Dedicated debate on park’s 10th birthday
The South Downs National Park will celebrate its tenth anniversary in the spring.
Ahead of the occasion, Arundel and South Downs MP Andrew Griffith hosted a dedicated debate in Parliament last week, to a decade since the park became officially operational.
In his speech, Mr Griffith highlighted the achievements of the National Park and the unique features of the South Downs.
He said: “Like Her Majesty, the Park technically has two birthdays as the Park Authority came into being on April 1, 2010, and it became fully operational on April 1, 2011.
“As its name suggests, my constituency of Arundel and South Downs picks up a large swathe of the South Downs National Park, picking up the park at Pyecombe and Keymer and following its line northwest all the way to Selham and Graffham.
“That’s a distance of some 34 miles which is just over
a third of the park’s total 87mile length as it stretches across three counties between Winchester and the south coast at the spectacular Seven Sisters, which I note were celebrated in one of Royal Mail’s latest National Parks stamps.
“Like every ten year old, it
does not get every single thing right, but we celebrate tonight its very many positive impacts including a remarkable spirit of innovation and community.”
With some 110,000 living within the park – more than in the Lake District and Peak District combined – and millions more living on its doorstep, Mr Griffith said it was vital that planning policy protections were not eroded by this or any future government.
The MP added that people thinking of the South Downs would look to the ‘idyllic hilltops and ridges’ of Chanctonbury Ring, Bignor
Hill or Devil’s Dyke.
“But we must not overlook the high streets and small industrial units in the park that are its beating economic heart, providing employment and a vital sense of community,” he said.
“High streets such as Petworth and Arundel in my constituency, as well as Midhurst and Lewes, which are full of unique small businesses, retailers and food producers – these high streets need our support whether through sensible planning policies, exhortations to shop local and initiatives such as the one-hour free parking offered by Chichester District Council in Petworth.
“We must look again at business rates which tax place rather than profit and discriminate unfairly between business models in the burden of taxation.”
Mr Griffth also spoke of the park’s pubs, its tourism offering – which generates more than £350million for the local economy – of the farming and of the wine-making at places such as Nyetimber, Wiston, Hattingley and
Bolney.
“But if there is a single thing that excites me most about the park, it is the contribution that it makes to nature and to bio-diversity,” he said.
“From the grazing marshes of the floodplains of the Rivers Arun and Adur to the lowland grassland on the slopes of the downs, the National Park contains an amazing 660 protected sites of special interest and many internationally-important habitats supporting rare and endangered species of plants and animals.”
Concluding, Mr Griffth said: “In its first ten years, the South Downs National Park has established itself as an innovative, partnership-based organisation where people and place come together.
“Tonight, we wish all involved well and express the hope that something that is so important to our nation’s future as the one National Park that is on the relative doorstep on this House survives, thrives and has a second decade that is even more successful in achieving all of its many goals.”