Welcome to our autumn 2016 e-newsletter

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our AGM in July. We have had a busy summer – attending community events, delivering tours and talks for our supporters, carrying out research on biodiversity with local students and celebrating our 90th birthday with a party at Hever Castle. This e-newsletter aims to bring you up to speed with our campaigns and projects as we move into autumn.


David Johnson, Chair, CPRE Sussex

Join us… fight for the Sussex countryside

Do you want to see well designed, affordable housing that meets local community needs and protects green spaces at the same time? Then join CPRE Sussex and support our campaign for the ‘right development in the right places’.

• Volunteer with us! We need volunteers to help with every aspect of our work from writing articles in our magazine to reviewing weekly planning lists to giving out leaflets at events.
• Learn with us! We provide planning advice and training to our planning volunteers on topics such as good design and protecting biodiversity.
• Enjoy the countryside with us! Take part in our programme of Tours and Talks and events.
• Support us! With a one-off donation or a regular gift. This helps us, for example, to attend planning meetings and hearings locally and to campaign nationally for a better, fairer planning system. 

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Urgent – Gatwick expansion decision

With a decision on the expansion of Gatwick airport due any day now, there is still just enough time to write to your MP or send your reasons for objecting to expansion to Theresa May using the ‘Gatwickcant’ leaflet on our website.

Read the letter we sent to the PM in July on behalf of CAGNE, CPRE Kent, Surrey and Sussex.  

Sussex tree shortlisted for ‘Tree of the Year’

The A27 at Chichester and Arundel

CPRE Sussex responded to the Chichester Bypass consultation in September. We are concerned that the plans put forward by Highways England are in isolation from a wider strategy for movement along the A27 corridor (including much needed investment in rail and other non-car measures) and across the City as a whole. We also believe that the statutory duty of regard for the Chichester Harbour Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) has not yet been satisfactorily considered. The two protected areas around Chichester – the AONB and the South Downs National Park – must be properly safeguarded for the benefit of future generations.

In July CPRE Sussex supported Binsted’s popular Strawberry Fair, which saw a record crowd of more than 1,000 people. The Fair, which has been an annual event for the past 29 years, is facing an uncertain future because the ‘strawberry fields’ are directly under one of the route options being considered for the new A27 Arundel bypass. The A27 Arundel Bypass Neighbourhood Committee (ABNC) says that the new road would:

• Devastate Binsted’s village, businesses & landscape
• Destroy its peaceful beauty, enjoyed by many visitors for walking, cycling and riding
• Fragment the best parts of the woods, which are all in the National Park.

They're asking people to sign their petition and write to to their Parish Council, District & County Councillors, MP, Highways England and Secretary of State for Transport. Find out more on their website and Facebook page.

Nuffield Research Placements

Over the summer, two A-level students undertook a placement with CPRE Sussex to carry out research into biodiversity and land management. The research, which focuses on butterfly populations, will form the basis of a funding bid for further research next year, which will aim to show the value of undesignated countryside in terms of biodiversity. Undesignated countryside is under threat in many parts of Sussex

Crouchland Biogas

CPRE Sussex is supporting 'Protect Our Rural Environment' (PORE) and voicing concern about the Crouchland Biogas plant in Plaistow, West Sussex. Although the plant is supported by millions of pounds of subsidies for renewable energy, it is not compliant with environmental and planning laws. Three significant pollution events in the last four years have killed all aquatic life in several kilometres of nearby waterways. CPRE Sussex, PORE, and the Planning Inspectorate believe that the site should only be used to process farm waste generated on the site and that the site should be properly managed in accordance with Environment Agency permits to prevent future pollution incidents.

A planning application to expand the site is currently live; more information is on the PORE website.

Hever Castle

Our garden party to celebrate CPRE’s 90th anniversary was a wonderful occasion. We had approximately 90 guests, who enjoyed the lovely setting of Hever Castle. It was also an opportunity to raise our concerns about airport expansion as well as mark 90 years of campaigning to protect our amazing countryside. Sussex residents Mr and Mrs Davies attended – they are also celebrating their 90th birthdays and helped us to cut the cake!

CPRE’s ‘Smelly Sussex’ Campaign

CPRE Sussex has persuaded the Environment Agency (EA) to take a tougher line with developers who want to build housing estates without mains drains.
A growing number of Sussex developers have been seeking to overcome rural drainage constraints by installing ‘Packaged Treatment Plants’ (PTPs), which discharge into local ditches and streams. However, CPRE Sussex discovered that although PTPs are effective for individual homes they could cause uncontrolled pollution when they are installed in larger housing estates. As a result of CPRE’s investigations, the EA has now introduced tougher safeguards regarding permits for PTPs on larger developments.

Help us put CPRE Sussex on the cyber map!

Social media is campaigning 'gold dust'… and we urgently need your help to sprinkle some around! We can’t stress enough how important social media is to our ‘campaign’ to protect rural England and how powerful it can be.
 
There are now more than 1.65 billion active Facebook users worldwide and 310 million people using Twitter. Your MPs and councillors all have accounts… The Sussex Wildlife Trust has more than 20,000 Twitter followers and RSPB South-east has 5,000.
 
Work with us to protect and promote Sussex

Social media can help us to:

• Influence the press and MPs
• Recruit thousands more active supporters
• Stop disastrous planning applications going forward
• Encourage people to respond to a consultation or planning application
• Promote the beauty that we aim to protect.

How you can help:

1. Post on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CPRESussex/) about your concerns over a threat to the countryside, or your positive stories of its protection and promotion.
2. If you see an article in a newspaper or magazine, then send us the link and we will tweet it
3. Did you read something that you feel would be of interest to our membership? Share it with us. No essays please.  Just a quick note of what is happening, and why it’s important.
4. If you attend a planning meeting, take a picture, add a caption and share it.
5. Share your local knowledge. Is there a local meeting you need people to attend? Tell us the details or share the links. Is there wildlife at risk in your area? Are there local proposals that need to be shared?