Have your say on the future of the Brighton & Hove City Downland Estate

Charlotte Owen
, 22 June 2022
Have your say on the future of the Brighton & Hove City Downland Estate
Adonis Blue by Bob Eade

By Jess Price
Conservation Officer

Did you know that Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) owns most of the land surrounding the city? A huge 12,862 acre downland estate, stretching from Mile Oak and arching all the way around to Saltdean. The land was purchased by the Corporation of Brighton over 100 years ago in order to protect the public water supply (the chalk aquifer), provide public access, and control development. It is a fantastic public resource, which should be managed for public benefit.

Over the past few years, BHCC has been working to produce a City Downland Estate Plan (CDEP) that sets out the vision for the estate and the actions needed to achieve this. Many of you submitted content to the Council’s ‘bang the table’ forum and attended public events last year. The Sussex Wildlife Trust has also been involved every step of the way, advocating for a plan that acknowledges the biodiversity and climate crises and seeks to restore this degraded landscape for the benefit of people and wildlife.

A draft plan has now been published and everyone is invited to read it and let BHCC what they think by filling in this online survey before the deadline of Friday 8th July.

We’d like to encourage you to respond to this consultation and have your say. You don’t have to answer every question but every response helps to demonstrate to BHCC just how important this public land is to us all.

The Sussex Wildlife Trust has submitted a response but overall, we’re really pleased that BHCC is producing this plan. This is exactly what’s needed to direct work on this public asset to help holistically address the biggest issues of our time – the ecological, climate and health emergencies.

We’re focussing our response primarily on the vision and the actions in the action summary, as this is what will drive activity. Here are some of the key things we’ll be raising, which you are welcome to use in your own response if you agree:

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust strongly supports the production of the plan and BHCC’s vision to see the holistic management of the City Downland Estate for social and environmental benefit. There are really great commitments in there such as schools and outreach programmes and reducing surface water pollution.
  • We support the vision but would like to see reference to ‘regenerative’ farming, in recognition of the urgent need to improve biodiversity, soil health and carbon storage as part of agriculture.
  • We support a ring-fenced budget so that income raised on the estate goes back into improving the estate - but any business case must also consider the non-monetary value of actions on the estate, such as restoring chalk grassland, protecting the chalk aquifer and providing recreational opportunities.
  • We are concerned that some of the important detail in the Ecosystem Services section isn’t followed through into the actions. We need to make sure all the positive intentions actually result in change on the ground. For ‘The route to carbon net zero and beyond’, the action summary is missing.
  • Chalk grassland is an internationally rare habitat, so we’d like to see the actions strengthened to demonstrate an ambition for landscape-scale restoration of chalk grassland across the whole estate, rather than just improving what little is left.
  • We strongly support the last paragraph on page 79 and the organogram showing a City Downland Coordinator Role, sitting separately to the various departments with a stake in the downland estate. We believe this role will be most effective if it reports directly to an Executive Director and is able work across all departments.

You might also be interested in this blog from the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, another group which has been working to encourage positive action on the City Downland Estate.

You can read the draft plan and respond to the online survey here – deadline 8th July

Leave a comment

Comments

  • Ludmilla:

    The Brighton and Hove estate is a valuable ecosystem as well as water resource
    The ambition to provide homes should be moderate to provide balance between humans and Nature
    Areas such as the Whitehawk nature reserve and even open areas such as that in Swanbourough drive should not be encroached upon.

    08 Jul 2022 12:22:00

Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782992846.02230 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782992846.07470.0524Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782992846.07490.0002Server address: 216.73.217.103
1782992846.07490Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782992846.0750Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/have-your-say-on-the-future-of-the-brighton-hove-city-downland-estate
    [s] => have-your-say-on-the-future-of-the-brighton-hove-city-downland-estate
    [1] => have-your-say-on-the-future-of-the-brighton-hove-city-downland-estate
)
1782992846.07530.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.07620.001 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782992846.08060.0044 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782992846.08130.0007INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782992846.08320.0018 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22518925
1782992846.08370.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22518925
1782992846.08430.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-02 11:47:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-02 11:47:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782992846.08540.0011 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='have-your-say-on-the-future-of-the-brighton-hove-city-downland-estate')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:47:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782992846.08820.0028 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782992846.08870.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2815 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:47:00'
1782992846.08950.0007 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782992846.09010.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782992846.09070.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=118 LIMIT 1
1782992846.09120.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=32 LIMIT 1
1782992846.09170.0004 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=50 LIMIT 1
1782992846.09210.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782992846.09230.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782992846.09320.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:47:00' AND postSlug='have-your-say-on-the-future-of-the-brighton-hove-city-downland-estate'
1782992846.13490.0417Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782992846.13550.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782992846.14450.009Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782992846.14480.0003 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782992846.1470.0022 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782992846.14840.0014 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782992846.15220.0038 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.15910.0069 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782992846.1620.0029Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782992846.16210.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782992846.16280.0007 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782992846.16330.0004 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782992846.1660.0027 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782992846.1670.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782992846.16770.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782992846.16970.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.17050.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782992846.17320.0027 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782992846.17370.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782992846.1740.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='16' LIMIT 1
1782992846.17520.0012Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782992846.17560.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='have-your-say-on-the-future-of-the-brighton-hove-city-downland-estate')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-02 11:47:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782992846.1780.0024 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782992846.18130.0033 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782992846.18420.0029Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782992846.18510.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2815 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782992846.25090.0657 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782992846.25140.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782992846.25160.0001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='16' LIMIT 1
1782992846.25230.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782992846.25290.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782992846.25350.0005 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782992846.25550.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.25610.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782992846.25780.0017 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782992846.25870.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782992846.25920.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782992846.25970.0005 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782992846.26210.0024 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.26270.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782992846.26480.0021 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782992846.26850.0038 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782992846.26910.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782992846.26960.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782992846.27190.0023 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.27240.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782992846.27540.003 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782992846.27760.0022 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782992846.27810.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782992846.27850.0004 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782992846.28120.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782992846.28160.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782992846.28380.0022 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782992846.28540.0016Request time: 0.2657
1782992846.28550Process time: 0.2655
1782992846.28550Memory: 1.6551