The Government is expected to announce the creation of a South Downs National Park today, more than 60 years after the area was recommended for the protected status.

Environment Minister Hilary Benn is due to make an announcement on designating an area close to the south coast in Sussex and Hampshire as England's 10th National Park.

He is also expected to outline the exact boundary for the National Park, an issue which has been hotly contested and has held up the formation of the park for a number of years.

But the details of which areas may or may not be included are set to go out for further consultation.

Click here for our archive of news about the fight to make the Downs a national park.

The South Downs was one of 12 areas in England and Wales identified in the 1947 Hobhouse Report as being worthy of attaining National Park status, and the legislation allowing its creation has just celebrated its 60th anniversary.

Although the area is protected by two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), campaigners say National Park status would bring added protection, for example from development, and help enhance its beauty for generations to come.

But it was not until 1999 that the Government signalled its intention to designate a South Downs National Park, and consultation and public inquiry have held up the process since then.

Much of the debate has centred on exactly which areas should be included in the new National Park, with disagreement over whether one area in particular - the Western Weald - should be inside the boundary.

This area of rolling grassland and sandstone forests, between Petersfield and Pulborough, was not included in the original recommendations of the Hobhouse Report.

And it was excluded by the inspector of the original public inquiry earlier this decade because it was geologically different to the South Downs.

But the Government's own conservation agency Natural England is among those who want to see the Western Weald, whose landscape is closely linked to the rest of the South Downs, protected.

Earlier this week the Campaign to Protect Rural England called for a South Downs National Park and extensions to existing national parks as part of measures to give priority to England's “beautiful landscapes”.

The CPRE also urged the Government to consider declaring new Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) to give protection to vulnerable areas such as the Forest of Dean and the English border with Wales.

CPRE made the call on the 60th anniversary of the legislation which paved the way for the creation of the national parks, trails and AONBs going before Parliament in 1949.

CPRE wants to see the creation of a park in the South Downs - the only one of the 12 recommended in the Hobhouse Report which is still not in existence - with the “best possible boundary” including the Western Weald.