Liss and Petersfield support South Downs postcard campaign

As part of the final push to show to the Government the strong public support for keeping the Western Weald in the new South Downs National Park, volunteers from the local Campaign to Protect Rural England group and the Petersfield society have been gathering more signatures for the paper petition, to be handed in by Michael Mates, MP to Parliament in February; and encouraging people to sign new postcards to send into the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

336 petition signatures and 248 signed postcards were gathered at the Liss Christmas Evening on 10th December and the Mayor's Christmas Market in the Festival Hall, Petersfield on 13th December. These are added to a fantastic total of 899 signed postcards and 1296 petition signatures collected at the Petersfield Christmas festivities on the weekend of 5th December.

So far, 8,500 people have put their signature to the Western Weald paper petition, and the campaigners hope to achieve 10,000 signatures by the end of January.

Christopher Napier of CPRE's East Hampshire District Group said:

"Many thanks to all those who have managed to support us so far. We firmly believe that a national park is the best way of conserving and enhancing the beautiful countryside of the South Downs, Hangers and Western Weald. Please could we ask anyone who has a postcard to send it in to Defra, to help make our voice even stronger."

He continued:

"The readiness of the public to sign up to the postcard and petition shows the overwhelming support that exists for the Western Weald to be in the South Downs National Park."

The postcard campaign will run until March 2009. People can order postcards by telephoning CPRE branch office on 01962 843655 or Chris Todd at South Downs Campaign on 01273 563358. Postcards and petition signature sheets are downloadable from www.southdownscampaign.co.uk or from this website (see link above).

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CPRE/H/155

Notes to editors

CPRE Hampshire strives to promote the beauty, tranquility and diversity of the countryside of Hampshire by the sustainable use of land and other resources in town and country, and encouraging the biodiversity and well-being of rural communities.

The South Downs Campaign (SDC) is a network of over 150 organisations. As well as many national conservation, environmental and amenity organisations who are members, the SDC has a growing number of members which are parish and town councils and now has over 120 local members - a full list of members is available on request. The SDC is generously supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

For information on CPRE, please contact:
Becky French or Pam Mason, CPRE Hampshire
Tel: 01962 843655
Email:admin@cprehampshire.org.uk

For all media enquiries, please contact:
Keren Burney, media & communications officer, CPRE Hampshire
Tel: 01730 894123   Mobile: 07876 780065
Email: kburney000@aol.com

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