Protestors at a rally last month against the Cissbury sell-off
Downland in the newly created South Downs national park that was threatened with being sold has been taken off the market.
Protestors are hopeful public access to the land, next to the country’s second-biggest Iron Age hillfort, will be improved. The news represents a u-turn by the land’s owners, Worthing Borough Council.
The council’s cabinet voted to withdraw land at Cissbury from sale at a meeting attended by more than 100 protestors. The cabinet member for resources and business modernisation, Councillor Steve Waight, also pledged to retain control over the land, adjacent to Cissbury Ring.
The climbdown is a victory for supporters of the Stop the Cissbury Sell Off campaign. A campaign spokesperson said of the site: “These are the fields and little copses we walk with our children up to the [Cissbury] Ring. These are the fields where we walk our dogs and meet our neighbours. These are the slopes where we blackberry, and picnic, and watch birds – buzzards and skylarks, and the swallows and warblers that rest and feed-up on the Cissbury Downs on their long spring and autumn journeys to and from the African Tropics.
“This council-owned land at Cissbury is in two bits. One bit comprises a mile and a half along the ridge of Tenant Hill between Charmandean and Cissbury Ring. The other bit comprises three quarters of a mile of downland on Mount Carvey, between Findon Valley and Cissbury Ring.
“Sadly, Worthing councillors have forgotten the public purposes for which this Downland was acquired. It is our job to remind them: this land was acquired by the council many years ago to protect it, for the benefit of Worthing people. Way back then, the council played a central role in helping the National Trust buy Cissbury Ring itself – the Iron Age hillfort and its Stone Age flint mines and ancient wildlife. The council also donated part of Highdown Hill to the National Trust.”
Councillor Waight and Steve Coe, Worthing Council’s met before the cabinet meeting with officials from Natural England, the South Downs Joint Committee (SDJC) and the National Trust. The meeting discussed the nature of the external funding that Natural England could make available to the council through the Higher Level Stewardship scheme and the support that both the National Trust and the SDJC were able to offer.
Further meetings are likely to take place between the borough council and the bodies in question.
Protestors, 120 of whom held a rally outside the council offices before the meeting, are hopeful that long leases will not be granted to the farmers and landowners who have expressed an interest in the Cissbury land. However, they said they remained suspicious of the council’s motives and urged further consultation and openness.
A spokesperson for Stop the Cissbury Sell Off said: “This result is a good first step, though taken within the context of these ongoing concerns.
“Stop Cissbury Sell Off will continue to press the views of residents and users of this downland, and to press for the democratic accountability of future management decisions over Worthing’s public downland.
“A public information meeting is being arranged by us early next year, when details of progress will be discussed. It is planned to invite Worthing Council representatives to brief us on what they are doing.”
