Rural businesses will be forced to relocate from Sussex if planning restrictions within the new National Park are too severe, it has been claimed.

According to John Evans, rural projects manager at Business Link Sussex, there are thousands of small but growing enterprises within the park boundaries, a 627sq m tract spreading from Eastbourne to Winchester.

These range from local producers such as cheesemakers, to vineyards and office-based businesses.

Conservationists were delighted by the decision by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn last week to grant permission for the national park, which now includes the Western Weald, Lewes and Ditchling, areas which were left out of original plans drawn up by the Countryside Agency in 2002.

The area will be run by the South Downs National Park Authority (NPA), made up of 37 members, twothirds of which will be drawn up by parish councils and other local authorities.

Mr Evans called on those behind the authority, which is expected to be set up by April next year and fully operational a year later, to ensure that the needs of business is represented.

Land within the boundary will have the highest level of protection under the planning system and he fears this will stifle the ability of business to expand and take on new staff.

He said: “If planning decisions are given over to the NPA then it will become a nightmare. It is not easy to plough through all the rules and regulations at the moment but if the approval system is given over to the NPA it will be even worse.

“I am hoping there will be some significant business representation on the NPA otherwise it will just be full of people who only love the land.

That is a good thing, but they will not have a commercial bent at all.”

Unemployment in rural parts of the country is already a big concern.

In East Sussex, it was recently revealed that nearly eight people are applying for every job vacancy advertised in the county.

Mr Evans said many existing employers could be forced to relocate if planning restrictions are too severe.

He added: “If they want to expand but find it too difficult they could up sticks and move somewhere else.”

Mike Roberts, director of Ridgeview Winery in Ditchling, which is now inside the park boundaries, said he was concerned about the lack of business input when the park was being discussed.

He said: “I had a great deal of sympathy with the idea of a national park but the thing that utterly amazed me was that in all the spiel that came out when people were discussing its creation, the words 'local resident industries; were not uttered once.

“I understand them not wanting a steel mill but if a business want to expand, and does so in a proper way, then it should be allowed to do so.”

Mr Roberts said he has already had planning permission from Lewes District Council to expand his winery.

But he fears a burgeoning English wine industry could be threatened in the future.

Mr Roberts said: “We are an industry making world-class wines and also an attraction for tourists. The developing wine industry we have should be encouraged to blossom, not be squashed out of existence.”

Chris Todd, of the South Downs Campaign, one of the groups which led the fight for the national park, believes business should not be worried that the NPA will restrict all attempts by businesses to expand.

He said: “There has been a lot of scaremongering but existing park authorities have got a history of working with farmers and other business in the rural economy to help with diversification.

“The authority has to work in partnership with people in the area. It is not some kind of dictatorship and will work to facilitate positive change.”