Celebrating 10 years of the South Downs National Park: Key planning milestones

Celebrating 10 years of the South Downs National Park: Key planning milestones

April 21, 2020

Ten years ago a long-standing vision finally became a working reality when 1,600km2 of England’s most-cherished lowland landscape was designated on behalf of the nation as a special place for natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage.

A decade on and significant strides have been made to conserve and enhance the National Park, promote opportunities for people to enjoy its special qualities, and to foster the social and economic wellbeing of local communities in the National Park.

At the heart of delivering the National Park’s core purposes and duty is planning, which provides an important frontline service for communities across the South Downs.

Margaret Paren, Chair of the South Downs National Park, said: “Although we are a young National Park we have achieved much over the past 10 years and planning has been at the forefront. Perhaps the biggest success has been the adoption of the first-ever landscape-led South Downs Local Plan, incorporating 56 Neighbourhood Development Plans –  an example of how planning can work in tandem with local communities to achieve great benefits for both people and nature. It has also been wonderful to be able to see towns and villages reap the rewards from the planning system through significant investment in infrastructure through the Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) schemes.

“These successes have only been possible thanks to constructive and deep partnerships, forging links with the many local authorities, parish councils, community organisations and planning agents across the National Park.

“As we look forward to the next 10 years, there are big tests ahead, particularly from the pressure of global climate change, threats to biodiversity and the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis that is affecting so many aspects of our society. But I am optimistic that the passion people have for this varied and dynamic landscape will remain our strongest asset and stand us in good stead for the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

We now reflect on 10 key planning achievements:

Local Plan

The first South Downs Local Plan covers the entire National Park and was formally adopted last July following extensive public consultation with local communities and detailed scrutiny and examination by the Government’s Planning Inspectorate.

The Plan, covering 2014 to 2033, replaced more than 1,000 overlapped policies that were in existence across the area of the National Park with 92 clear policies covering all aspects of planning.

The Plan sets out measures to mitigate climate change including that any major new developments should seek to be carbon neutral, have better drainage schemes to reduce flood risk and limit water consumption for new developments.

The Local Plan also delivers vital “ecosystem services”, which are the services provided by the environment, such as clean water and air, dark night skies and tranquillity.

The affordable housing policy prioritises on-site provision of rented affordable homes

Supporting communities

People and communities lie at the heart of the National Park. In the past 10 years the Authority has invested directly into these communities to help them plan for the future.

Highlights include:

• £1.75m invested in 202 community projects across the National Park as part of the Sustainable Communities Fund.
• Through its planning function, £2.9m has been invested through Section 106 agreements, funding 109 projects.
• £2.5m of Community Infrastructure Levy was collected between 2017 and 2019, with £300,000 given to local parish councils to spend and dozens of community projects allocated funding.

Neighbourhood Planning

Communities across the National Park have led the way in developing their local planning needs and 56 Neighbourhood Development Plans have so far been incorporated in the Local Plan. Neighbourhood planning provides a powerful set of tools for local people to ensure that they get the right types of development for their community.

Delivering with distinction

The National Park has won four national and regional planning awards to recognise excellence, in different categories. Last year the Authority picked up a prestigious award from the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), which recognised the environmental excellence of the Local Plan.

Whole Estate Plans

Estates, institutions, public bodies and farms across the National Park have a key role to play in the conservation of the landscape, the development of a sustainable rural economy and ecosystem services.

Whole Estate Plans (WEPs) are a document prepared by individual landowning organisations and set out the assets of the organisation and the opportunities and threats which the organisation may encounter, and describes their plans for the future. Five WEPs have so far been developed and endorsed – West Dean, Highfield, Iford, Newton Valence and Wiston.

Advisory Service

The National Park Authority has pioneered a Specialist Advisory Service, which was set up to share the planning team’s expertise with communities outside the National Park.

The team prides itself on sharing knowledge and expertise needed to provide neighbourhood planning support to communities and Planning Authorities in National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs), market towns and rural areas. Examples of recent work include Local Green Space assessments on behalf of Horsham District (for Storrington Parish) and Thruxton Parish and a Housing Needs Assessment for Rudgwick Parish.

Successful hosting

The South Downs National Park is one of the largest planning authority in the country in terms of the number of planning applications we receive each year and also one of the largest in terms of the geographical area we cover. This level of demand has seen new and innovative partnership models to ensure planning-related matters are dealt with as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The Authority has developed successful hosting partnerships with Chichester, East Hampshire, Winchester, Horsham and Lewes.

Guardians of the landscape

The first purpose of the National Park is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty and cultural heritage of the area and the Authority takes its role very seriously as the guardian of this beautiful nationally-important landscape. Direct action is rarely used and is often a last resort, but enforcement action has been taken against unauthorised harmful development.

Supporting farmers and farm diversification

More than three quarters of the South Downs is farmland and farmers remain the lifeblood of the National Park. The Local Plan includes policies around creating sustainable communities and a key part of this is farm diversification, which is intended to increase the long-term viability of farming in the National Park by enabling farmers to set up additional income streams to their core business. Recent highlights include the approval of multi-million pound projects at the Wiston Estate, North Farm, Washington, and Sky Park Farm in West Harting.

Innovation and design

The Authority has raised the bar in landscape-led planning design and held its first Design Awards last year to champion outstanding design in the National Park.

More than 60 nominations from across the National Park were received and five exceptional projects won the top accolade for making a standout contribution to the landscape, heritage, built environment and local communities of the National Park.

A highlight was more than 1,200 votes being cast for the People’s Choice Awards, won by Easebourne Community Space – a great example of how planning can capture the public’s imagination.