About Us – CPRE in North Yorkshire

CPRE in North Yorkshire goes back a long way. What is now the Ryedale District Branch was started 75 years ago at a meeting in Helmsley, only a few years after the founding of the national organisation.  Similar groups started up not long afterwards in Scarborough and Whitby. Our Branch in Craven is 60 years old, and the branch in York and Selby dates in its present form from 1974 when local government was reorganised.

There are long-established branches in Swaledale and Wensleydale which preserve their identity – between them they cover Richmondshire, a much later creation. The County Committee was only set up in 1987 and we are now all part of a single charity.

Our Committee Members have a wide range of experience and expertise: some have spent a lifetime in countryside activities such as farming, forestry, fishing, wildlife or any one of a dozen other pursuits. CPRE is often only one of the “green” groups to which they belong, and these cross-memberships not only keep us in touch with what others are doing, but enable us to make common cause on numerous issues: keeping footpaths in good shape (with the Ramblers) or expanding bridleways (with the British Horse Society) or preserving the character of a market town (with its Civic Society) or the natural beauty of a National Park (with the Friends of the Park).

What we do

We are the only group, however, which concerns itself with the whole wide range of countryside issues.

Our fundamental aim is to preserve the individual character of our varied landscapes. The most spectacular of these, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors, are National Parks, and we also have the Nidderdale and the Howardian Hills Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). Much of our coastline is Heritage Coast, so a large part of North Yorkshire has extra protection. Our members say that they value well-managed farmland and quiet riversides so we try to ensure that new developments respect the countryside character everywhere.