Background

The Brighton Downland Estate was purchased by Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) over many years to control development, protect drinking water and biodiversity and to provide for public access. However, in recent years, the purpose of this public land seems to have been forgotten – land has been periodically sold off to private developers, farmed intensively with loss of wildlife and habitats, there has been damage to cultural heritage and pollution of the aquifer, and signs erected stating “private land, no public access”.  

Our chalk grassland, a unique world habitat, as species rich as a rain-forest, has been reduced to isolated fragments. This landscape could help with the triple threat we face of the ecological, climate and health emergencies: through restoration of nature, better storage of carbon in soils, protection of water in the aquifer, using ‘green prescribing’ to treat physical and mental ill health and support of farming with a direct connection with the community. This requires work, which an upsurge of local experts, farmers, community projects and volunteers are more than willing to take a hand in. 

The Brighton Downs Alliance wants to see full downland ecosystem restoration, community-led food growing and open, free public connection with our local heritage. We want Brighton and Hove City Council to work with residents, the South Downs National Park Authority and other local stakeholders to create a long-term, sustainable plan which brings in revenue, increases biodiversity and places our health and well-being at the heart of how we manage the land we own.  

The decisions Brighton and Hove City Council makes with the City Downland Estate Plan will demonstrate the seriousness of the Council in declaring the global climate and biodiversity emergencies. Now is the time to think creatively, and set a new direction for management, which truly delivers for people and nature. 

​Read our Vision and Position Statements here.​​

​Landscape scale restoration

Restoring the damaged and fragmented mantle of ancient downland which has covered our high Downs for millennia, with sustainable farming and management designed to store carbon and reconnect habitats could be our local contribution to bringing nature and the planet back from the brink. To do this we need landscape-scale restoration.

Management

The Council are in a unique position in owning a huge arc of downland around the city. Holistic and coordinated management of the Estate is needed in order to address climate, ecological, food, water, and health concerns. To do this effectively we need a dedicated in-house council Downland Estate Unit working effectively across departments with the meaningful involvement of local groups, experts, and with key organisations. 

A landscape of freedom

​Nearby, freely explorable, nature-rich landscapes are recognised by Natural England as essential to human wellbeing. With statutory access across the Estate supported by sustainable transport and local initiatives to create off-road walking and cycling routes from the city, our downland could become a huge, open, safe, recreational resource, a true breathing space on our doorstep.

Protecting our groundwater

Drinking water for Brighton and Hove is supplied by chalk aquifers, a key reason why the council brought our downland into public ownership, yet our aquifers are the most polluted across the whole of the South Downs through nitrates leaching from fertilizers. Climate change too increases the vulnerablility of the aquifer. We support The Aquifer Partnership's work to reduce nitrates in groundwater and further advocate detailed mapping the underground water systems and the formalising of nitrate use levels and restorative farming practices into downland policy. 

A connection to food

The pandemic has brought a reckoning for how we feed ourselves and where we get our food. The Estate could support connections to local food through food partnerships, community groups taking on council leasehold sites, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes that link food producers to consumers. Farming within the Estate should work with nature with restorative principles to increase biodiversity, soil health and food quality so food production and environmental protection can go hand in hand.

A living heritage

Our rolling downland, with its steep scarps, coombs, deans and lynchets contains two-thirds of Sussex Scheduled Ancient Monuments, traces that signpost the unique qualities of this landscape to us right now. We advocate an active management of the culture embedded in the land as part of a wider regeneration.