Our Downs deserve better

10:17am Thursday 13th September 2007

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Celebrated author and president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, CPRE, Bill Bryson has backed protests against cutting almost a quarter of the proposed South Downs National Park.

Emma Marrington, the rural policy campaigner for the CPRE, argues that the South Downs National Park should not be chopped in two.

There is no question that the South Downs National Park enjoys overwhelming public support. But it seems that for a few the idea presents a great problem.

They appear to have a deeprooted mistrust of the change that a national park will bring.

Let me tell you why I'm firmly in favour of the widest possible South Downs National Park.

My grandparents met in the Youth Hostels Association in the 1950s and had a great love of the South Downs. This rubbed off on my mother and I spent a lot of my childhood escaping with her from London into the beautiful Sussex countryside.

It seemed like natural progression that I should grow up to be a countryside campaigner.

What is vitally important to me is that I do what I can now to ensure that the landscape that I love so much is still around for my grandchildren to experience.This is why it is so important to get the South Downs National Park right.

That is also why, on Tuesday this week, the Campaign to Protect Rural England's new president, Bill Bryson, came to see for himself what all the fuss was about.

On his visit Bill said he was "shocked" to see the planning inspector's argument to exclude from the national park a large tract of land known as the western Weald because it's a different type of landscape from the chalk downland.

He said: "This countryside is some of England's finest and one of the glories of the English landscape is its huge variety.

"If this beautiful landscape is left out of the national park, it will run the risk of being picked off by developers and lost for ever.

"It has also been recommended that the historic market towns of Petersfield in Hampshire, Midhurst, Petworth, Lewes, Steyning and part of Arundel be excluded.

"The same is true of unspoilt villages such as Ditchling.

"Where is the sense of excluding these settlements which have such strong historic and cultural links with the South Downs and can contribute so strongly to the economic and community life of the new national park?"

On my South Downs tour with Bill we visited places where you could stand on proposed national park land and look out into the distance and see a mixture of land recommended for inclusion and exclusion.

The overwhelming question was how could one be seen as more deserving of national park status than the other?

In many areas the Weald and downland are, after all, part of one beautiful South Downs landscape.

It isn't simply a case of carrying on as normal in these areas if they do not achieve national park status. The majority of the original park boundary proposed by the Countryside Agency included the Sussex Downs and East Hampshire areas of outstanding natural beauty, AONB .

If the Government follows the inspector's recommendations then much of the western Weald would lose its AONB status. This could give the green light to large-scale development throughout the area, ruining it for ever.

There are a great many benefits for the South Downs in acquiring national park status. The South Downs National Park Authority, SDNPA, is likely to have an estimated budget of £6 million to £8 million a year which will come from central government.

This is at least three times more than the funds presently available for the two AONBs.

The SDNPA would have new and important powers on planning, conservation and recreation, with the ability to acquire damaged downland and help restore it.

There would also be a more consistent approach on planning issues. At present the Downs are covered by 15 different planning authorities, which can result in confusion and inefficiency.

The SDNPA would also have the powers and resources to manage nearly 40 million visits each year.

The CPRE has made the case for a South Downs National Park since the Twenties. It is so important not to rush to the finish line.

We really need to get the best possible national park and it is worth waiting just a bit longer to achieve that.

As Bill Bryson concluded from his visit: "What we want is for the Secretary of State to confirm the original wider boundary, including the whole of the western Weald, which was so carefully worked out by the Countryside Agency and designated some five years ago.

"It is so important for the Government to get it right now and set up a national park of which we can all be proud."

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