The early 17th Century market house in still in use

Tom Oliver, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), said the Herefordshire town had worked hard to preserve some attractions despite an increase in housing developments.

The town was highlighted in a recent report by the CPRE as part of its campaign to protect England's landscape from being destroyed by development.

The survey described how towns had changed for the worse in the past 15 years, with fewer parks and unimaginative house design.

Easily accessible

Ledbury councillor Barry Ashton said the market town had become a victim of modern requirements.

"The council is in middle of plans to make our Market House easily accessible for disabled people by installing a lift and staircase," he said.

Ledbury's Market House was built in 1633 and is still used for council meetings and to hold markets.

"The problem is the house is on wooden stilts so by doing this the house could be ruined," he said.

There are lots of things going on in Ledbury most of us don't like Ledbury councillor Barry Ashton

"It may sound controversial but I have a lot of disabled people living in the area who have told me they don't want this to happen because it will ruin the house."

The Liberal Democrat councillor said he was concerned the town was going to turn into an urban sprawl.

"There are lots of things going on in Ledbury most of us don't like," he said.

"What's happening in the town is that we've run out of land to build houses on so what developers are doing is, say buying two big beautiful houses next to each other, demolishing them and building 16 houses on top.

Very attractive

"Unfortunately we have to accept this because the government states we have to provide a certain amount of affordable housing, we can't blame the developers.

"What we have to concentrate on is preserving what we've got."

Councillor Ashton said the town was representing the region in the Britain in Bloom competition proving that the area was still very attractive.

He said he was also campaigning for a connection from Ledbury Ring Road to the Worcester Road so motorists travelling from Malvern to either Gloucester, Ross-on-Wye or Hereford, were not forced to drive through the town centre.

The CPRE has suggested a package of measures to protect rural England which includes surveying the local landscapes and creating a visual and written archive.

Also it suggests producing local landscape character assessments and promoting these in local planning and management decisions.