Save Oldhouse Warren ancient woodland – find alternative Center Parcs site

CPRE Sussex, along with the other members of the Sussex Planning for Nature Group, has written an open letter to Center Parcs’ CEO about the proposed Oldhouse Warren development.

The Group’s members are the Woodland Trust, CPRE Sussex, the RSPB, Sussex Wildlife Trust, and Sussex Ornithological Society.

The Sussex Planning for Nature Group has previously expressed its concern about Center Parcs’ proposals to develop a new resort ‘village’ at Oldhouse Warren in Mid Sussex.

Those proposals have yet to be formalised into a formal planning application.  In the meanwhile, the Group is anxious to continue to highlight their total unsustainability at this location,

The organisations in the group do not oppose the principle of a new Center Parcs’ village development in this part of the country. Our concerns are entirely with the location that Center Parcs has selected for this new development.

Oldhouse Warren within Worth Forest is an integral part of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). This ancient woodland site is a habitat rich with nationally rare archaeological and ecological features, including veteran trees, and also neighbours a Site of Special Scientific Interest comprising rare ancient ghyll woodland.

Locations of this kind are supposed to enjoy the highest status of protection from major development.  If a site as precious as Oldhouse Warren were not to be spared from the bulldozers, one has to ask where in Sussex is safe for nature?

We are therefore asking Center Parcs to reconsider developing here. Should Center Parcs wish to develop a resort in the South East, then it should seek a sustainable location where it can support national efforts to help nature recover, increase wildlife populations, and reduce the impacts of climate change in line with its own stated environmental policies.

Read: Sussex Planning for Nature Group – Open Letter to Center Parcs

For more information and how to help to protect Oldhouse Warren, see: www.cpresussex.org.uk/news/help-us-stop-center-parcs-development-in-worth-forest/