The truth about national parks and the alleged benefits they have for the landscape of the nation are finally beginning to emerge.

Last week the park authority for the Lake District faced proposals to abandon many environmental projects, sack staff and close two-thirds of its visitor centres.

Nationally, all park authorities have been given a below-inflation grant settlement and have been told to prepare for spending freezes for the next two years.

What a grim picture a chart published in a national newspaper painted, showing as it did the shortfall in grant funding for eight national park authorities. On this basis, it will not be long before the ninth, for the New Forest, will run into problems.

Can anyone reading this news now seriously believe a national park for the South Downs is going to have significant benefits?

West Sussex County Council has been criticised by some for opposing park status but we have continually warned about exactly this sort of situation.

It would be madness to hand over the Downs to nothing more than an undemocratic quango, which is then going to be shortchanged by its paymasters.

West Sussex County Council has made it clear that conservation of the South Downs must come first.

That is why we will continue pressing for a strengthened South Downs Conservation Board whose members are answerable to the electorate at the ballot box.

-Henry Smith, West Sussex County Council, Chichester