Yearly Archives: 2022

Shoreham Beach Vegetation Walk and June Group Meeting

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On a very sunny Friday 17th June, some 20 members of Ferring Conservation Group met at Shoreham Fort mainly to look at plants growing on the vegetated shingle, one of the few places in the country where this eco-system is found.

Led by Graham Tuppen members were able to find 16 of the 18 plants on their list, including Sea Kale, Red Valerian, Common and Tree Mallow, Yellow Horned Poppy, Vipers Bugloss, Kidney Vetch, Silver Ragwort, Purple Toadflax, Thrift, and Starry-headed Clover. Surprisingly, given the sunny weather, the only butterfly seen was a painted lady but several wall and sand lizards were evident.

The speaker at the Group’s June meeting was Kevin Newman, a local historian, tour guide and author of a wide range of books on Sussex. His subject was ‘Scrumptious Sussex’, taking members on a tour of the county East and West, showing images of historic pubs, hotels, restaurants and breweries and telling fascinating stories about Sussex specialities of food and drink, and the people who consumed them.

As in Worthing town’s motto, ‘From the earth fullness, from the sea good health’, Kevin pointed to Sussex agriculture and Sussex fisheries as what sustained the county and its many visitors past and present. Eating and drinking was always important for social occasions and celebrations, as a picture of a VE Day street party showed, and an essential component of the attraction of resorts like Brighton and Worthing.

Seaside fish and chips, he said, was brought to Britain by Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe, and the first curry house in Britain was opened in Brighton, as well as the first fast food establishment and the first rooftop restaurant. And the popular dessert, ‘Banoffee pie’ was invented by Ian Dowding, a chef at a restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex, in 1971.

Brighton, he said, was always an important centre for food and drink – for its fishing as well as its prodigious consumption. Long before its seaside trade, the by the Prince Regent (later George IV).

After the talk, Graham Tuppen showed slides of the vegetated shingle at Shoreham Beach, which a number of Group members had visited the previous day (please see above).

Ed Miller concluded the meeting with an update on the planning issues in and around Ferring: Including the six housing estates that developers propose for the green gaps, the commercial development up McIntyre’s Lane as well as a new application for a house in Grange Park – to be built in three storeys and in a totally unsympathetic modernist design, both overlooking and overbearing on its neighbours.

 

A Sussex Scrapbook – a talk by Christopher Horlock

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Ferring Conservation Group was delighted when Chris Horlock stepped in at very short notice to speak at their monthly Group meeting on 27th May. With an illustrated talk entitled ‘A Sussex Scrapbook’ Chris regaled members with an enchanting mix of anecdotes regarding famous people with a connection to Sussex, details of local historic buildings and landmarks, local traditions and folklore as well as traditional ‘health cures’, legends, tales and mysteries. Chris cleverly linked these stories to paint a vivid picture of the attitudes, beliefs and outlooks of the generations that lived in our cherished county in years gone by. As a much respected local historian Chris contributes regularly to Sussex Life and is the author of several books on Sussex history. As a natural story teller Chris has graced the airways on radio and has also appeared on television. Chris began his talk with interesting details of the Priest House at West Hoathly on the edge of the Ashdown Forest. It was once owned by Henry VIII and now has over 170 culinary, medicinal and household herbs planted in the garden. There are witch marks scratched into wood in several places in the house including the front door and on the beam above the main fireplace. These are known as apotropaic marks dating back to the 17th century and were believed to prevent witches from entering the house. Set into the ground outside the front door is a rough slab of iron which is waste from a local furnace and this was also believed to serve the same purpose (witches were commonly believed to be scared of iron).

The Long Man of Wilmington was the basis of another of Chris’s many stories. This giant figure is 235 feet (72 metres) tall and stands proudly on the steep slopes of Windover Hill near Wilmington, East Sussex. The origins of the Long Man are unclear and it was once thought to have been from Neolithic times but it could be as late as the 16th or 17th century AD. From a distance the figure seems to have been carved from the underlying chalk but the modern figure is formed from white-painted breeze blocks and lime mortar. With many other facts and stories relayed to his captivated audience Chris brought his talk to a conclusion by raising a chuckle with the photograph of a sign seen on the front gate of a Sussex property: ‘Trespassers will be Composted!’

