Sir – I would like to add my voice to those applauding the confirmation of the South Downs National Park and the inclusion within it of the Western Weald. Those who argue against it appear to do so since it is to be administered by a quango.
According to an article in The Times, a local Conservative MP has described it an assault on local democracy. But the term 'local democracy' is hollow. We live in a centralised and would-be secretive state.
The powers of parish councils are so few that there is difficulty in finding enough councillors. Elections are rare. Most people being prepared to offer themselves as parish councillors are accepted without an election. There are elections for the district councils and the county councils but the turn-out is low, very low. Both the district council and the county council are bedevilled by party-politics. The party comes before the electorate and there is a childish element of yah boo.
And once elected many of the councillors completely forget the electorate. It was councils that inflicted so much damage on our towns in the 60s and 70s. They did more damage than the Luftwaffe. Towns like Shrewsbury and Worcester were devastated. Petersfield lost many fine buildings, including a magnificent Elizabethan mansion, which was replaced by the post office. A little of the panelling was saved, and now in one of the houses here in Selborne. This village should long ago have been protected from through traffic.
In other countries the authorities would have been arguing for a world heritage site. Gilbert White must be regarded as the first ecologist. His observation of birds and worms influenced Darwin, And Bell at the Wakes was in the chair when Darwin and Wallace read their papers at the Linnaean Society in 1859, indubitably an event of world significance, the most important step in reasoning since Socrates.
All of this has had not the slightest effect on Hampshire County Council. One wonders if they are even dimly aware of these facts. The most visible activity of Hampshire County Council is self-praise, at which with so much practice it has become quite good.
There is little doubt that the park authority will do an infinitely better job in protecting this village. They could hardly do worse. They will also save what is left of the countryside White painstakingly described, which has been much damaged in recent years by hedge removal and the use of herbicides and fungicides. There are probably more birds my a London suburb and many that White described in this parish are no longer present.
In a National Park Selborne, birthplace of many aspects of modern science, will be treated with the respect it deserves.
Praise be. The loss of a very dubious democracy is but a small price to pay
Ted Yates, Hastards Lane, Selborne