Campaigners fighting to save countryside across Sussex have welcomed a decision to reopen the public inquiry into the South Downs National Park.

Jonathan Shaw, the Government Minister for Landscape and Rural Affairs, announced the move today.

The "western Weald", which contains areas of outstanding natural beauty in the Sussex Downs and East Hampshire, was originally excluded under boundaries proposed for the national park.

But following a huge public campaign for the area's inclusion in the park, there is now a chance it could be included in the park.

Members of the public joined celebrities such as author Bill Bryson, actor Brian Blessed and TV presenter Ben Fogle in arguing the area could be lost to development if left out of the park.

There have been calls for areas such as Lewes, Ditchling and Arundel to be included in the park.

Jacquetta Fewster, of the South Downs Society, said: "It is very important that the subject of Midhurst, Petworth, Petersfield and the beautiful landscape of the rest of the western Weald, as well as the historic settlements including Lewes, are considered at the reopened public inquiry.

"The landscape of the western Weald is very special. It has some of the most beautiful heathlands in the south of England, and the network of rights of way is excellent. It should be part of the national park.

"We expect the inspector to consider again this area at the reopened public inquiry, as well as the historic settlements including Lewes.

"The very great danger is that if the western Weald is left out of the park, it will be too small to merit its current status as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it may lose that special protection it currently enjoys.

"Extreme pressure for new housing and other development would inevitably follow."

Lewes MP Norman Baker said: "We must make sure that the inspector takes the opportunity to look at all of the representations that have been sent to him to date relating to the areas of land that have been deleted from the proposed park boundary.

"I believe that the sheer volume of complaints about the deletions from the park illustrate the strength of local opinion on this issue, and I trust the re-opened inquiry will now be able to address these concerns fully."

The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) also welcomed the move.

Emma Marrington, CPRE Rural Policy Campaigner, said: "The heart of this campaign is to ensure the western Weald remains in the national park.

"It is misguided to suggest, as the planning inspector did, that it should be excluded as it is a different landscape character type to the chalk downlands. There is no requirement in any legislation that a national park should only be of one character type.

"We will argue tooth and nail for the Wealden landscape to be included through the re-opened inquiry."

A pre-inquiry meeting has been arranged for Tuesday, December 11 and arrangements are being made for the inquiry to re-open on Tuesday, February 12, 2008.

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