March 2013

Responding to the government’s Strategic Environmental Assessment environmental report for further onshore oil and gas licensing,  CPRE National Office have issued a 14 page document raising fundamental concerns about shale gas exploration and extraction, otherwise known as "fracking".
The report, downloadable below, warns that:

10 March 2014

Last Sunday residents of the picturesque village of Warnham turned out in force to illustrate their anger at Gatwick’s new flight path trial that had been forced over their historic parish without warning.

Over 300 people of all ages as well as residents of Rusper, Slinfold, Horsham, councillors, CPRE and GACC representatives, gathered outside the parish church to hear their local MP, Rt Hon Francis Maude, offer words of support.

10 March 2014

Last Sunday residents of the picturesque village of Warnham turned out in force to illustrate their anger at Gatwick’s new flight path trial that had been forced over their historic parish without warning.

Over 300 people of all ages as well as residents of Rusper, Slinfold, Horsham, councillors, CPRE and GACC representatives, gathered outside the parish church to hear their local MP, Rt Hon Francis Maude, offer words of support.

18 February 2014

This is the sad tale of a campaign group's failure to protect the character of the village of Thakeham.

For over 15 years Thakeham Village Action (TVA) has tried to prevent the land in and around Abingworth Nursery from becoming a large housing estate. Thakeham is a small village of some 300 houses (the parish in total has some 700 houses). Land which has been used for more than 100 years for mushroom growing was bought by a property development company and recently they have succeeded in gaining permission for 146 houses in what Horsham DC acknowledges is an inappropriate and unsustainable location.

In December we asked you to complete a short survey about your priorities on several key issues facing Sussex. Amazingly, within a few days almost 200 of you - members and non-members - had completed the survey. Thanks so much for taking part.

The results of the survey? See below.

CPRE Sussex has had a really positive response to its recent appeal, with our members and supporters generously donating over £4,000 towards fighting proposals against damaging developments in the Sussex countryside. Many of you attended the Mayfield Market Town public meeting in October, jointly organised by CPRE Sussex and LAMBS and attended by MPs Nick Herbert and Nicholas Soames. Mayfield Market Town Ltd aims to build a whole new town of 25,000 people in the green gap between Crawley and Brighton. In November CPRE Sussex appealed for support towards the cost of opposing this and other developments through the planning system.

The charity’s Chairman, David Johnson, spoke of his gratitude to appeal donors, saying, “Our thanks go to everyone who has contributed to our appeal. We are very conscious that, as a charity, we rely on our members’and supporters’ generous donations, which are invaluable for achieving our aim of protecting the open spaces that are so highly prized across Sussex.”

Successful appeals such as these mean that CPRE Sussex is in a stronger position to call developers and local planners to account, at a time when the proponents of the new town continue to promote their plans to build over 1,200 acres of Sussex farmland.

For further information on the Mayfields campaign, click here.

Photo © floradora1

CPRE Sussex has joined those submitting a response to the application by Celtique Energy to drill for oil and gas at Fernhurst, West Sussex. The siteis in the newly created South Downs National Park, an area of outstanding natural beauty with an important cultural heritage. 

The application SDNP/13/05896/CM can be found on the South Downs Authority's planning portal.

In the response on behalf of CPRE Sussex, chair David Johnson writes:

Nadhim Zahawi, a backbench Conservative MP, has been told to support the Government’s planning reforms or quit as a Number 10 policy adviser.

On Wednesday, Mr Zahawi had warned of “intense attacks” on the countryside by “rapacious developers”. He said the “physical harm” to the countryside as a result of the planning reforms could become “the defining legacy of this Government”.

From the Daily Telegraph, 10 Jan 2014. Read the full article here

The Coalition is preparing to mount a fresh assault on planning laws by giving developers the power to push though applications without the need for council approval or environmental assessments.

The following letter was sent by CPRE Adur & Worthing representative Bill Freeman to local councillors in Adur and West Sussex County Councils, as well as to councils neighbouring Adur, Southern Water, the Highways and Environment Agencies and other relevant bodies:

I am sure every one of us is fed up to the back teeth and dismayed, anxious and frustrated with hearing about the flooding problems here in Adur. I know I am.