Front Page matters

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The South Downs National Park goes sustainable

By Tim Locke, BGTW

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This April the South Downs at last became a fully fledged National Park, with its own planning powers. Stretching from just outside Winchester in Hampshire to Beachy Head in East Sussex, the Park includes a substantial chunk of the Weald in West Sussex.

The move to full National Park status stuttered over many years, finally delayed by the legal intricacies of whether an area so shaped by human hands would qualify as a natural landscape. But its rural qualities are undeniable; it’s no coincidence that World War II propaganda posters exclaiming ‘Britain: fight for it now’ harnessed the emotional impact of the South Downs, the most English of landscapes – variously depicting the old village of Alfriston and a shepherd guarding the cliffs towards Belle Tout lighthouse in East Sussex.

I recently attended a meeting addressing how responsible tourism could work in the National Park. The key is to make tourism a more enriching experience and to spend money locally, supporting local businesses. Talk was of how visitors prefer to travel like locals rather than as tourists, and want to find about what is locally distinctive. I was impressed by the sincerity and enthusiasm of everyone at the event; businesses were wholeheartedly latching on to buzzphrases like ‘cultural immersion’, ‘sustainability’ , ‘sense of place’ and ‘green credentials’.

I’m not hugely into marketing speak, but all this made a lot of sense. I chatted to many local business people and tourism personnel while researching my just-published the Bradt guidebook to Slow Sussex & South Downs National Park (www.timlocke.co.uk/slowsussex.html). Most were much enthused by the Slow concept. Indeed, taking time to slow down and find out what really makes an area tick - whether it be by learning how to coppice a woodland, by back-to-nature camping, by pottering around the landscape by bike or tasting local fare at a farmers' market - should be what 21st-century travel is all about.