CPRE's 50 years of protecting Sussex’s countryside

CPRE Sussex, of which Lord Egremont is the long-serving president, officially launched at Arundel Castle on November 21, 1972.

The charity was formed after the Duke of Norfolk stepped down from his presidency of the national organisation to form a dedicated branch for Sussex.

It was not long before its work was dominated by modern environmental concerns.

In the 1970s CPRE Sussex began working with farmers to protect trees and hedgerows and warned against the environmental impact of Gatwick Airport expansion.

In the 1980s it took on fossil fuels, opposing the ‘defacing effect’ of oil exploration at High Park Farm in Ditchling.

In the 1990s it stepped up support for communities facing a wave of development pressure.

This included successfully challenging house building targets imposed on West Sussex County Council, eventually leading to a reduction of 13,000 homes following a public inquiry.

Notable campaigns in the new millennium included opposing major development around Polegate, stopping a landfill at Freshfield Lane Brickworks and protecting almost 20 acres of countryside within Barnham’s ‘strategic gap’.

Brian Kilkelly is the current director of CPRE Sussex.

“It is inspiring to look back at the many victories we have won for Sussex over these past five decades,” he said.

“But also sobering to reflect that, without this work, so many of our treasured places could have been lost forever.

“It makes you realise how important our work is.”

A key victory for many of the charity’s long-standing volunteers and trustees is the formation of the South Downs National Park.

In 1990, CPRE Sussex hosted a major conference on the future of the South Downs.

This revived a campaign begun more than 60 years earlier when the national charity nominated the South Downs for National Park status in its 1929 memorandum to Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald.

Rodney Chambers became chairman of the CPRE Sussex branch in 2009.

“All the time I was chairman, we were fighting to establish the South Downs National Park,” he said.

“We had support from Bill Bryson who was a great inspiration for us all.

“The park itself was proclaimed by Hilary Benn in a pub garden in Ditchling and we met him again a couple of years ago for the 10th anniversary of the National Park.”

The formation of the South Downs National Park also holds special significance for Maureen Holt.

Maureen was the editor of the charity’s magazine, Sussex Review, at the time the park was formed.

“A memorable moment was getting my local greenspace in Brighton into the South Downs National Park and chatting with Hilary Benn when he signed the final confirmation order at Ditchling,” she said.

“He had actually read over 90 letters sent to him protesting that at the last minute it had been left out.

“Luckily, being editor gave me an opportunity to obtain an article on this subject from Phil Belden, later to become a director of the SDNP.”

The South Downs National Park victory was not the only CPRE Sussex campaign to attract celebrity attention.

In 1986, the charity convinced the council to turn down an application for oil drilling at Fairlight Down on the grounds of its impact on landscape beauty.

Paul and Linda McCartney, who lived nearby at the time, attended a CPRE Sussex site visit.

Linda’s atmospheric photography of the threatened site was later featured in a BBC documentary and a CPRE exhibition at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

The 1980s also saw several other key victories for the charity, led by then-chairman Peter Brandon.

He convinced the secretary of state to dismiss a quarry extension at Streat and development on the edge of the South Downs at Wannock.

His appeal for the Worthing bypass to avoid downland was heeded by transport minister Virginia Bottomley and Tilgate Forest was successfully defended from a business park on the edge of Crawley.

Peter remained chairman until 1999 before becoming vice president.

When a new Countryside Awards was launched by the charity in 2009 there was no doubt Peter should be the one to lead the panel of judges.

Sadly, he was too ill to take part in the 2011 awards scheme and he died on 2 November, 2011.

The Peter Brandon Award for Empowering Communities was subsequently created in his honour.

In recent years, CPRE Sussex has continued to call for the protection of beautiful landscapes while facing new threats and trying to create more green spaces.

In 2014 the charity became a pioneer in the campaign against a new form of fossil fuel extraction.

It called for a ban on fracking in protected areas, with the South Downs under threat from the new process at Fernhurst.

In 2018, trustee Roger Smith met with Defra Minister Lord Gardiner to lobby for regulations to protect ancient woodland and veteran trees.

The charity’s Plant Your Postcode initiative has also spurred a local revolution in urban tree planting.

Highlights include helping Eastbourne volunteers plant more than 6,000 trees and more than 100 large new street trees planted in Forgotten Places around Brighton.

As the charity begins to celebrate its 50th anniversary, attention has turned to the next 50 years and how CPRE Sussex can continue to shape a greener future for Sussex.

To find out more about how you could help shape a greener future for Sussex visit cpresussex.org.uk/get-involved