I’VE HAD the good fortune to visit several national parks in Britain this year and appreciate their beauty.

They have included majestic moorland in Yorkshire, soaring mountains in Scotland and the rugged grandeur of the Peak District in Derbyshire.

These areas have all been national parks since they were established soon after the Second World War.

It was obvious that they should be assessed, along with parts of Wales, the Lake District and the moors of Devon, as being the best landscapes in Britain in need of protection.

And you are left in no doubt on approaching any of them that you are about to visit somewhere that is special.

They are vast tracts of countryside, remote in places, with the nation’s highest mountains and largest lakes.

Each of them is also a tourist attraction in its own right with people making journeys exclusively to them so that they can enjoy nature in the wild.

How different they are from the national park that covers much of Sussex and parts of neighbouring Hampshire – the South Downs.

There are no mountains here and no peak of even a thousand feet although Blackdown in the North West corner comes close.

No large lakes adorn these hills as the chalk that forms them is porous and water goes right through them.

The only surface water is the odd man-made dew pond for cattle.

It’s hard to get truly lost in the Downs, although I have had a good try, as on fine days you can always locate yourself in relation to the sea.

The sprawling south coast towns are never all that far away and at some points near Brighton, downland is only two miles wide.

It’s not surprising in retrospect that the Downs didn’t become a national park until half a century after the rest.

And it’s clear that in many ways they form a national park that is distinctly different from others.

Only the nearby New Forest has similar problems.

Far from being on Britain’s jagged outer edges, the Downs are mostly within commuting distance of the capital.

It is possible to reach them from London in less than an hour by car or train and millions of people visit them each year.

But most of them do not visit the Downs for themselves but rather as additions to other Sussex attractions, notably the seaside resorts.

The idea that the Downs needed protecting arose nearly a century ago when unplanned bungalows started to straddle the hills at places such as Peacehaven.

More homes were proposed for Crowlink near the Seven Sisters.

It was in the 1920s that the Society of Sussex Downsmen (now the South Downs Society) was established to try and put a brake on unsightly development. Enlightened councils such as those controlling Eastbourne and Brighton acquired large areas of downland to protect them. So did the National Trust whose first property was the Clergy House in Alfriston, purchased for the princely sum of £10.

There is no shortage of people who love the Downs.

Indeed they are in danger of being loved to death.

But what they require is a clearer definition of the area they cover.

It ought to be more obvious to walkers and drivers that they have entered a national park whose fragile loveliness needs protection.

The borders of the national park are fuzzy in many places even to people who live in downland or close to it.

I am not suggesting plastering the countryside with garish and costly signs but rather that the national park authority should make its presence clearer at car parks and special attractions.

Volunteers who adore these low-lying chalky hills and visitors need to coalesce more closely so that they can jointly oppose threats to the landscape and enhance the beauty that exists.

I wonder if it might not be a good idea for the South Downs Society to combine with other groups such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust to provide more powerful protection. There is no danger of another Peacehaven being proposed.

But the pressure for new housing is so great in some places, particularly near Brighton, that some land is likely to be suggested for sacrifice.

It could make a lot of difference to the look of the landscape.

It’s also clear that the A27 will soon be proposed for upgrading in much of Sussex to the standard of the Brighton bypass, bringing an urban feel to much of the Downs.

Even if the West Coastway railway is far better used than it is today, it will not prevent the daily delays in traffic jams at places such as Worthing, Arundel and Chichester until the trunk road becomes a dual carriageway from Portsmouth to Polegate.

The Downs may be different from the other national parks but their need for sustained help is just as great.