Wildlife in Mid Sussex is under threat from a Lib Dem Council that has departed from its stated policy! Act now to save Sussex wildlife from destruction before it's too late. 

We, the undersigned residents, workers and students of Mid Sussex, are concerned about the ongoing decline of wildlife and natural habitats in our district, including ancient woodland, hedgerows, wetlands and the species that depend on them.

We call on Mid Sussex District Council to:

1. Publish a district-wide Nature Recovery / Biodiversity Action Plan, setting out how the Council will fulfil its duty under Section 40 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (as strengthened by the Environment Act 2021) to conserve and enhance biodiversity;
2. Manage all Council-owned and Council-managed land — parks, verges, open spaces and amenity land — to maximise benefit for wildlife, including reduced mowing, native planting and habitat creation
3. Identify and support the designation of additional Local Nature Reserves and wildlife corridors on land within the Council's control;
4. Work actively with the West Sussex Local Nature Recovery Strategy, parish councils, landowners and conservation organisations such as the Sussex Wildlife Trust to protect and connect habitats across the district;
5. Employ a full-time, in-house Ecology Officer with appropriate professional qualifications, and end the Council's reliance on outsourced ecological advice from Place Services (a consultancy operated by Essex County Council), so that the district benefits from dedicated ecological expertise rooted in local knowledge of Mid Sussex's habitats and species;
6. Create and maintain a public Mid Sussex Ecology Register of locally valued habitats and wildlife sites, to which residents may propose entries, with each proposal validated against publicly available data — including records held by the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre, Natural England's Priority Habitat and Ancient Woodland Inventories, and other open environmental datasets; and
7. Report annually and publicly on the state of nature in Mid Sussex, including the contents of the Ecology Register and progress against all the commitments above.