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Do you own woodland?

Hovil Wood (not to scale, derived from the 1842 Edburton Tithe Map)
If so, you may be (slightly) interested in some PDF flyers that have been lurking on the SDNPA webserver for the last couple of weeks:

You’ll learn that the SDNPA has “a collective landscape-scale approach that will encourage networking for environmental, social and economic gains and champion local timber”.

Councillors overrule SDNPA

Slatey Barn, Langford Farm
The Chichester Observer reports that:

An application to turn a deteriorating barn at Langford Farm, in Lavant, into a home, was recommended for refusal by planners, who said they considered the building to be a heritage asset. The South Downs National Park Authority was not satisfied there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate an essential need for a rural worker to live on the site, as was proposed. However, councillors disagreed, saying it was a good use for the building, which was falling into disrepair and was no longer an asset to the farm in its current state. .. Councillors overturned the officers’ recommendation and voted in favour of the scheme.

The Die is Webcast

The die is webcast
The Worthing Daily reports that:

West Sussex County Council will webcast on Friday July 12th a debate on the proposals for the Rampion off-shore wind farm off the Worthing coastline. .. Cllr John de Mierre said: “This is one of the biggest planning applications that Sussex has seen for many years, so given the implications, and the public interest, we felt it important that the debate should be webcast.”

A report to the Committee suggests that ‘qualified support’ for the proposals could be considered .. It says: “Immediate benefits to local communities and the local environment have been overlooked and there is a missed opportunity to give greater weight to the acceptability of the scheme to local communities along the cable route and near the sub-station.”

Or see the WSCC press release.

SDNPA chair re-elected

Margaret Paren OBE, chair of the SDNPA
The West Sussex Gazette reports that:

Margaret Paren OBE has been re-elected as chair of the South Downs National Park Authority for the fourth year .. [She] became chair at the authority’s inaugural meeting in April 2010. Her working career was spent in Whitehall, mainly in the Ministry of Defence but also with spells in the Cabinet Office and in the National Audit Office. Following early retirement she became involved in local community activities and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England. From 2001 she was involved as a campaigner for the National Park and as a member of the South Downs Joint Committee.