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Thank You.
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Many thanks to everyone for responding to the requests to write and comment on the recommendations made by the Inspector who held the Public Inquiry into the South Downs National Park. Clearly if the feedback we've had from you is anything to go by the Minister has had a very full inbox.
Although the consultation on the Inspectors report is now officially over, the campaign to ensure the South Downs and all the other precious areas are kept free of developers continues. In that regard our fight to save the Titnore area from development by the likes of Tesco, Persimmon, Heron and the other developers goes on. The latest news we have is that a new environment assessment has to be undertaken to take into account new government guidance on the risk of flooding - latest news here.
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We are grateful to the South Downs Campaign for sending us this outline history of the long road to the creation of a South Downs National Park. It is based on the introductory speech given by the Campaign's chairman, Robin Crane at the South Downs Campaign's Conference 18 January 2003.
An outline history of the South Downs Campaign
On 14 November 2002 the Countryside Agency's Board made its final and unanimous decision to proceed with the designation of a South Downs National Park.
We therefore have good cause to celebrate an historic moment in the long story of the South Downs. We haven't opened the Champagne yet because there are still some hurdles to negotiate before the National Park actually comes into being. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable achievement to have got this far, given the obstacles placed in the path of those campaigning for a National Park over the past 75 years.
My colleagues suggested that now is an appropriate time to reflect on how we have got here and to remember those who have worked to save the Downs in the past.
After the First World War, the arrival of the motorcar and the burgeoning railways brought an avalanche of new invaders to the tranquil South Downs and the seaside. In their wake came the speculators and an unregulated rash of buildings. Even Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters east of the Cuckmere came very close to being turned into seaside resorts. Locals were very concerned, but it was the creation of Peacehaven that caused an explosion of national outrage. It was described at the time as 'the worst example of shackland in Britain'.
It was these developments that led to the Society of Sussex Downsmen being founded in 1923. It was the damage to the Eastern Downs that motivated the formation of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England in 1926 and they made the very first proposal for a National Park in 1929. The Downsmen initiated the purchase of the Seven Sisters from a speculator and the National Trust also bought up land. We shall always be grateful to Eastbourne Borough Council for their purchase of 4000 acres of prime downland at that time that would otherwise have been developed.
It was 75 years ago that Sir Herbert Carden bought the Devil's Dyke and sold it to the Brighton Corporation in what would eventually become part of a 13,000-acre estate. But it was not all for conservation, as in 1933 the Corporation proposed to build a motor racetrack by the Devils Dyke that would have accommodated 500,000 spectators.
It was East Sussex County Council's concern for Brighton's ambitious developments that gave rise to it sponsoring a South Downs Preservation Bill in 1934. This would have effectively established a National Park, but the Bill was defeated on the grounds that the new Town and Country Planning Act would suffice to protect the countryside. (Politics is a strange business: Brighton & Hove Council is now one of our strongest supporters, whilst East Sussex CC is a vociferous opponent of the National Park.)
Meanwhile there were dramatic changes on the farming front. Agriculture has always been driven by economics and technology. Farming has never stood still. There was a long period of intense sheep grazing on unimproved pastures, but that was already dying out in the 1880s to be replaced by mixed farming with beef and dairy cattle. The once open Downs were fenced for the first time.
Sheep had grazed on the chalky soils for over four thousand years. This gave rise to the unique soft springy chalk turf, our richest habitat, which can have up to forty different species of plants per square yard and be alive with thousands of blue butterflies. Remove the grazing and this very special habitat soon disappears under a forest of course grasses and scrub. Ploughing is even more destructive.
In the 1920s and 30s a deep agricultural depression led to much of the land becoming derelict. With the declaration of war in 1939 there was an initial rush to bring the Downland into production but then the Ministry for Defence took over huge areas for military training. My own first experience of the Downs was just after the war when I camped on Amberley Mount and walked in a barren landscape still littered with expended mortar shells and grazed by thousands of rabbits.
After the war the drive for self-sufficient food production led to a transformation of the landscape. Aided by modern farm machinery and artificial fertilizers, every available acre was put into production. We even had the ridiculous situation whereby the Nature Conservancy would schedule areas for protection as Sites of Special Scientific Interest and the Ministry of Agriculture would then pay generous grants to farmers to have the same land ploughed up.
It is only through the natural defences of the very steepest hillsides that withstood the onslaughts of the modern tractor, and the diligence of a few individuals, that there is anything left of the very special chalk grasslands and the ancient woodlands.
Today unimproved chalk grassland only occupies 5% of the total area of the Downs. Heathlands have also suffered. In 1813 there were 7505 hectares of heath in West Sussex. By 1981 these had been reduced to 971 hectares. Most of the Low Weald has also been changed, with few areas left unscathed by roads, railways, housing and modern agriculture.
Meanwhile the 1945 Labour government pushed forward legislation for the creation of National Parks in Britain, culminating in the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. Both the Dower Report in 1945 and the Hobhouse Report of 1947 recommended that the South Downs should be one of the twelve areas that should become parks. Hobhouse himself waxed eloquently about the distinctive beauty of the Downs and their value as a resource for spiritual and physical refreshment. He also expressed concern about development pressures.
However, In 1957 the National Parks Commission decided that the South Downs were no longer fit for National Park status because their recreational value had been considerably reduced by the extensive cultivation of the downland. So our Downs remain the only one of Hobhouse's twelve areas not to be granted National Park status. The tragedy is that the South Downs, under such intense pressure from agriculture, urban and industrial developments, have probably needed protection and conservation far more than most of our existing National Parks.
