Calls to teach Countryside Code in schools as lockdown brings rise in vandalism
The Countryside Code should be taught in schools because an entire generation has been left without an understanding of how to respect rural spaces, the Country Land and Business Association has said.
The CLA has written to education secretary Gavin Williamson to call for the code to be included on the curriculum amid a surge in littering, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour during the lockdown.
It has also called on visitors to respect the code as rural tourism begins to reopen this weekend, when campaign group Clean Up Britain warned there could be a “semi-tsunami of litter.”
“The countryside is a wonderful place and we want to see everybody enjoy it. But we also want them to be safe, and respect the countryside as a place of work,” CLA President Mark Bridgeman said.
“A lack of education on how to treat the countryside has left a generation without a basic understanding of what is an acceptable and indeed necessary standard of behaviour in a rural, working environment which produces food for the nation. We all have a part of to play in improving that understanding, but help in the classroom would be a great start.”
The Countryside Code gives general guidelines for behaviour in rural areas, including respecting the environment by removing litter, protecting animals, leaving gates as you find them and keeping dogs on a lead.
This is the first time the CLA has called for it to be taught in schools and it comes after a warning last month from the Wildlife Trusts that vandalism had become worse than ever after the lockdown started to ease.
The Trusts reported the destruction of birds and their habitats, wildfires started by barbecues and an epidemic of littering.
John Read, the founder of Clean Up Britain cautioned that this weekend could be a peak for littering in towns and countryside as bars and restaurants open up.
“We have a massive littering problem in Britain,” he said, “And now it’s more out of control, and it’s very likely to be particularly this weekend. I think we’ll see a semi-tsunami of litter.”
CPRE, the countryside charity, echoed concerns about the "blight" of lockdown litter, but said: "While the public has a role to play to ensure that we make littering socially unacceptable; the current situation shows government must do far more to support local authorities to create comprehensive refuse and recycling systems and curb our throwaway culture."
