Catalogue description Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Public Inquiries; New Forest and South Downs National Parks

A second Environment Task Force was created in 1991 to co-ordinate the environmental aspects of CAP and work relating to new Environmentally Sensitive Areas and this developed into an Environmentally Sensitive Areas Division in 1994. This Division became the Conservation Management Division in 1995 when it took on responsibility for the transfer of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme from the Countryside Commission. The England Rural Development Programme was prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Fisheries in conjunction with its Farming and Rural Conservation Agency and received formal Commission approval in October 2000. Environmentally Sensitive Areas then came under the umbrella of the England Rural Development Programme until Natural England assumed responsibility on its creation in 2006.

New Forest

In October 1999, the Countryside Agency began work to designate the New Forest as a National Park by identifying a boundary and preparing advice to government on the arrangements needed to set up a National Park Authority to manage the area and take into account the special circumstances within the forest. A Public Inquiry took place in 2002-2003. The designation was confirmed on 1 March 2005. The New Forest National Park Authority was established on 1 April 2005 with limited powers and full statutory functions from 1 April 2006.

South Downs

In September 1999 the Government, following a review of national parks policy, declared its support for the creation of a South Downs National Park and announced a consultation on its creation. In January 2003 the then Countryside Agency (now (Natural England) made an Order to designate the proposed park in 2003 which was submitted to the Secretary of State for the Environment on 27 January 2003. As a result of objections and representations, received on the proposed Order, a Public Inquiry was conducted between 10 November 2003 and 23 March 2005, with the aim of recommending to Ministers whether a national park should be confirmed and, if so where its boundaries should be. The results of the inquiry were expected by the end of 2005, but were delayed pending a legal issue arising from a High Court case challenging part of the Order designating the New Forest National Park. Following an appeal on the High Court case and new legislation included in the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, the South Downs Inquiry report was published on 31 March 2006. The Secretary of State invited objections and representations on new issues relating to the proposed national park in a consultation that ran from 2 July to 13 August 2007. In the light of the responses received, the Secretary of State decided that it was appropriate to re-open the 2003-2005 Public Inquiry. The inquiry re-opened on 12 February 2008 and was closed on 4 July 2008 after 27 sitting days. The Inspectors report was submitted on 28 November 2008. On 31 March 2009 the result of the inquiry was published. The Secretary of State Hilary Benn, announced that the South Downs would be designated a national park and on 12 November 2009 he signed the Order confirming the designation. The new national park came into full operation on 1 April 2011 when the new South Downs National Park Authority assumed statutory responsibility for it.