Our own South Downs Campaign was born when the Sussex Wildlife Trust called a meeting on 15 May 1990 to draw up a plan for campaigning for a National Park. CPRE, Sussex Rural Community Council, Sussex Archaeological Society, Sussex Downsmen And the Council for National Parks were represented. Paul Milmore and Phil Belden, then South Downs Rangers, were there as advisors. As the then chairman of the Sussex Wildlife Trust, I took the chair. Little did I realise what I was letting myself in for!
The Campaign was initiated because, at that time, the future of the South Downs was being considered as part of the review of National Parks being undertaken under the chairmanship of Professor Ron Edwards. It was also known that the Environment Minister, Chris Patten, was looking for quick action and that he sought new national parks. We visualised a tailor-made National Park created through the framework of the 1949 Act.
Our initial efforts to debate the matter at a special meeting of the South Downs Forum were thwarted when the Countryside Commission effectively delivered a fait accompli in favour of a Conservation Board. This Board was eventually set up in 1992 as an experiment for six years, with the promise that the Board would consider proposals for a National Park during that time. This promise was never fulfilled. The South Downs Forum was also disbanded.
When the Edwards Report was published in 1991 we were extremely disappointed that it did not specifically recommend a National Park for the South Downs, although it did not close the door to future designations.
One of the consequences of the report was that the 1995 Environment Act revised the 1949 National Park legislation. The Act greatly strengthened the priority of conservation over recreation in National Parks, gave greater independence to National Park Authorities, made them more democratic and provided greater flexibility in the application of planning management. From then on we began lobbying the government and the Countryside Agency for a full-blown Park under the '95 Act.
Another significant event in 1995 was the decision of Brighton Council to sell off all its downland. This caused such an outcry that the decision was eventually withdrawn. The event gave great strength to our Campaign because the crisis persuaded so many residents of Brighton and Hove to take a much keener interest in the future of their downland.
I have always been fascinated by the accidents of history. Small decisions or incidents can have an effect far beyond their significance at the time. We owe a particular debt of gratitude to one unlikely person: Farmer Harmer, who gained national notoriety for ploughing the chalk grassland Site of Special Scientific Interest on Offham Down. He did this with impeccable timing, in the midst of the 1997 General Election campaign. Friends of the Earth and the Sussex Wildlife Trust mounted an extremely effective press campaign that hit the national headlines. John Gummer ordered English Nature to put a stop order on. Michael Meacher appeared on the site and said this would never happen under Labour. John Prescott referred to the South Downs as being a "Jewel in the Crown" and Tony Blair, helicoptered in to the University of Sussex, had the press asking questions about the Harmer story and so he also took up the cudgels.
This one event had a profound influence on the new Labour government. It led to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, which significantly added to the protection of SSSIs and it drew the South Downs to the attention of Tony Blair and other key members of his government.
The new Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, asked to Countryside Commission to consider how the South Downs might be managed in the future. There was a very short period of public consultation before the Commission published its report "Protecting Our Finest Countryside". Their survey of the public response revealed that the greatest support was for the National Park option, but the Commission opted for Conservation Boards and stated that the South Downs did not meet National Park criteria, because they no longer had sufficient extensive tracts of open country and even more land was under the plough.
In a response to the Commission's report, published in the Independent, we said that "We are extremely unhappy and certainly not going to let it rest. We had an overwhelming case for national park status and nobody has answered it."
Our lobbying of Michael Meacher, with the help of Brighton's MPs, Des Turner and David Lepper, was clearly effective because in September 1999 the Minister made his formal response to Countryside Commission's advice and asked the new Countryside Agency to look again at the case for a South Downs national park. A key element in his letter to them was his suggestion that "An emphasis on rugged and open country is less appropriate today, when millions go in search of fresh air and a wide range of recreational pursuits in less remote countryside."
So in April 2000 the Countryside Agency reviewed their national Park criteria and began consultations on the proposed South Downs National Park. They decided that for the Downs to qualify
* It should have characteristics that mark it out as different from the bulk of "normal countryside" and contain qualities that might rank investment to deliver a markedly superior recreational experience. While the countryside did not need to be rugged and open, a sense of relative wildness would be important.
* Designation must lead to the integrated management of the area and in particular in markedly better recreational experience than can be achieved by the local authorities alone.
For the first time there was a proper appraisal of the recreational value of the area. The Countryside Agency's consults, Landscape Design Associates, produced overwhelming evidence that demonstrated that the two Areas of Outstanding Beauty met the national park criteria.
Thanks to the hard work of our supporters, we have won the argument for the inclusion of the areas north of the chalk and have managed to have some new large areas included within the boundary.
And so we are now reaching the point when the Countryside Agency will publish the National Park Designation Order on 27 January. We will then have until 28 February to lodge our formal objections to any parts of the boundary and for the inclusion of any further areas we wish to be in the Park. It is also essential that we register our support for the National Park at the same time.
There will then be a Public Inquiry, probably beginning at the end of this year, to consider any objections to the boundary. The Inquiry is likely to take a long time because it is clear that some local authorities, especially West and East Sussex County Councils, are determined to challenge the basic principle of the necessity for having a National Park. There will also be discussions on the administration of the National Park Authority. Finally the Secretary of State must put his signature to the Order.
We have had a long, hard but very rewarding journey. We must not relax now, but make absolutely certain that all our efforts are not thwarted in the last stages of the mission.
Once we have achieved a National Park, our priorities will move from the debates about mechanisms, structures and political powers to our greatest interest and concern: the conservation and enhancement of the South Downs, the rich river valleys, the ancient woods, the Wealden meadows and the wild heathlands.
http://www.southdownscampaign.org.uk/ for more information.