National Parks

Ten years ago, Hampshire had no National Parks. Now we have two:

New Forest National Park - this was created in March 2005 and the New Forest National Park Authority took up its full powers in April 2006.
South Downs National Park - England's newest national park created in April 2010 with the South Downs National Park Authority assuming responsbility from 1st April 2011.

CPRE Hampshire played a leading role in campaigning for the SouthDowns National Park, in particular to include the Western Weald within its boundary. You can read below details of this successful campaign.

Bill Bryson at Harting Down - pointing out the landscape of the West Weald that the South Downs Campaign succeeded in getting included within the new national park

Successful Outcome to our Campaign!

We celebrated the birth of this new national park at a special reception on 31st March 2010. We were particularly pleased to have succeeded in including the Western Weald within the boundaries. This was the culmination of efforts by other parts of CPRE, including national support from CPRE President, Bill Bryson. CPRE was also a founding member of the South Downs Campaign.

The links below are to some recent articles that describe the last year of the campaign and some thoughts on the challenges ahead.

The birth of the national park - about the new authority, its aims and challenges.
A celebration to remember - how CPRE celebrated the occasion on 31st March 2010; a message from Bill Bryson congratulates all involved.
Result! After 60 years the South Downs has a National Park - an outlining of the campaigning from 2007-9 that resulted in the inclusion of the Western Weald within the new national park.
Government urged to listen: 10,000 sign petition - a petition handed to Michael Mates, MP for East Hampshire, by the Mayor of Petersfield, Cllr Vaughan Clarke. (Press Release: March 2009)
Postcard Campaign Gathers Momentum - 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 (Press Release: December 2008)
A nonsensical boundary - a 2007 article making the case for the inclusion of the Western Weald within the national park.

This page last updated 16th January 2011.