No such time as 'quiet time'

By Laura Brook, Conservation Officer

Here in the Conservation Policy department, we are bracing ourselves to end the year on a flurry of consultations about growth and development in Sussex. Our role is to give a voice to wildlife in this process. We need to make sure decision makers remember the urgency of biodiversity decline and climate change. We need to make sure our environment can adapt to a changing climate, so that we create a sustainable future for ourselves and the generations to come. So this is how our Conservation Officers be spending their time over November and December:

Rampion II (18 October - 29 November)

The latest consultation for this proposed extension to the Rampion Wind Farm focuses on some specific potential changes to the onshore cable route. Some of these are minor tweaks e.g. moving the route of the cable from one side of a field to the other; while others propose to move the route to completely new areas. We'll be looking at how these changes might negatively impact ancient woodland, hedgerows, protected sites and species like Nightingale and wintering wildfowl.

Mid Sussex Local Plan Review Consultation (7 November - 19 December)

The current Mid Sussex District Plan was adopted in March 2018. The District Council is now in the process of reviewing and updating the Plan where necessary, so that a new District Plan 2021 – 2039 will replace the current one. The Council is particularly looking for comments on:

• Allocation of land for three new 'Sustainable Communities', each delivering over 1,000 new homes and on-site infrastructure
• 21 other housing allocations
• Updated and new planning policies, including for climate change and biodiversity

Arundel A27 Bypass Scheme (16 November – 16 December)

Since the last consultation on the preferred Grey Route in 2021, National Highways has made changes to the scheme's design. We’re currently unclear on the scope of this new supplementary consultation but understand it will present a revised design and seek feedback on the changes. Sussex Wildlife Trust is opposed to a new bypass due to the negative impacts on biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions, so we will continue to work on this issue.

Eastbourne Local Plan Review (11 November – 20 January 2023)

A new Local Plan for Eastbourne is currently in preparation for the period 2019-2039. The first stage of preparing this plan involved a consultation on Issues and Options, which ended in January 2020, and Sussex Wildlife Trust submitted comments. There is now a new consultation to discuss the growth strategy. This  focuses specifically on housing and employment growth, including key development sites, and as such is not a draft Local Plan. Other issues, such as addressing climate change, encouraging regeneration, and protecting the natural, built and historic environments, will be included in the Local Plan once prepared, and this will be subject to a future public consultation.

Our officers will be considering all the information in the above consultations and doing our best to respond to them all. We will post responses and further information on our webpages to help you respond, too.