THE future of an area of outstanding natural beauty is under threat from development as demand for housing grows.

The Cranborne Chase has had 17 housing applications in the past five years, despite campaigners insisting areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) are the wrong place to build.

A report published last month from the National Association for AONBs showed that housing applications and approvals on the sites have risen sharply over the past five years and that the scale of proposed developments has also increased.

The Cranborne Chase covers 380 square miles of countryside overlapping the boundaries of Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset.

In the past five years plans for 80 houses in Tisbury have been approved, with similar numbers in Blandford and Shaftesbury.

And more developments have been granted planning permission all around its boundary near Blandford, Shaftesbury, Warminster and Wimborne.

Cranborne Chase AONB director Linda Nunn said the purpose of AONBs is “to conserve and enhance natural beauty” and said they “a limited and diminishing resource”.

“Large scale housing development fundamentally changes these nationally important landscapes,” she added.

An independent review of housing in AONBs between 2012 and 2017 showed “unprecedented growth” in the number of new homes approved, as a response to increased demand.

This is despite the government’s National Planning Policy Framework stating major planning in AONBS should be refused except in “exceptional circumstances”.

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) reported an “increasing concern” that planning authorities are reluctant to refuse planning appeals on AONBs, and said that, unless the government and local authorities take action now, more beautiful landscapes will be lost forever.

The group also recommended that all AONBs be given the right to be consulted on major development proposals in their areas.

Emma Marrington, CPRE senior rural policy campaigner, said: “While CPRE advocates the building of the right homes in the right places, AONBs are not the right place. On top of this, current development in AONBs shows little evidence that what’s built will actually help solve the housing crisis, which is more to do with affordability than lack of land.”