THE Test Valley Group of the Campaign to Protect Rural England recently held its annual and open meeting in the delightfully restored Stockbridge Town Hall.

Their chairman, John Cooper, outlined the hard work of his committee through the year; he highlighted the numerous applications that developers were putting forward in the absence of a finally approved Local Plan plus the surge of solar farm applications. He praised the work of the secretary, Moya Grove, both for her work for the committee and on planning issues and that of John Moon for his detailed work on the Local Plan which will shape developments across the borough over the next 15 years; his work cast doubts on the key predictions and assumptions that the borough had made to underpin their inflated housing figures.

In the interval the members, the guest of honour the Major of Test Valley, Cllr Jan Lovell, and other guests, enjoyed a social half hour with drinks and nibbles.

They then heard a fascinating and splendidly illustrated talk by Douglas Paterson entitled ‘Farming and the Hampshire Countryside. Douglas comes from several generations of farmers though many know him as an accomplished viola player and for his summer concerts at Cranbourne Farm. With a wonderful selection of family farming photographs over the years he showed how farming had changed. He is a committed conservationist and was able to illustrate how important it is to work within the environmental constraints and fully acknowledge the importance of biodiversity and landscape.