PARISH councillors in Harting have expressed their concern that the village will be at the mercy of developers if it is outside the proposed national park boundary and loses at Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty status. Councillors considered the recommendations of the independent inspector concerning the establishment of a South Downs National Park and made a formal response. They said: "The parish council is concerned at the consequences of this recommendation if it were implemented. "There is no guarantee that AONB status, which protects all these areas at present, would be retained once the South Downs National Park was in place. "The possibility of less restrictive development rules outside the park is worrying and the parish council would have to deal with two completely different planning authorities with different criteria for development. The result would be a split parish and a divided community. "The parish council believes that if a South Downs National Park is to be created, it should not be limited to the chalk downlands. "Up to now, the downlands and the Weald areas have been successfully administered as AONBs by the conservation boards and now by the South Downs joint committee." Their response continued: "The inspector rightly cites panoramic views as a key characteristic of a national park, but excluding the Low Weald would mean that most of the view north from the South Downs Way would be outside the park and, perhaps, not protected." Conservationists across East Hampshire were due to meet for a seminar to discuss their reactions to the new boundary proposals recommended by the national park inspector. The seminar was set to be followed by a special meeting of East Hampshire District Council. Councillors were expected to make strong objections to the proposed exclusion of Petersfield, Liss and many East Hampshire villages from the national park boundary. They were also expected to call for the consultation period to be doubled from six weeks to 12 weeks.
