Devon CPRE takes ‘The Decimation Game’ to County Show in protest at government plans to axe 10% of farmland

Countryside campaigners Devon CPRE are returning to the Devon County Show at Westpoint near Exeter today for the first time in two decades to highlight the government’s proposal to decimate the county’s farmland.
The charity’s stand, themed THE DECIMATION GAME, will feature a ‘Cow-onut Shy’ in which show-goers can throw balls at stuffed cows and sheep in an attempt to knock them down and win a prize.
Chairman Steve Crowther said: “We’re trying to draw everyone’s attention to a triple whammy of threats facing Devon’s rural environment and planning system from a raft of new government proposals.
“The planning reforms are openly designed to clear obstacles from the path of the big housebuilders, by reducing democratic scrutiny; the local government reforms are going to make planning authorities a great deal more remote from the communities they affect; and the proposed National Land Use Framework declares that it will remove more than 10% of our farmland from food production. All this against the background of increased inheritance tax on farmers which threatens to decimate farms
that have been in family hands for generations. We have a fight on our hands.”

The Devon CPRE stand (No 346) will feature in the Country Life & Woodland Area at the Devon County Show, EX5 1DJ from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th May.