Unease over National Park

THE Countryside Agency was yesterday (Thursday) expected to press ahead with plans for a National Park on the South Downs despite reservations from many affected local authorities.

The Agency was also expected to include the town of Lewes within the boundaries of the planned park.

The local authorities of Chichester, Eastbourne, East Sussex, Hampshire, Horsham, Mid-Sussex, Wealden, West Sussex and Winchester earlier this week announced that they remained 'unconvinced' that a National Park would provide better protection to the Downs.

They added in the joint statement that they challenged the Countryside Agency and the Government to demonstrate what added value the designation of a National Park would bring by publishing draft budgets for the first three years of operation.

The authorities believed the transfer of planning functions to a 'remote' appointed National Park would result in a poorer and more expensive service to the public.

Lewes District Council, which favours the National Park and the inclusion of Lewes in it, declined to sign the statement.

Leader Cllr Ann De Vecchi said the National Park would benefit the people of the district and it was clear that the majority of people in the district were in favour of it.

A report to yesterday's meeting of the Countryside Agency board said arguments against including Lewes in the National Park were based almost entirely on administrative issues and the fact that many other towns and villages on the boundary had been excluded.

And it added: 'The town's historic core is without doubt one of the finest in the UK and more recent development, especially in the north of the town, does not detract signficantly from the intact core.'

There was a strong lobby in favour of extending the boundary to include the Upper Ouse as far as Barcombe Mills and to include Ringmer.

The officers recommended excluding the whole of Cooksbridge from the National Park as it did not meet criteria for inclusion.

They recommended moving the boundary at Hamsey to include Hamsey Manor, but kept Ringmer excluded from the Park.

Ringmer Parish Council chairman John Fletcher this week said he would have liked to have seen the whole of Ringmer included in the Park.

As it was, the countryside south of the village was included but the village itself was not.