South Downs National Park

[SimonFisher]

BBC Countryfile this Sunday (BBC1, Sunday 26th April 2009, 7pm) is scheduled to include a feature on the proposed South Downs National Park and how it might affect things in the area.

This might be of interest to those with woodland in the area - such as Hyden Wood, near Clanfield.

Simon

[tracy]

Finally got round to watching this - good to see Ben eat a squirrel! I am not sure this has a negative impact for woodland owners in the area - might find that there is more support and funding for woodland improvement....?

Let us know if you hear anything Simon.

[Darren]

Looks like we will be just outside of the boundry.

[greyman]

Potentially bad for us we're in it. I still haven't got my head round what it means for us and short of reading volums of guff I'm not clearer of where we can get clear information with regards to our particular situation being Semi-ancient woodland ( a bit of a misnomer if you look at historical maps of the area)

[tracy]

According to the programme, the boundaries aren't completely agreed yet! I guess there will be a bit of wait and see...

[Underwoodsman]

The Hyden wood complex will be in, so will most of the farmland to the south of us. In theory, as we are already in an AONB and the South Downs joint committee has been working as if the national park already exists, not a lot should change. The only slight concern is that at the moment the AONB has to come to the land owners for co-operation the National park authority may not. But as long as we don't get a bunch of "theoretical preservationist" in power we should be able to carry on as normal. We can only wait and see.

[Henrietta]

If you are trying to get permission for a shed in your wood, then being within an AONB and the South Downs National Park certainly does give the planners the ammunition to reject your proposal. We applied for permitted developement for a shed two years ago. Even though there was no certainty about the National Park at that stage, the council still included it's possibility in their rejection. We went to appeal with the planning inspectorate and won our case. We also live within the boudary of the park and I suspect would need planning permission for a dog kennel, (not that I want one.)