THE Council for the Protection of Rural England has launched its annual review with a plea for the Government to rethink its plans to change the planning system.

Addressing the CPRE's general council meeting in London yesterday outgoing CPRE president actress Prunella Scales launched a scathing attack on the plans.

After five years as president she said: "I'm sad and worried that as I leave, one particularly large and dark cloud hangs over the countryside. I'm talking about the Government's plans for a fundamental reform of the planning system."

She added: "We accept that the system needs improving. Indeed, we welcome several of the proposals in the Government's Green Paper on planning and we'll press for their implementation, along with the increase in resources that the planning system needs so badly.

"But the Government has got a lot of it wrong. The proposals represent a shift of power away from people towards developers and business interests. They would make some of the most crucial aspects of planning more remote from local people and communities.

"Parts of the Green Paper are, quite frankly, an assault on local democracy and a grave threat to the countryside. They have to be substantially modified."

The CPRE's annual review highlights some of what it considers its successes over the last 12 months, including better protection for pastoral landscapes in new provisions for environmental impact assessments.

Another highlight was its efforts to help regenerate the countryside economy in the wake of last year's foot and mouth outbreak and the organisations' call for a more environmentally sustainable food and farming policy.