Britain has 15 National Parks. The latest to be added is the South Downs National Park. This was one of the original 12 areas identified for National Park status in the 1940s but legal wrangling has held it back. Now at last the boundaries have been set and the wheels are in motion to set up the management body.
The South Downs is the 4th largest National Park. It stretches between the historic city of Winchester in the west to Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast, and encompasses a delightful mixture of rolling chalk hills, valleys, green wooded areas and the iconic white cliffs of the Seven Sisters.
What will becoming a national park mean to the area? Well, mostly it is about conservation; keeping the downs beautiful and unspoilt for our posterity. Of course it will also mean more visitors and more revenue for the area as people become more aware and vistor facilites are improved.
