Not in our front yard

Housing allocation sites MSDC HDC
The Midhurst and Petworth Observer has an interesting report from a Chichester local plan hearing:

Ian Ellis, director of Southern Planning Practice, [said]

The [South Downs] National Park will do the least it possibly can to meet its objectively-assessed housing need, whatever that is going to turn out to be. It will expect a proportion of its objectively-assessed housing need is met by other authorities. My experience is when they go forward with the local plan, they will be .. saying ‘can you accommodate X per cent because we don’t want to accommodate it here and we don’t have to’.

In response, the SDNPA’s strategic planning lead Lucy Howard said the plan was yet to finalise its decisions: “The authority does need to consider the purpose and duty of a national park,” she said, highlighting its ‘landscape sensitiviy’ .. the SDNPA was in the ‘early stages’ of working on its strategic housing market assessment. “We do realise that if necessary we will be approaching neighbouring local planning authorities, but we’re simply not at that stage yet”.

Woodland Work Days

Tottington Woodlanders at work
The Tottington Woodlanders need you:

Come along and have a go at coppicing.

You do not need any special tools as they are all provided, along with the training, however please wear suitable clothing and footwear for working outdoors. The most important thing is to bring a mug for the cuppa around the fire – the hot water, tea or coffee will be provided.

We always pair up newcomers or novices with volunteers who are experienced and training continues until everyone is comfortable that you can work safely unaccompanied. Some people previously have been worried that they may cut the wood to the wrong size or do something wrong. We are grateful for the assistance and it is unlikely that you could do any lasting damage.

The work starts at 9.30am on a Sunday morning and normally finishes around 1:00pm, but there is no requirement to be there at the start and still be there at the end.

Starting on 26th October, the dates include all Sundays until the end of March 2015 with the single exception of 28th December.