Selby honoured for protecting the countryside

Mr Martin had lived in cities around the world before a complete change of career saw him settle in and grow to love the Shropshire countryside.

Now he had been honoured by the national organisation, the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

At a recent national conference, Mr Martin was given a special service award for more than three decades of volunteering for his Shropshire branch.

The CPRE said that as a trustee and vice-president over many decades his commitment to CPRE Shropshire, coupled with his expertise and knowledge of the county were almost irreplacable.

The 86-year-old former British diplomat has been involved in many aspects of the branch’s policy work including vetting changes in local and national planning policy that have taken place over the years.

He has drawn up responses to local government consultations and led the CPRE team at countless planning inquiries.

One of Mr Martin's most proud moments came when countless hours of work and campaigning helped to make the site of the 1403 Battle of Shrewsbury to a registered battlefield.

It was a campaign that saw him enlist the help of actor Robert Hardy.

Their hard work paid off.

As a registered battlefield no development was allowed to take place on the land, north of Shrewsbury.

"Plans had been put forward for a huge business park on the site, which Toyota been been extremely interested in," he said.

There were also plans to put the now built, Shrewsbury link road through the south side of the battlefield.

"Our success meant the road that to bend around the battlefield site."

Speaking at the time, he said: "This is hallowed ground where perhaps as many as 2,000 men died, and it is not appropriate to build a road across it.''

Despite the successes, Mr Martin has admitted that he sometimes feels like King Canute in trying to stem the tide of development and has always maintained that the county's green belt land is being overdeveloped.

Now he finds himself battling again, against a development that the CPRE some years ago thought had been abandoned - Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road.

In 2006 he led the Shropshire CPRE in its fight against the road and he was delighted back in 2011 when the scheme appeared to have been taken off the future blueprint for the county town.

But it re-appeared and has now won Government funding.

The road will link the Battlefield link road with the Churncote Roadabout and the A5.

Supporters say it will take traffic away from Shrewsbury's town centre.

Mr Martin says he remains fiercely opposed to the plans, which he says, will cut through huge swathes of open countryside.