An unspoiled, spirit-enhancing countryside view celebrated by the 19th-century critic and poet John Ruskin as one of the most beautiful in the world is under threat unless £1m can be raised.

It was after a visit in 1875 that Ruskin described the view over the River Lune from the churchyard of St Mary’s in Kirkby Lonsdale as “one of the loveliest in England, therefore in the world”.

He wrote: “Whatever moorland hill, and sweet river, and English forest foliage can be seen at their best is gathered there. And chiefly seen from the steep bank which falls to the stream side from the upper part of the town itself … I do not know in all my own country, still less in France or Italy, a place more naturally divine, or a more priceless possession of true ‘Holy Land’.”

The view was painted by JMW Turner in 1822 but it was already famous, with the poet William Wordsworth describing it as a place not to be missed in his 1810 Guide to the Lakes. It is the reason why many tourists visit the small Cumbrian market town, but if they do so today they will come across a locked gate.

The issue, according to Mike Burchnall, the chair of the town council, is that the footpath is on an embankment and when the Lune below is high it cuts into the bank. Work was done in the mid-1980s to try to reinforce the bank but a lot of that was washed away during Storm Desmond in 2015, “and we’ve had big storms ever since then so the whole bank is eroded”.

People are being urged to take extra care to avoid causing fires in the countryside during hot weather, with some farmers saying they have lost thousands of pounds worth of crops.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said fires were one of the biggest risks faced by farmers during heatwaves.

One farmer told the BBC he lost around £40,000 worth of crops when one of his fields went up in flames last week.

England has experienced the driest start to the year since 1976.

The hottest ever temperature in the UK was recorded last Tuesday, with thermometers hitting 40.3C in Lincolnshire and more than 30 places reaching temperatures above the previous record.

David Exwood, vice president of the NFU, said even as the weather gets cooler, the lack of rain has increased the risk of field fires.

“There needs to be extreme care when people are out in the countryside because anything can catch fire in this weather,” he said.

Andy Barr, who owns an 800-acre farm in Lenham, Kent, had a 50-acre field of barley destroyed by a fire last Saturday.

Although he is hoping to claim on insurance, Mr Barr said the crop was worth around £40,000.

The rate at which infrastructure is built on prime farmland in England has risen a hundredfold in the past decade, a report has found, as it calls the country’s food security into question.

Farmland that could grow 250,000 tonnes of vegetables a year has been lost to development, with 300,000 homes built on prime land since 2010.

There was a huge rise in “best and most versatile” agricultural land set aside for housing and industry between 2010 and 2022, up from 60 hectares (148 acres) a year to more than 6,000.

Politicians have been looking at the way land is used in the country, as in order to tackle the climate emergency as well as feed people, farming must become lower-emission, more productive and increase biodiversity.

This means that low-grade farmland, which requires more irrigation and fertiliser, may have to be used for infrastructure instead of prime land, which is more efficient for growing food.

As well as being at risk from development, prime land is also more at risk of flooding, raising deeper questions about food security as Britain experiences more extreme weather events as a result of the climate crisis.

Sixty per cent of grade 1 agricultural land (more than 200,000 hectares) is within flood zone 3, the areas at highest risk of flooding.

CPRE, the countryside charity that published the report, is calling for the government to produce a comprehensive land use strategy, setting out what type of land should be used for which purpose and is asking for a “brownfield first” approach to housebuilding. It is also calling for a firm presumption against development on prime farmland.

Energy prices are soaring for millions of households across the country as Ofgem’s price cap rises to £1,971 on 1 April.

However, 1.5 million households that are served by heating oil will also find their bills increasing dramatically, according to Energy Helpline.

These homes, which are mostly situated in rural locations, are not covered by the price cap and so they are likely to find themselves affected by rising costs.

Heating oil prices are linked to oil prices more generally, and in recent weeks these have increased rapidly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions – Russia is the third biggest producer of oil in the world.

Rural homes are also facing long delays receiving deliveries of LPG (liquified petroleum gas) as the ongoing HGV driver shortage has left providers struggling to fulfil orders.

