Dave Bangs writes.....
A decade ago local residents and countryside activists - including Green Party activists - campaigned for the inclusion of Toads Hole Valley and the rest ofthe Brighton downland fringe in a new National Park of the South Downs.
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Aided by Green Party councillor Pete West, a coalition of all the Green and Tory Party councillors, plus two pro-downland Labour councillors, won the full Council vote to recommend an inclusive boundary to the National Park right up to the edge of the built-up area, taking in Toads Hole Valley, Whitehawk Hill, Sheepcote Valley and much more...
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Later, the National Park Public Inquiry Inspector included Toads Hole Valley in his recommended Park boundary, submitted to the secretary of state.
We thought we had succeeded...and so we should have...for the case was open-and-shut...
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Toads Hole Valley is a ‘pinch point’ on the long chain of the South Downs...almost thenarrowest point on the whole open downland chain...which is here reduced to a mere 2.6 miles wide. It is the point at which the integrity of the down landscape is most threatened.
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Toads Hole Valley is thoroughly inter-visible with the rest of the open 1.5 mile WestBlatchington Valley (of which it is a part) all the way up to the Dyke Golf Course. Development at Toads Hole will bring serious visual damage to the wider National Parkdowns at the point where they are most vulnerable.
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The A27 bypass – remarkably - does NOT constitute a major visual intrusion to thisdownland valley...and the whole downland valley is protected from the visual intrusion of the built up area by the spur of Snakey Hill (King George V1 Avenue).
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Toads Hole Valley had long been judged as of National Park quality, because it was part of the Sussex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in which landscape standards are the same as National Parks.
HOWEVER, a second National Park Public Inquiry to re-address boundary issues (chiefly in the western Weald) reversed the decision to include Toads Hole Valley.
NOW the Valley landowners and Green Party developmentalist councillors are having a field day
Their mad plans make NO MENTION that Toads Hole Valley was judged to be of National Park standard and is a critical part of that wider, inter-visible National Park landscape.
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The plans cram built development all up the most highly inter-visible parts of the valley...on the higher ground of the Snakey Hill spur and up by Court Farm.
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They put new greenspace (in the school grounds and next to the SNCI slope) down in the most sheltered (visually and aurally) part of the valley...the reverse of any rational policy of amelioration of the wider landscape damage...which would keep all the higher groundopen.
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They cram a major road along the bottom of the Toads Hole SNCI slope and shave off itssouthern tip to accommodate that road – and shove in a mess of cycle ways, zig-zagpaths, and a funicular railway.
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AND THEY CRAM, CRAM, CRAM !!!...700 houses, an industrial estate, a school, a community hub, and an even longer version of the busy Snakey Hill road,
Why all this madness ?...What is the wider context ?
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A hyper-developing south eastern region, where the best rural landscapes and the greatestnational biodiversity are threatened with destruction, PLUS a low wage economy, PLUSsevere housing stress exacerbated by inter-regional migration of the well-off in search of pleasure and the poor in search of jobs...WHILST the peripheral regions and poorer countries suffer under-development and regression.
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These patterns of uneven development are an inherent feature of capitalism, and bring with them misery and environmental destruction.
They must be challenged and not pandered to.
A sustainable future for both Brighton and the South Downs depends onredistribution and the strictest environmental protection, NOTdevelopmentalism and cosmetic environmentalism...
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60% of this development’s housing is to be not affordable...and most ‘affordable’ housing is not truly affordable.
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Yet 100% of this development will be environmentally damaging.
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Over twenty years ago Hove planners rejected the idea of housing on Old Shoreham Road at the bottom of Benfield Valley because of the road’s noise and air pollution...NOW the Green Party proposes housing next to the Brighton Bypass with much greater traffic levels, noise and fumes...
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Organise the community take-over and clean-up of the neglected and abused Valley. Wefirst did that nine years ago...and were praised by the National Park Public Inquiry Inspector for our efforts.
REJECT THIS DEVELOPMENT
PROTECT THE SOUTH DOWNS NATIONAL PARK
....FOR EVERYONE...FOR EVERMORE
Dave Bangs dave.bangs@virgin.net Tel: 01273 620 815 September 2012
Co-leader Brighton and Hove Community Wildlife Groups National Park Campaign 2002-4
Co-leader Brighton and Hove Defend Council Housing 2004-7
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