South Downs View - South Downs National Park Authority

Local CommunitiesIndustrial heritage inCoultershawCoultershaw Heritage site givesvisitors an insight into how theindustrial revolution affected therural landscape within the NationalPark. Home to a working beam pump,installed in 1782 to pump water fromthe River Rother up to Petworth, thesite also has interactive water pumps,an original engine house and mill pond.The Sustainable Communities Fundis supporting Coultershaw Trust’s bidfor Heritage Lottery Funding with acontribution of £20,000 to help themimprove sustainable public access tothe site.Butser Ancient Farmgets a new visitorcentreButser Ancient Farm is an experimentalarchaeological research site that isopen to the public, with reconstructedroundhouses and a Roman villa atBascomb Copse, near the village ofChalton, in the National Park.This well established rural educationcentre attracts 15,000 children onschool trips and 10,000 membersof the public each year and aims toprovide visitors with an exciting, handson insight into the lives of the Celts andRomans in ancient Britain.The £30,000 SCF grant willgo towards building a new visitorcentre. The eco-friendly buildingwill incorporate a toilet block,office, visitor facilities, staff roomand education area where artifactsand photos of the farm can bedisplayed. The project, which isdue to be finished this autumn, willuse sustainable technologies suchas rainwater filtration and storagetanks, modern, low-water usage toiletsystems, waterless urinals and energyefficient hand dryers. Building materialswill also be sourced locally.Saddlescombe Farmwelcomes backpackersSaddlescombe Farm is a National Trustsite nestled in a hamlet near Devil’sDyke on the South Downs Way.An environmentally friendly planhas been developed focusing onusers of the South Downs Way andemphasises Saddlescombe as a carfreesite. The project received £16,999from the SCF to develop a back-tobasicscampsite for backpackers, whichcan only be reached by foot, as well asa Hiker’s Rest tea-room and new toiletfacilities.The site for the new toiletsAll aboard at theShipwrights WayThe ship is completedThe SCF has recently helped support aproject to create a children’s play shipto encourage visitors to make use ofthe Shipwrights Way, a long-distancewalking and cycle route starting inAlice Holt Forest, Hampshire andextending to Portsmouth HistoricDockyard.The ship, which measures 11x3metres, was built by the ForestryCommission using locally andsustainably sourced softwoodtimber and is situated in a play areaadjacent to the Shipwrights Way route.“We wouldn’t have been ableto build the play ship without thesupport from the SCF’, explains JulianWilliams of the Forestry Commission.“It is fantastic to see so many childrenenjoying the new addition to theplay park, which also has a strongconnection to our local shipbuildinghistory.”Smarter ChoicesRoadshow comes tothe South DownsSmarter Choices road show at Greatham School, HantsFollowing a successful pilot project in2010, the Smarter Choices Roadshowreceived a grant of £27,000 from theSCF to visit 60 schools and 12,000students during 2011/12.The roadshows help to engagestudents about the benefits ofusing sustainable transport, fromenvironmental to financial to healthbenefits.Using an exhibition unit andinteractive resources such as electriccycles and electric motor scooters,pupils can experience first-hand theexciting new forms of sustainabletransport.Terry Osborne, OperationsDirector for the roadshow said:‘We try to put a serious messageNeighbourhood planningThe South Downs National ParkAuthority is now working withlocal communities to help with theintroduction of neighbourhoodplanning. This is a new rightintroduced through the Localism Act2011 giving people more power inshaping development and growth intheir town or parish.Tim Slaney, Director of Planningat the SDNPA, says, “We believestrongly in helping local communities.For the first time plans drawn upby local residents, businesses, parishcouncils and civic leaders will havereal teeth in the planning world and asay in where local development takesplace. Larger more strategic planpolicy making and planning decisionsacross in an informative, realistic andentertaining way regardless of the ageof the pupils we are visiting. We wereobviously delighted that the roadshowreceived 100% positive feedback fromall the schools that we visited.’Learning new skills inQueensdown WoodsThe Sustainable Communities Fundhas recently helped launch a project inQueensdown Woods, near Brighton,East Sussex involving a series of eventsteaching 150 local residents, schoolchildren and volunteers, valuablewoodland skills.The events gave participants theopportunity to learn new skills incoppicing, conservation and theclearance of invasive species, to helpmanage and enhance woodland areas.“After successfully campaigning forthe woods to be part of the NationalPark, we wanted to host a diverseprogramme of events that wouldattract a wide range of people, many ofwhom may not otherwise access thewoodland”, explains Warren Carterfrom Moulsecoomb Forest Gardenand Wildlife Project. “The workshopsare an effective way of highlighting thefantastic resource that is on people’sdoorstep.”A new series of woodland skillslessons is currently being planned for2012/13.will continue to be taken by planningauthorities such as the NationalPark.”As of 1 June 2012 three parishcouncil’s within the National Park andfive on its borders had come forwardas ‘front runner’ projects which willhelp the Government test the newsystem. The SDNPA is supportingthese communities and will havea big role as the plans develop, forexample in organising independentexaminations of the plans.More information onneighbourhood planning in theSouth Downs National Park is atwww.southdowns.gov.uk/planning/neighbourhood-planning.www.southdowns.gov.uk south downs View 9