Households could have saved nearly £400 a year in bills during the energy crisis if the government had not scrapped a green policy on homes, according to new analysis.

Data from the Liberal Democrats, seen by The Independent, increased this figure from previous estimates to reflect the rising cost of living.

It found plans to make all new homes achieve net zero emissions would have shaved hundreds of pounds off household bills when another price cap increase will see them soar in spring.

“This is yet another example of how acting sooner on climate change can save consumers money on their bills,” Chris Venables, head of politics at the Green Alliance think tank, told The Independent.

The scrapped environmental rules would have prevented new houses from releasing a net amount of carbon into the atmosphere during day-to-day running. Among other factors, this would have been achieved through good energy efficiency – considered key to keeping bills, as well as emissions, down.

Plans to safeguard England’s national parks for future generations have been unveiled by the government.

The proposals also aim to improve access to nature and ensure landscapes are key to tackling climate change.

It follows a review of protections for national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the plans – including a public consultation – were “a new chapter in the story of our protected landscapes”.

The consultation runs to 9 April and will ask for views on the proposals to drive nature recovery and support communities that live and work in those areas.

The proposals include creating management plans for those in charge of the national parks and AONBs, and encouraging local leaders across England to organise campaigns, events and volunteering projects to bring the public closer to nature.

The Landscapes Review looked at whether the existing protections were still fit for purpose.

The review’s author, Julian Glover, said: “It won’t be enough just to try to conserve what we have inherited – we can change the story from decline to recovery, to make them greener, more welcoming and full of hope.”

The pandemic has seen more people spending time outside but it has also highlighted inequalities surrounding access to green spaces – with people on low incomes being disadvantaged, according to the advisory body Natural England.

Increased access to nature is among the aims set out in the new plans.

Using landscapes in the fight against climate change are also central to the aims, along with protecting biodiversity and supporting people’s health and wellbeing for the next 70 years and beyond.

Mr Eustice said: “These reforms will play a pivotal role in meeting our international commitment to protect 30% of land for biodiversity by 2030.”

The government has also pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 as part of its 25-Year Environment Plan.

The empty brown fields of England’s winter countryside could be transformed under government plans for farming.

Cold naked acres will in future be clothed in vegetation as farmers are paid for sowing plants that bind the soil together.

The aim is to hold precious topsoil on the land, instead of seeing it washed into rivers during heavy rainfall.

But critics say it is not ambitious enough to reverse the UK’s nature crisis.

The changes are being introduced as part of a broad post-Brexit reform of the subsidies paid to farmers.

Under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, farmers received taxpayers’ cash proportional to the amount of land they owned – the richer the farmer, the bigger the subsidy.

A deal has been agreed and signed at the climate summit in Glasgow, you might be left wondering what – if anything – it will mean for you. Here are some ways in which the decisions made at COP26 could change your life.

Street lights should not be installed in rural areas where people could use a torch instead, an influential climate adviser said.

Lord Deben chairs the Climate Change Committee, which advises the government on emissions targets.

He also said councils should not allow housing developments where residents would commute by car.

Lord Deben said local authorities “must be looking at everything they do” to tackle climate change.

Giving evidence to Parliament’s Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, Lord Deben said: “The pressures to urbanise the countryside are largely antagonistic to dealing with climate change.”

He said street lighting in rural areas was unnecessary, adding: “When people move into the countryside you just have to say to them, ‘this is not the town, we do not have street lighting in this village, you have a torch, that’s just how we do it’.”

But Lord Deben, who was environment minister under John Major and Suffolk Coastal MP until 2010, said street lighting was important in towns where it can make people feel safer and more likely to walk.

Now, however, Hartlepool is hoping its future can be transformed by sunshine.

Three massive solar farms are to be built within a five-mile radius of each other on the outskirts of this Teesside port – effectively turning it into the UK’s most unlikely solar powerhouse.

Individually, it is thought all three sites – dotted on farmland along the A19 – would be among the top 10 biggest such energy farms in the country if they were opened today.

But combined they will cover an area roughly the size of 250 football fields and create enough energy to power more than 43,000 local homes. They will produce almost 150MW of energy every year.