OXFORD TO STAINES.
The special " Thames Valley Branch—(Oxford to Staines) " is to have a committee on which five County Councils, several Borough, Urban, and Rural District Councils, Rural Corn- nriunity Councils, local landowners, Oxford and Reading Universities, the Thames Conservancy and the Women's Institutes are to be represented. This means much more than the preservation of a particular stretch of the river. The Council for the Preservation of Rural England (from its humble office, 38 Bloomsbury Square, W.C. 1) has brought about a new thing in rural reconstruction. In order to save the countryside it is essential that the district councils, or County Councils, adopt rural planning, and it seems likely that more landowners, on the model of some of the Thames- side dwellers, will, in the future, voluntarily come forward to "schedule " their property and so shut it off from the operations of the army of spoilers and jerry-builders. The Meeting, held under the auspices of the Berkshire C.C. in the Shire Hall, Reading, on March 30th, should make history.
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