Green Light for the South Downs National Park

31st March, 2009

Sussex Wildlife Trust and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust have today welcomed the news that the South Downs has been granted National Park status.

The Park will be established broadly along the lines proposed by the Countryside Agency almost seven years ago in 2002 and will bring greater protection and funding to the area.

Wildlife Trust reserves that fall within the National Park boundaries include St Catherine’s Hill, Winnall Moors, Noar Hill, Shutts Copse, Chappetts Copse and Coulters Dean in Hampshire, Ditchling Beacon, The Lewes Downs, Ebernoe Common and Woods Mill – headquarters of Sussex Wildlife Trust.

Dr Tony Whitbread, chief executive of Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: “We are pleased to have played a leading role within the campaign and to have been successful in achieving our aim of getting a South Downs National Park. The inclusion of the Western Weald within the National Park boundaries is of particular significance to us as it contains one of our most important Living Landscape Projects. However, for us the icing on the cake must be the inclusion of our headquarters at Woods Mill near Henfield. Although not part of the original proposals, we successfully argued that we should be included and have since bought more land in the area and improved its environmental management.”

Debbie Tann, chief executive of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust said, “The majority of the South Downs National Park is comprised of chalk downland, important for a range of specialist wildflowers and rare butterflies such as the chalkhill blue. Our nature reserve at St Catherine’s Hill on the edge of Winchester is strategically placed as an important “gateway” to the new National Park and we hope that the Park’s existence will benefit this fragile and important wildlife reserve. We also welcome the inclusion of the Western Weald, which is a landscape of heathland, woods and river valleys of special importance for wildlife and includes many areas where Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trust is actively working.”

For more information on the SDC visit the website:
www.southdownscampaign.org.uk

For more information and a map of the proposed boundary of the South Downs National Park go to www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/protected-areas/national-parks/south-downs/index.htm

For further information please contact:

Tanya Perdikou
media & campaigns officer
Tel: 01636 670057
Email: tperdikou@wildlifetrusts.org

Story by RSWT

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