades it will have altered many of our most cherished landscapes forever.
Roads in Somerset
Many of Somerset's main roads are congested and our rural roads are busier and more dangerous than ever. The answer is not to build more roads and tarmac over yet more of our countryside. Society and transport planners need to look for appropriate alternatives.
Save our countryside from bulldozers and savage local transport cuts
On 1 December 2014, the Government set out the biggest road-building programme since the 1970s. Help us to campaign to stop this and push for funding for sustainable travel, public transport and safer walking and cycle routes.
Traffic speed on rural roads
Freedom to get about is important to our quality of life, and for those who live in rural areas the car is vital. However, the distances cars travel and their speed have a significant effect upon the quality of life of rural dwellers and countryside users and a balance needs to be found.