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Ray Mears called for the protection of green spaces
everywhere.
'All my life I’ve seen wonderful areas being built on,' he said |
Ray Mears, the
survival expert, has joined a growing chorus of voices concerned about
unrestrained development, warning that a shortage of green spaces can lead to
the sort of social disruption witnessed during the summer's riots.
Responding to the Government's proposed radical planning
reforms, Mears said that a rising population was not an excuse to create a
concrete jungle.
The 47 year-old, whose television series have demonstrated
ancient survival skills, urged politicians to recognise the importance of
Britain's remaining areas of wilderness.
"You can still get away from everything. Despite the
populous nature of our country, there are still great opportunities for feeling
a sense of wildness," he said.
He warned that open spaces were constantly under threat from
developers.
His comments come after The Telegraph launched the
Hands Off Our Land campaign. Explaining his fears, Mears, who returns to ITV1
next Friday with the second series of Wild Britain, said: "Roads are
much busier than they were. There are a lot more people around. We need to
develop a new reverence for wild places. They are more important and more under
threat than ever before."
The Government's draft National Planning Policy Framework
aims to make it easier for planners and builders by removing red tape.
Opponents including the National Trust have expressed concern at the inclusion
of the "presumption in favour of sustainable development" which they
have labelled a developers' charter.
Mears, who grew up in Surrey, stressed that it was not only
the countryside that needed protecting, and that a lack of green space in the
inner cities might explain the sort of frustration that boiled over during the
riots.
"All through my life I've seen wonderful areas being
built on," he said. "I grew up in Surrey, an area with big houses
with big gardens and a lot of wildlife. Those houses have been bought up by
developers, knocked down and replaced with small blocks of flats.
"People cry out, 'We need places to live.' That's true.
However, we must also make sure we have green spaces. If we don't, we'll end up
with one giant urban conglomeration.
"And I think we saw earlier this year what attitudes
that can spawn in the people who are oppressed in those areas. You didn't see
people rioting in the bits of London that border big parks."
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