Living with Change

The Parliamentary year of 2009 will go down in the memory of professional politicians as not their finest period. Sub-let flats, houses for ducks and the odd moat clearance have created in public mind the appearance of a culture based on the self interest of members, rather than the discharge of democratic and party duties.

I am not a political animal, (although my wife says I should be one when I start up on one of my heartfelt rants about environmental issues). I do, however, value the hard work and commitment that MPs apply to their constituency duties. I have worked alongside many Gloucestershire parliamentarians and I have found them all to be dutiful and cooperative. Our very biased family favourite would be the late Charles Irvine MP who not only hosted a Wildlife Appeal event at his home in Cheltenham, but also reduced my daughters to beaming happiness with large tins of House of Commons butterscotch (he chaired the House catering committee)!

The Trust’s cruise along the Gloucester-Sharpness canal featured a large group of distinguished and most welcome guests. David Drew, MP for Stroud, and his wife were particularly welcome and I was very pleased that they had been able to make space in their diaries for our four hour excursion. Indeed, David was typical of the majority of our guests as he had not before been able to justify the trip. Like me he was struck by the totally different view of the Severn Vale that is given from the perspective of this functional canal.

I emailed David on a business matter following our trip and last Thursday I spent a full hour talking about a wide range of matters with him. The theme of our discussion, although not the issue that I had raised originally, became that of the general failure of Gloucestershire folk to show off the wonders of their county. Indeed, I have never quite understood how one of England’s most diverse historic, cultural and ecological landscapes is so poorly promoted. Even worse is a general belief that the countryside is to be taken for granted, that the people who live there are overly fortunate and have no social problems, and that there no real jobs or prosperity in rural industries.

The environmental and land-based industries generate almost 6% of Gross National Product. Across the UK almost 1 million people are paid workers in these industries and another 0.5M give their time voluntarily. The upshot of this is the quality of life that Gloucestershire people (and the South West RDA) take for granted. Gloucester City and Cheltenham Town both benefit from their settings within the Severn Vale, framed by the hills of the Forest of Dean and the Cotswolds. Neither location would be nearly so fine without these backdrops or the wonderful green spaces and street trees that set off their buildings and urban features.

The Trust’s Living Landscape programmes exist to show the importance of the environment as the key component within a healthy society that has an economy growing within environmental limits. The Severn Vale project that David Drew saw is the stage one of the first of these. In October, the Trust will be announcing its next visionary programme. Over the next decades of climate-driven change, without fully joined-up policies, programmes and investment decisions, our county will not continue to be the Living Gloucestershire that we all currently take for granted. The Trust intends to set the pace to support Gloucestershire living with change.