Pad Farm and New Salts Farm: Major government grant awarded to support restoration works

A major government grant has been awarded to support Adur District Council’s restoration of salt marsh and wetland habitats.
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The council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm and New Salts Farm, to ‘promote the return of biodiversity’ and to ‘bolster natural flood defences’.

Now the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has recognised the council’s ecological work by awarding 94,000 to fund further studies — the ‘first time it has been given to a local authority’.

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The cash will also help the council take its environment project further by engaging other landowners along the Adur to join it to create a ‘thriving natural habitat’, from Shoreham to Steyning.

Adur District Council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm (pictured) and New Salts Farm, to ‘promote the return of biodiversity’ and to ‘bolster natural flood defences’. SUS-220402-154224001Adur District Council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm (pictured) and New Salts Farm, to ‘promote the return of biodiversity’ and to ‘bolster natural flood defences’. SUS-220402-154224001
Adur District Council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm (pictured) and New Salts Farm, to ‘promote the return of biodiversity’ and to ‘bolster natural flood defences’. SUS-220402-154224001

The district council’s executive member for the environment, Emma Evans, said: “This is great news and a ringing endorsement of our bold initiative to buy these two pieces of land to help preserve the natural habitat of the Adur tidal estuary for generations to come.

“I’m particularly excited that this money will allow us to engage other farm and land owners to join us in exploring how nature restoration can be a part of the future of farming, and how it will be paid for.”

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“This will be good for the environment but also we will be able to explore ways that landowners across the country might be able to secure funding to restore natural habitats which will be good for biodiversity and the fight against climate change.”

Adur District Council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm and New Salts Farm (pictured), to 'promote the return of biodiversity' and to 'bolster natural flood defences'. SUS-220402-154211001Adur District Council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm and New Salts Farm (pictured), to 'promote the return of biodiversity' and to 'bolster natural flood defences'. SUS-220402-154211001
Adur District Council bought two large areas of land on the Adur estuary, Pad Farm and New Salts Farm (pictured), to 'promote the return of biodiversity' and to 'bolster natural flood defences'. SUS-220402-154211001

Community and environmental groups will also be included in consultations and workshops about the projects.

The council said the attraction of funding to help sustain these natural habitats will be ‘vital’ in protecting them and hopes it’s research into various models for doing this ‘might be used throughout the UK’.

A spokesperson added: “Salt marshes and wetlands are important habitats for many rare and unusual species of plants, birds and animals which have adapted to living in an environment that is regularly covered by tides.

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“They help protect the land around from flooding, in addition to being a natural source for capturing climate-changing carbon gases.”

Pad Farm and New Salts Farm were bought by the council in 2020.

Pad Farm is 45-acres of arable farmland on the western banks of the River Adur north of the A27.

“Returning this to salt marsh will help take pressures off the river elsewhere and encourage biodiversity,” the council said.

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“Meanwhile the 70-acre piece of land, New Salts Farm, between Lancing and Shoreham, was purchased to protect it from housing and return it to wetland habitat.”

The council is working with a number of partners on the project, including Defra, the Environment Agency — which is responsible for flood control — the Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust and the Arun and Adur Farmers Cluster — a group set up to encourage the return of important flora and fauna on farmland.

The spokesperson added: “The ambitious and vital work is a part of the fast developing Sussex Bay initiative that aims to galvanise and support nature restoration projects all along the Sussex coast.”