After a break for tea Graham Tuppen presented the Nature Notes slot updating members on local wildlife sightings and happenings. Graham paid tribute to Tricia Hall who had devised and presented this slot for the past eight years and acknowledged that he indeed had big shoes to fill. Graham began by showing a photograph of the shingle beds along Patterson’s Walk, which Tricia regularly tended, along with the boat at the top of Sea Lane which was looking pretty with many Red and White Valerian. Also the lagoons had many Yellow Flag Irises and along the banks of the Rife Marsh Orchids and Twayblades (an easily overlooked orchid recognisable by their two large leaves and yellow/green flowers) were thriving. There have been several types of orchids seen in the vicinity including Bee Orchids. Three Painted Lady butterflies (a migrant butterfly from Morocco) were seen during the recent Beach Clean (at which very little litter was reported). Graham was delighted to inform members that masses of tadpoles were seen around the footbridge area of the Rife and Clive Hope reported having seen three Bee-eater birds over Angmering.

Ed Miller concluded the meeting announcing that there had been no further planning news with the exception that Worthing BC had received consent for a Judicial Review into HM Planning Inspector’s decision to allow the Chatsmore Farm planning application.

 

A Walk to see the Bluebells in Patching Woods

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A group of enthusiastic members from Ferring Conservation Group enjoyed a recent walk through Patching woods, principally to see the bluebells, which were wonderful. The wood anemones were slightly past their best, but still good, and there was a very good show of early purple orchids. Patches of wild garlic and yellow archangel, plus native primroses, lesser celandine and greater stitchwort were in flower, and also garlic mustard, perhaps better known as ‘jack by the hedge’.

The butterflies were apparently grounded by the lack of sun, but plenty of birds were seen and heard, including a raven, red kite, buzzard, sparrow hawk, kestrel, greater spotted woodpecker, tree creeper, blackcap, chiffchaff, skylarks and a swallow.

 

Report by Graham Tuppen, and photos by Peter Dale

Come and Support our Work and Help to Keep Ferring Beautiful!

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We welcome new members so please join us and help in our campaigns to conserve the open spaces in and around Ferring, hear interesting talks on local and regional wild life as well as joining us on our regular nature walks. Take part in practical conservation work – planting trees and wild flowers, and keeping the beach and the banks of the Rife free of litter.

Come along to one of our monthly Group meetings:

As well as excellent speakers and the ever popular and delightful Nature Notes presentations, updates on planning issues affecting Ferring and surrounding areas are delivered and discussed.

The meetings are held on the last Friday of the month in Ferring Village Hall commencing at 2.30pm (or 7.30pm in May. June and July)

Admission is £2 for members or £3 for visitors and includes tea and biscuits.

Please note our annual subscription is just £1 and includes a copy of our popular magazine

The Planning Process

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Planning Applications – who does what?

Ferring Conservation Group spends a lot of time monitoring the applications for new housing, commercial development and large extensions or rebuilding where they impinge unfairly on neighbours, the streetscape or countryside. We often ask our members to submit individual objections but we rarely explain how the system works.  Typically which Councils are involved, or what happens when there is an appeal – it is all rather complicated:

The starting point is the law:

Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended), planning permission is required for any development of land.  Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) – certain local councils and other bodies – are responsible for examining applications for planning permission and deciding whether to approve or refuse them.

In our case the LPA is Arun District Council. They are required to draw up a Local Plan which must be submitted and endorsed by HM Planning Inspectorate (part of national government). The Local Plan and Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP), where there is one, must be consistent with the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Applications have to be decided as to whether they are consistent with, or a departure from, the Development Plan, unless there are material considerations that indicate otherwise.

The LPAs are obliged to consult the body responsible for Highways (in our case West Sussex County Council) for their view as to the implications of any development that affects traffic, parking or road safety.

If West Sussex County Council considers that the application would have a severe detrimental effect on the local highway network, that is usually the end of the matter and the application is refused (they rarely do this – usually they just give advice on parking and access).

The LPA must enable the Parish Council to produce a Neighbourhood Development Plan, as we have in Ferring, but this NDP must be consistent with the Local Plan (as above). Arun District Council is obliged to consult Ferring Parish Council on every planning application in the parish area. Unfortunately not all Councils give full consideration to Parish Council views.

This is very much a top-down planning system not the ‘Localism’ that we were promised a few years ago. The Government sets the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and Arun DC has to produce a Local Plan that is consistent with it. Also the Parish Council has to produce a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) which is consistent with the Local Plan. The system has become even more restrictive in recent years because the Government now sets housing-site delivery requirements for each LPA and a rule that each LPA must have a five-year supply of housing land.

