THE far-too-precious-by-half tendancy within the Council for the Protection of Rural England has got it wrong in urging the Government to subject car boot sales and other similar events to local planning controls.

It believes that anybody wanting to hold a sale, a fete, carnival or shoot should have to obtain planning permission from the local council to protect "the weekend peace of the countryside and suburbia".

The idea lends credence to the belief that the CPRE is dominated by folk solely committed to preserving the countryside in aspic. That is not the case, of course, but this sort of half-baked plea for more bureaucratic interference does its reputation no good.

Whilst there may be an argument for giving local authorities more power to control some "temporary uses" of land which get out of hand and have a disproportionate impact on the people living and working nearby, there seems to be no case for presenting council planning officers with a massive additional workload.

The CPRE seems to realise this in accepting that a change in planning rules would have to be phased in gradually to avoid councils being swamped with applications.

It also anticipates problems with its rider that fees might have to be waived for charities, and school fetes might have to be exempted.

The distinctions which would have to be made are mind-boggling and indicative of an idea not thought properly through.

Possibly the last thing the countryside needs now is another raft of planning controls which would only serve to stifle all sorts of legitimate activities in the attempt to curb those events deemed unsuitable.