What a monumental waste of time the public inquiry will be into whether the South Downs should become a national park.

Starting this autumn, it will last at least a year and cost more than £1 million.

The Government was duty bound to stage an inquiry if just one council objected and, in the event, seven of the 15 concerned did so.

Their council taxpayers should be told money which should have been spent on frontline services will instead be frittered away on fat fees for lawyers fighting a hopeless cause.

I cannot see how the result can be anything other than a ringing endorsement of the need for a national park, for the South Downs have not been served well without one.

While other glorious countryside has been preserved since national park status was first given after the Second World War, the Downs have been nibbled and gnawed at.

It is hard now to imagine what possessed the old Brighton and Hove Borough Councils to build housing of such staggering ugliness on high hills in Hollingbury and Hangleton.

But they did and the Downs were defiled elsewhere with thousands of homes in the most inappropriate places.

East Sussex County Council is among the objectors to national park status. Does anyone seriously imagine the Downs would be safe in the hands of an authority which was the most enthusiastic proponent of the Brighton bypass?

These seven miles of downland dual carriageway built entirely within the area of outstanding natural beauty not only replaced 200 acres of fields and woods with concrete but also ensured noise and fumes carrying many square miles.

When plans for a Worthing bypass resurface, as they undoubtedly will sooner or later, who will better defend the Downs against insensitive road building - a new national park authority or the borough council and West Sussex County Council?

Once the Downs are part of a national park, it will be possible for people of vision to sort out shocking blemishes on the South Downs. The Devil's Dyke is a prime example. It would be obvious to a blind wombat that the existing informal car park north of the pub is in the most inappropriate place possible and should be moved or removed.

There are many places where footpaths are needed to take well-used tracks over busy main roads such as the Brighton bypass.

There is a need for much better signposting of existing footpaths and bridleways, together with more waymarked routes. Above all, people require information at many points on the Downs about the history of the hills and how they should be respected.

All the councils dealing with the Downs may have good intentions but there are far too many authorities. The Sussex Downs Conservation Board has done some fine work but does not have enough power.

Also involved are many owners, ranging from local authorities such as Brighton and Hove and Eastbourne to the National Trust and private individuals.

Beachy Head, the Seven Sisters, Chanctonbury Ring and the Long Man of Wilmington are national symbols of the South Downs known and loved by millions. They are widely recognised as being worth preserving and should be safe in anyone's hands.

But there are rather remote areas in West Sussex around Singleton and South Harting where just one badly sited telecommunications mast or ugly new farm buildings can cause damage seen for several miles.

Only a national park can provide the protection needed. It's a shame we have to endure a year of expensive legal jousting to prove the point.