The other way that LPAs are weakened is that when the Council have decided to refuse an application, for good and proper reasons, the developer can appeal to the Secretary of State (HM Planning Inspectorate) against that decision. The Government then appoints a Planning Inspector to decide the appeal – and his/her decision is final – it can only be challenged in the High Court (please note that the appeal system allows only the applicant to appeal, not the objectors!).

Where do local residents come in all this?

Well, we elect the Councillors and the whole country elects the Government. We can send Arun DC our objections against the applications we consider unsuitable then the Council ‘takes them into consideration’. Ferring Conservation Group sends in many objections to the applications we feel are unsuitable – we win some and we lose some. The Council may support local objections and refuse authority to develop but then the applicant can appeal to HM Planning Inspectorate who has the final say. But the Inspector’s decision is open to Judical Review, If the High Court rules that the Inspector has made a mistake in law it can quash that decision. This is what happened in the Chatsmore Farm case.

The Council wins some and loses some, and challenges in the High Court are rare and even more rarely successful.

It is a very unsatisfactory system which fails to take into account local democracy.

Ed Miller

 

The White Stork Project

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We welcomed Lucy Groves, a conservation biologist with a special interest in movement ecology to our March meeting. Lucy is currently employed by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust as the project officer for the White Stork Project, and is based at the Knepp Castle Estate.

Lucy began by sharing her enthusiasm for the Stork Project which is a pioneering partnership working together to restore a population of breeding White Storks in Southern England after an absence of several centuries. A number of private landowners, namely Knepp, Wadhurst and Wintershall, located in West Sussex, East Sussex and Surrey respectively are helping to establish a breeding population of free-living White Stocks in Britain once again.

This project is being carried out in partnership with the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, Cotswold Wildlife Park, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and overseas at Warsaw Zoo. The named estates have constructed purpose built predator-proof pens covering about six acres each. A total of 166 rehabilitated wild-fledged White Storks from Poland, as well as a number form Northern France, have been released into these pens over the course of the last three years, in order to establish local breeding populations.

Lucy was keen to update the Group with the progress so far at Knepp and was delighted to announce that in early April 2020 five eggs were confirmed in a nest built high up in an oak tree with the eggs hatching in early May.

The project has fitted GPS trackers to a proportion of their released birds and these devices collect data to help determine home ranges, habitat choice, foraging strategies, distance moved per day etc.

White storks are particularly associated with the county of Sussex. For instance the Saxon name for the village of Storrington was originally ‘Estorchestone’; meaning ‘the village of storks’. A pair of white storks still features on the village emblem.

After a break for refreshments David Bettiss delivered Trisha Hall’s Nature Notes session and it was encouraging to hear that several species of butterfly had been seen locally; Commas, Tortoiseshell, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Small Whites, Orange Tips and Holly Blue. The Red Kites were thriving and as many as eleven had been spotted high above Beachy Head and it is thought that they have new breeding territories. Many waders had already returned to their breeding grounds in Europe. Chiff Chaffs are the first migrant birds to be seen here when five were sighted in the vicinity of the Rife, along with Green Finches. To the delight of local birdwatchers a rare Desert Wheatear had been reported on the Goring Gap and plenty of frog spawn and tadpoles were evident in the lagoons by the Rife – David also has a newt in his garden pond. Pretty yellow Celandines were plentiful throughout the village especially in Clover Lane, and magnificent Magnolia trees in full bloom were gracing many gardens. The Blackthorn was in bloom locally and Arun DC have confirmed wildflower beds were to be seeded in the public green spaces throughout the village.

Ed Miller concluded the meeting with the devastating news that Persimmon Homes had won their appeal to HM Planning Inspectorate and had now been given the go ahead to build 475 homes on the Chatsmore Farmland at the Northern Goring Gap – although this may be challenged by Worthing BC in the High Court. It was likely however that other large scale planning applications may be revived in view of this decision. The Highdown Vineyard planning application has already surfaced again and a Public Consultation had been planned in the Village Hall on 30th March. There has been a back-garden development proposed for a property on the corner of Sea Lane Gardens and Greenways Crescent, and a property already undergoing renovation has submitted a planning application for a 4-bed house in its back garden.

