Cinders Must Go To The Ball Now!

The Rambers' Association has used National Parks Weeks - that's right now in case you were wondering - to highlight its concerns over what it terns 'Britian's Cinderella national park'.

According to the RA, the ragged sister of outdoor recreation areas is the South Downs, which now holds the record for the length of time it's had to wait to be designated as a park. 'Over half a century ago, it's richly diverse landscapes of flower-studded chalk grassland, ancient woodland, flood meadows, lowland heath and rare chalk heathland, was proposed for National Park status,' they say.

Their worry is that the park will end up, like the new New Forest Park, with a boundary even smaller than that proposed by the Countryside Agency and as a result, the people of the south east will be 'short changed' by a park that 'does not reflect the rich diversity of its natural habitats'.

They are now calling for the government to grant national park status to the area as soon as possible.

"The Public Inquiry has ended so there's no reason for the Government to delay in granting national park status to the area." Says Sarah Williams, Head of Countryside Protection at the RA.

"It's vitally important that when this happens our youngest national park includes the many varied landscapes that the area is fortune to possess.  The people of the South East deserve it".