A NEW sign has been installed to the north of Whitchurch, alerting walkers and drivers that they are now entering an area which is a nationally protected landscape.

Whitchurch is a ‘gateway town’ to the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; but despite it being a protected landscape, campaigners who make up the Whitchurch Conservation Group say it currently faces a threat from land speculator, GENKO.

As previously reported, the developers are trying to develop thousands of houses with three planned projects in the Whitchurch area.

The new sign is an initiative spearheaded by David Gosling of Whitchurch Conservation Group, a constituted community group in Whitchurch. Established in October 2020, the group now has over 800 Whitchurch resident members and seeks to preserve Whitchurch’s green spaces, enhancing Whitchurch’s status as an economically and socially vibrant town with a strong rural and heritage identity.

The group’s campaign against the development has attracted support from notable celebrities including Bill Bryson, who said: “The North Wessex Downs is a rare and lovely landscape, but it is also painfully finite.

“What a tragedy it would be to lose it.”

The sign installation was in partnership with North Wessex Downs AONB Partnership, whose aim is to enhance and protect the natural beauty of the AONB.

David Gosling, of Whitchurch Conservation Group, said: “Our intention is to lay down a visual marker and remind people that this is a National Protected Landscape.”

For more information about Whitchurch Conservation Group, headed by Cllr Lucie Follett-Maitland, and the work that they are doing, visit: whitchurchconservationgroup.org.