 

 

 

FCG visit to Pagham Harbour

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A dozen Ferring Conservation Group members recently made their way to Pagham Harbour for their annual Spring birdwatching visit. The party, which included a couple of members making their first such visit to the harbour, was led by one of the Group’s bird experts, Clive Hope.

Weather wise, on what was forecast to be a windy day, it turned out to be pretty good, especially when there was shelter from the elements and the sun decided to shine. On the bird count, a total of 38 different species were recorded, which was thought to be quite impressive.

The highlight was probably the sheer number of Brent Geese seen, with a good estimate of approximately 1000 in total, and many of these were probably preparing to make their migratory trip back to their breeding grounds in Europe. They made a spectacular sight, especially when some of them took to the air, probably spooked by an unseen raptor.

Some of the other birds seen included Great Crested Grebe, about 20 Pintail, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Knot, Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Redshank and even a Green Woodpecker.

A couple of enjoyable hours was considered a suitable time period, before the party repaired to the local café for a spot of lunch before returning home to Ferring. This really is a worthwhile and informative way to get out into the Sussex countryside in good company and with expert guides to learn more about our local wildlife. If you haven’t been out for a trip with the Group before, then it’s definitely worth considering in the future.

The Goring Gap – our Member of Parliament speaks out:

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Sir Peter Bottomley has made the following statement on his Facebook page:At  the recent Public Inquiry, the Council made a very clear case against the development, Ferring Conservation Group made a very clear case against the development. I would like to think that I, too, made a very clear case against the development.However, in spite of the clear case against the unwanted development, the Inspectorate has now ruled that the appeal should be allowed and granted outline planning permission to concrete over the north Goring Gap.I am wildly angry, to put it politely.If West Sussex Council wants Goring Gap to be a green space, if Worthing Borough Council wants Goring Gap to be a green space, if Arun District Council wants Goring Gap to be a green space and if the entire community is united in wanting Goring Gap to be a green space, surely Goring Gap should be a protected green space.I do not believe a planning inspector should be able to overturn the decision with three vague paragraphs.I will seek to speak immediately with the Chief Whip, the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister.The decision has to be called in for review by the present Secretary of State. It must be overruled.If any Inspector can trample on the democratic responsibility of the planning authority in this way, what is the point of Worthing Borough Council and what is the point of the member of parliament?The fight to protect Goring Gap goes on, the battle is not lost.We are grateful for his consistent and full-hearted support. – Ed

Bad News on the Northern Gap

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We were shocked to discover today that the Inspector who conducted the Planning Inquiry into Persimmon’s Appeal on the Chatsmore Farm site has upheld that appeal and so, unless something extraordinary happens, the 475-house estate will be built.

It is a bitter blow to all of us – Ed Miller

Good News for the Birds of Ferring

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Warren Pond in the southern part of Ferring is a better place for birds thanks to Ferring Parish Council and the Conservation Group. The pond, near the junction of Florida Road and The Warren, is owned by the Council and is managed in partnership with the Group as a nature reserve, being one of the last remaining wild places in the village which makes it so valuable for wildlife.

The Council has funded a variety of bird nestboxes, and four of these have been installed by Conservation Group members at various locations around the pond. Two were the hardwearing woodcrete designs for tits (these are resistant to woodpeckers and squirrels), and the others were of timber construction being open fronted and more suitable for robins or wrens. One other series of 3 joined nestboxes for sparrows who like to nest in proximity to others of the same species has also been installed in another location in the village near to the Rife.

David Bettiss, Chairman of the Group, who installed the boxes at the pond together with committee members Graham Tuppen and Tricia Hall said “These boxes funded by the Parish Council are a really useful addition to the wildlife habitats of the village and we hope they’ll be used on a regular basis by some of our birds. Certainly the boxes we’ve already put up around the village in various places are used every year and this can be seen when we check and clean them in the Winter. We’re very grateful to the Council for this initiative.”

He continued, “As our wildlife across the country is coming under increasing pressure due to loss of habitat, boxes like these are really helpful to assist our birds to breed successfully. We timed this installation to coincide with National Nestbox week in February, and we’d encourage as many of our local residents as possible to put up one box or more in their gardens. Please do it as soon as possible though as birds will already be prospecting for suitable sites. A site on a tree trunk, facing north or east away from prevailing winds and hot sun and about 2-3m high is ideal. Then you’ll have done your bit for our local birds as well.”