• New plans have been submitted to the New Forest National Park Authority for the development of a large holiday park at Green Hills Farm, New Rd, Landford. The site has direct access onto protected areas of the New Forest & sites of special scientific interests. 

The New Forest is an internationally recognised area of ecological significance and contains habitats actually rarer than the mighty Amazon rainforest! As such it is supposedly protected by extensive national & internationally recognised habitat laws. There are many authorities who claim to protect the forest, including the New Forest National Park Authority, Natural England, Forestry England, The National Trust and many more.

How is it then that a Holiday Park developer is able to turn a relatively tranquil green seasonal campsite - situated at Green Hill Landford, adjacent to and with full access to rare heathland designated as not only a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) but also RAMSAR (International Wetlands Protection Designation), Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA) - into a large development of up to 60 (up to 20 by 40 feet) fully insulated, heated and furnished all year round second homes and holiday homes??

Not only that, this developer has built it in a 400m buffer zone designed to protect this rare and highly fragile heathland against such development! And to add further contempt for the very planning controls and legislative duties of the authorities designed to protect it, are now applying to build a further 114 such homes and displace the 90 seasonal tent and touring pitches within the site, destroying the social inclusion of the previous operation with homes for the purpose of commercial gain. In essence - installing pre-manufactured holiday homes at prices of up to £260k.

This large scale development in a protected zone has been achieved by a loophole in the planning laws which allows a developer to replace seasonal traditional caravans with permanent all season holiday homes connected by paved roads and sitting on poured concrete slabs via what is called a Certificate of Lawful Development (CLD). This developer is highly aggressive in their dealings with the authorities and their plan for 114 extra homes coming hot on the heels of the previous 60 has stated that the developer will go ahead anyway with extra CLD's should his plans be refused. His plans cover extensive agricultural fields recently acquired and which sit in the 400M buffer zone put in place to protect the SSSI.

What does this mean for the 'protected environment' of the Plaitford and Canada Common heathland and its rare habitat? Well, if you were to talk to a local farmer and New Forest commoners who have helped protect the land on these commons they would point to the large increase in walkers, bike hire traffic (yes this has been set up by the developer) erosion damage and deliberate disturbance of wildlife and livestock by dogs - all from the people who now stay at this site and visit all year round. The developers response to mitigation is to remove hedges, plant trees and 're-wild' with fragmented patches of wild flowers, all along ignoring the adjacent SSSI!

The very authorities that have a legislative duty to protect this environment have freely admitted to be powerless to stop this development and those like it once a CLD has been issued and the confidence in which the developer states in his planning application that he can proceed anyway supports that.

In fact, in a recent freedom of information request, the New Forest National Park Planning Authority has written to the developer stating that they "very much welcome your ambitions to create an exemplar holiday park experience that truly embraces and respects the unique New Forest National Park environment".

You have to ask yourself what is the point of extensive habitat legislation and  planning policies put in place to protect such internationally valuable habitat and of the agencies who are supposed to protect and conserve the New Forest? It is clear in this case that profiting from upmarket holidays at the exclusion of traditional low impact tent campers is more important than the impact to the protected habitat from footfall, bikes and light pollution (in a dark sky area).

This petition demands that:

1. Stop the development                                                                                                            2. Full independent environmental study                                                                                3. A full review at national level between the governments chief planner and environmental agencies                                                                                                            4. Greater protection for commoners livestock and enforcement of byelaws.