March of the modern world changing the face of our green and pleasant land

Had he been around today, he would have still seen the same sprawling fields and the same rivers wending their way past sleepy hamlets. However, Blake's view of clouded hills and mountains green would have also been slightly hampered by mobile phone masts, power lines and hoardings advertising cheap loans and the nearest golf course. Jerusalem, it most definitely isn't.

The gradual erosion of unspoilt panoramas is an issue which has long been a bugbear of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and, as the new coalition Government begin to find their parliamentary feet, the organisation has sent up another rallying cry for a rural spring clean.

"The green and pleasant land described by William Blake is sadly being lost under a blanket of overhead wires, phone masts, advertising boards, pylons and unnecessary road signs," says Paul Miner, senior planning campaigner at CPRE.

"A proliferation of man-made clutter is choking the landscape. Serious damage has already been done and if we don't tackle these very serious issues now, some of England's most treasured beauty spots could be lost forever."

The CPRE has identified the most serious offenders to the picture-postcard image of rural Britain and the statistics, which show just how far the modern world has encroached on the countryside, are startling.

Across the UK there are more than 52,000 mobile phone masts. More than 27,000 miles of electricity lines span National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Beauty. Add on the 3.5 million telephone poles and the 9.7 million miles of overhead wires they support and an unspoilt slice of countryside is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

The problem is that in a world where villagers demand access to broadband and where comfort and convenience are necessities not luxuries, winding back the clock seems an unlikely if not impossible task. Not so, says the CPRE.

"Some of these structures are needed, but the reality is many are unnecessary and could be scrapped," says Paul. "The real problem is insufficient planning control and bad infrastructure. It is these failures which have caused parts of our landscape to look more like a scrapyard than majestic green countryside."

Mobile phone masts, they say, are a case in point. During the last decade, a battle for network coverage raged across rural Britain, with rival companies desperate to be the first to have their technology up and running first. However, the market has since settled down and many firms are now looking to share their masts with commercial competitors.

According to the CPRE, with a third of existing masts set to become redundant, pressure needs to be put on those who installed them to decommission the surplus towers rather than allowing them to turn in to rusting, decaying eyesores.

However, not all the problems identified are quite so easy to solve.

"The country's future energy needs is a topic much discussed, particularly as governments try to reduce carbon emissions and improve efficiency," adds Paul. "Work has begun on moving power distribution lines underground. At least 78 miles have been buried in the last five years. However, Britain's beauty spots are still blighted by cables and more could be on its way.

"There are plans for an off-shore grid, which would in theory take care of all our future energy needs without building any more pylons. However, National Grid still seems very keen on overhead lines and while plans have been shelved for a development in South Yorkshire, there's no guarantee they won't re-emerge at a later date.

"Moving lines underground is expensive, but money has been set aside by Ofgem to remove the most visually intrusive lines and there has been a really successful project in the Howardian Hills. We are hoping that similar work can be carried out at Dunford Bridge in the Peak District where the lines from Sheffield to Manchester run through."

Not content with clearing the country's green fields and rolling hills from clutter, the CPRE also wants to focus attention on the deluge of road signs. According the RAC, 70 per cent of road signs in the countryside are unnecessary and not only confuse drivers, but spoil what estate agents would call kerb appeal.

"Most of our rural roads are a mess of unnecessary standardised signage that looks bland and encourages irresponsible motoring," says Paul. "Road signs are designed to warn, instruct and advise, but if overused they simply confuse.

"We realise they are installed often with the best of intentions, but when the clutter is at its worst, small hamlets can resemble a shop window for traffic-calming manufacturers, while the painted lines along country lanes can make them look like race tracks.

"It is not about resisting change or arguing against tackling the problems caused by rural traffic, but it is about insisting on a better kind of progress."

In the CPRE's spring clean, the biggest threat to order in recent years has come from the scourge of the roadside billboards.

While hoardings have blighted the landscape in large parts of North America and continental Europe for decades, the English countryside had until recently been spared large garish advertising. Now it's a nationwide problem and research shows the M1 and M62 in Yorkshire are among the major hotspots. In some areas there is one advert for every mile of motorway.

"England is relatively small and highly urbanised, so the impact of advertising spreading unchecked alongside our major roads is potentially huge," says Paul.

"Marketing firms have sprung up offering their trailer-mounted displays to advertisers and money to farmers willing to install such hoardings on their land.

"We know that many farmers are facing economic hardship, but we should be looking at ways of maintaining and increasing incentives for environmentally beneficial land management, not blighting the countryside with ugly hoardings.

"Regulations do exist and since we first began highlighting the problem many hoardings have been removed, but we need local authorities to use their powers to enforce the law and keep our roadsides clear of distracting, ugly advertisements."

The CPRE is understandably wary of sounding like an outdated voice for the past, championing an England which no longer exists. However, it insists that with a little lateral thinking the landscape could be substantially improved and is now calling on the public and local authorities to carry out what it calls a clutter audit to get a true picture of the state of rural Britain.

"The diversity of the English landscape springs from differences not just in the underlying rocks and soil, but from how people have developed different ways of using the land's resources," adds Paul.

"The world does and has to move on, but all we want is to ensure the character of the local landscape is at the heart of decisions made about planning design and development

"When we ask people what they feel most disrupts the tranquillity and beauty of our landscapes, it's the ugly pylons, masts and advertising boards which they point to.

"Cleaning up this mess only takes a little effort from the companies and councils responsible and we are more than ready and willing to help them in their efforts."