LOCAL rural Wales countryside campaigners have presented their prestigious annual award to Chris Bruce who lives near Hay-on-Wye.
The ceremony which took place near Brecon on Sunday, June 11 was organised by the Brecon & Radnor branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW).
The award went to volunteer Chris for his outstanding commitment and technical skills in the use of GIS mapping software to show the distribution and impact of development, including wind energy, solar energy and intensive poultry units in Powys.
Chris is an IT and Geographical Information Systems expert who spends his free days exploring the Powys countryside on foot.
He is putting his best professional effort into helping our branch to safeguard the Powys he loves.
He has investigated how proposals for wind and solar energy overlap highly sensitive areas such as sites protected for natural species, areas of peat stores, open access and common land. He also developed models to show how developments would visually transform our Powys landscape.
Over the last year he has worked with CPRW to publish a unique interactive website map of intensive poultry units in Powys which is helping to bring home the risks these pose to our waterways and biodiversity by increasing nitrogen and phosphate levels in vulnerable natural habitats.
Dr Christine Hugh-Jones, honorary secretary of the branch, said: “Chris’s mapping achieves more than any amount of words and diagrams. It is visual evidence which helps people see and understand what is actually happening and what could happen to our landscapes and biodiversity.
“His work is a priceless resource which CPRW has used in its submissions to the Inspector examining the proposed Powys
Local Development Plan. It is difficult to express our enormous gratitude for Chris’s dedicated work”
The Rural Wales Award is about recognising outstanding service to the countryside and communities of the area. Sustainability is a key feature of the Award and by graphically illustrating the implications of LDP proposals and planning decisions, Chris has given great service to this area. Branch secretary Dr Christine Hugh-Jones and committee member Margaret Tregear were also presented with bouquets by Peter Seaman to acknowledge
the dedication, research and hard work over many months that they have committed to the cause of protecting the beautiful and economically important landscape and environment of the area.