Letters to the Editor
PRESERVING ENGLAND
[To the Editor of the SrEc.r.vroa.] - • sot, --May I express the thanks of the members of the Society of Sussex Downsmen for the support and encouragement to the work of that Society exemplified in the article " Pre- E-erving England" in your issue of February 26th?
In the interests of accuracy, however, I should like to say that the scheme which the Society has formulated was not suggested by them merely to the Steyning Rural District Council. It was submitted to the Brighton and Hove District Joint Town Planning Advisory Committee, a body _concerned sith the whole area of the South Downs from the River Ouse to the River Adur and composed of representatives of all the local authorities of that district. The proposals emphasized that any scheme for the preservation of the Downs, to be effective, must deal with the towns as a whole, that it should give power, not merely to control the nature of building, but to confine building to suitable districts. To-this end the Society suggested that the Brighton and Hove Committee should invite the co-operation in one large town-planning scheme covering the whole of the Downs of all the local authorities concerned ; and that this larger body should promote a Private Bill providing for the necessary power of control and, where necessary, acquisition. The proposals have been 'sub- mitted by that Committee to all the local authorities having jurisdiction over any part of the Downs.
The Society welcomes the foundation of the Committee for the Preservation of Rural England and will hope to have its support. It feels, however, that the danger to the South Downs is, for reasons that are obvious, so imminent and is directed concurrently against so many points that the county cannot afford, as other districts less immediately and generally threatened perhaps can, to wait for national action, and it will continue to press on the local authorities the imperative need of prompt and drastic action if the beautiful range of hills is to be saved in anything like its present beauty. In that work the Society will be grateful for any help which the powerful ath (Racy of the Spectator can influence.—! am, Sir, &c., ARTHUR HENRY ANDERSON (Chairman, the Downs Preservation Com- mittee, The Society of Sussex Downsmen). 21 Sussex Square, Brighton.
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