‘Desecration of landscape’: the fight over development in areas of outstanding natural beauty | Conservation

A FLOCK OF GOLDFINCHES Circle before settling down on a roof while Sue is walking morning in the Woodgate field in Pease soup, West Sussex. Rounding a corner, it reaches a large wildlife pond where eight signals and a swan feed. The dragonflies run above.

Over the past three years, the estate a few kilometers south of Crawley built in the High Natural Beauty (AONB) has been the house of Sue. Her son and daughter-in-law also live on the estate, where the 600 houses range from the ownership apartments to 1.4 million luxury sterling books.

The cycle paths, the leisure parks, a green village and the fauna ponds give the estate a lush and green backdrop.

The Guardian analysis revealed that the succession was the greatest seizure of land of an AONB by developers in Great Britain in the five years between 2018 and 2023.

At 45 hectares, the development extends through the Grand Weald Aonb. These precious and natural landscapes, which have been renamed national landscapes, are supposed to be some of the most protected areas in the country.

There are 42 throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland, awarded the designation for qualities, including their wilderness, their tranquility and their distinctive habitats that they can support.

The campaign for the protection of rural England (CPRE) fiercely fought the plans of the Woodgate domain, saying that it had created a worrying precedent and seemed to undermine the protections behind the national designation of the landscape.

Kia Trainor, director of the CPRE Sussex branch, described development as the “desecration of our most beautiful landscape” “. In a later report, the CPRE published data showing that AONBs faced an insidious threat in the form of a spectacular increase in the main housing applications.

Sue, during her walk with her friend Sarah, however, underlines the large green village at the center of development, the trails, primary school and the community shop, before heading to the Promenade des Bois which takes you to the depths of the Tilgate forest, which is next to the estate.

“We just said to what extent they created this area,” says Sue. “There are large open spaces and we see a lot of fauna. The large pond at the bottom of the estate is incredible, it has brought so much fauna.

“Before this area was built, the land was agricultural land and they organized a sale of car boots here. This area is ideal for children with all the open space, they can cycle and walk everywhere. They plant an orchard here and create a pedestrian path, which does everything that happens in development and a playground for ball games. ”

The developers, Thakeham, told the Guardian that from the start, they joined the infrastructure, biodiversity and green spaces and the ways to design. “Improvements favorable to fauna such as bird boxes, bat boxes, fast bricks, hedgehog highways and insect hotels are through development,” said a spokesperson. This includes the Prairie labyrinth, which includes more than 50 varieties of wild flowers to attract pollinators and contributes to the wider B-Line project. “Thakeham is committed to delivering a 10% BNG on its three -year developments before becoming a statutory minimum in February 2024.”

Balancing housing requirements with the need to protect and improve nature in the United Kingdom, where there have been significant reductions in species and habitats since the 1970s and less than half of its original biodiversity remains intact, will always be difficult.

The Mid Sussex District Council assessed that he is required to build 19,741 new houses for the period 2021-40 to comply with the national planning objectives. The existing commitments will provide 8,696 houses and the council must find locations for the 7,558 others.

The CPRE says that there must be a balance between economic, social and environmental considerations and that the construction of large developments far from the existing residential areas will force people in cars and will not constitute sustainable development.

In addition, the United Kingdom has committed to protecting 30% of the land and the sea for nature by 2030 – a target contained in the environment law. But the determination of the Labor Government to reduce environmental laws in its growth thrust will put some of the most precious and protected land in the United Kingdom in danger of destruction by the construction of houses, according to experts.

Jackie Copley, campaign manager for the CPRE, said: “The fields of exceptional natural beauty are supposed to take advantage of the highest protection status for landscape reasons and which is supposed to prevent the major development from taking place. A development of 600 houses with a school and district center is undoubtedly a major development.

“Very soon, if we continue to allow fragmentary developments in the fields of exceptional natural beauty, they will stop having a landscape value.”

His words are premonitory. Another great development inside and adjacent to the high weald landscape is in the pipeline: 1,450 houses to be on agricultural land between Cuckfield and the village of Asty.

While activists join the CPRE to combat development, a national landscape agent of Weald High recently warned against the serious negative impacts of the proposed development, citing major effects on the character of the landscape, the visual quality and the failure of the conservation and the improvement of the natural beauty of the region.

The Guardian’s Green to Grey team included Pamela Duncan, Zeke Hunter-Green, Tural Ahmedzade and Patrick Barkham with additional reports from Rachel Keenan, Raphael Boyd, Olivia Lee, Yassin El-Moudden, Gracie Daw, Matthew Holmes, Mariam Amini, Gabriel Smith, Dominic Kendrick and Emma Russell

To find out more, visit Greentogrey.eu

The next phase of this project will be on the level of the planet: join a citizen scientific initiative of Crowdsource to measure the loss of world nature here