|
The South Downs National Park is England's newest National Park, having become fully operational on 1 April 2011. The park, covering an area of in southern England, stretches for from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex. The national park covers not only the chalk ridge of the South Downs, with its celebrated chalk downland landscape that culminates in the iconic chalky white cliffs of Beachy Head, but also a substantial part of a separate physiographic region, the western Weald, with its heavily wooded sandstone and clay hills and vales. The South Downs Way spans the entire length of the park and is the only National Trail that lies wholly within a national park. ==History== The idea of a South Downs National Park goes back to the 1920s,〔In fact, the idea may go back further, according to Peter Brandon in his book, ''The Shaping of the Sussex Landscape'' (Snake River Press, 2009). He notes that "John Halsham" (G. Forrester Scott) advocated what we would now call a national park for part of the Weald and Downs in 1898.〕 when public concern was mounting about increasing threats to the beautiful downland environment, particularly the impact of indiscriminate speculative housing development on the eastern Sussex Downs (Peacehaven was a notorious example of this). In 1929, the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, led by campaigners including the geographer Vaughan Cornish, submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister urging the case for national parks, including a national park on part of the South Downs. However, when, towards the end of World War II, John Dower was asked to report on how a system of national parks in England and Wales might be established, his 1945 report, ''National Parks in England and Wales'', did not identify the South Downs for national park status, but rather included it in a list of "other amenity areas". Sir Arthur Hobhouse's 1947 ''Report of the National Parks Committee'' took a different view, and he included the South Downs in his list of twelve areas recommended for designation as a national park, defined by John Dower as an "extensive area of beautiful and relatively wild country in which, for the nation's benefit...the characteristic landscape beauty is strictly preserved". The South Downs was the last of the original twelve recommended national parks to be designated. Indeed, the extensive damage that had been caused to the chalk downland from 1940 onwards through being ploughed up for arable farming and the concomitant disappearance of sheep grazing militated against further consideration of their designation: when the National Parks Commission came to consider the case for designating the South Downs as a national park it concluded, in 1956, that designation was no longer appropriate, noting that the recreational value of the South Downs as a potential national park had been considerably reduced by the extensive cultivation of the downland. But it recognised the "great natural beauty" of the area and proposed to take forward discussions to designate it as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In due course two AONBs, split along the county boundary, were designated, namely the East Hampshire AONB in 1962 and the Sussex Downs AONB in 1966, and these were later to form the basis of the South Downs National Park.〔See discussion in Brandon, Peter ''The South Downs'', pp 190–192. (Phillimore & Co. Ltd., Chichester, 1998). ISBN 1-86077-069-X.〕 In September 1999 the government, following a review of national parks policy, declared its support for the creation of a South Downs National Park, and announced a consultation on its creation. In January 2003 the then Countryside Agency (now Natural England) made an Order to designate the proposed park in 2003 which was submitted to the Secretary of State for the Environment on 27 January 2003. As a result of objections and representations received on the proposed Order, a public inquiry was conducted between 10 November 2003 and 23 March 2005,〔(South Downs National Park Inquiry ) from the Planning Inspectorate.〕 with the aim of recommending to ministers whether a national park should be confirmed and, if so, where its boundaries should be. The results of the inquiry were expected by the end of 2005, but were delayed pending a legal issue arising from a High Court case challenging part of the Order designating the New Forest National Park.〔In February 2006, people with an interest in the outcome of the inquiry received a (letter ) which said "''...there will be a delay in the timetable for reaching a decision.''"〕 Following an appeal on the High Court case and new legislation included in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006,〔(Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 )〕 the South Downs Inquiry report was published on 31 March 2006. It recommended a 23% reduction in the size of the originally proposed national park, focussing it more narrowly on the chalk downland and excluding from it a large part of the existing East Hampshire and Sussex Downs AONBs. This proved highly controversial, leading to calls from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and others for the inclusion of the so-called western Weald, a region within the two AONBs possessing a geology, ecology and landscape quite different from the chalk hills of the South Downs, within the park boundary to ensure that it remained protected from development. The Secretary of State invited objections and representations on new issues relating to the proposed national park in a consultation that ran from 2 July to 13 August 2007. In the light of the responses received, the Secretary of State decided that it was appropriate to re-open the 2003–05 public inquiry. The inquiry re-opened on 12 February 2008 and was closed on 4 July 2008 after 27 sitting days. The Inspector's report was submitted on 28 November 2008. On 31 March 2009 the result of the inquiry was published. The Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, announced that the South Downs would be designated a national park, and on 12 November 2009 he signed the order confirming the designation. Importantly, he confirmed that a number of hotly disputed areas, including the western Weald, the town of Lewes and the village of Ditchling, would be included within the national park.〔(BBC news )〕 The new national park came into full operation on 1 April 2011 when the new South Downs National Park Authority assumed statutory responsibility for it. The occasion was marked by an opening ceremony which took place in the market square of Petersfield, a town situated in the western Weald just north of the chalk escarpment of the South Downs. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「South Downs National Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|