Hastings Country Park and Fairlight Place Farm are coming under the spotlight to ensure their continued protection and management well into the future.
We are about to make a start on the most ambitious land management and habitat restoration scheme ever undertaken in the borough.
The majority of the Country Park is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation. In fact the cliffs and wooded streams are among the rarest examples of their kind in Britain. We have a legal duty to manage the important wildlife features and ensure they are not damaged. Allowing nature to take her course and lose rare habitats and species is not an option!
To bring the 200 hectares of Country Park up to scratch, we have developed a long-term management plan to:
To make sure all this happens, we are investing heavily in the Park. We will receive Government help in the form of Countryside Stewardship Grant Aid. This money will assist in managing the farm and Warren Glen over the next ten years, and the whole project will kick off in October of this year.
To help deliver these key objectives over the coming years, the Council has increased the Country Park budget by an extra £10,000. We are also investing over £200,000 at the Park and Farm over the coming years.
A new management plan, combining the management of the Country Park, Farm and designated wildlife areas, should be ready for public comment later in the summer.
A new Reserves Officer job has been created for three years, starting from October, to help achieve the improvements to the Park as well as promoting the other nature reserves in Hastings and St Leonards.
In 2000, we regained control of the adjacent Fairlight Place Farm and with it, an additional 130 hectares of agricultural land. Since then, the fields have been allowed to rest from the rigours of intensive fertilization and grazing. We have arranged for the fields to be cut annually in summer and grazed by sheep in winter.
We have teamed up with an agricultural advisor to help manage the farm and parts of the Country Park under the new Countryside Stewardship Scheme. The farm will be fully operational again from October and fencing will be reinstated around fields and in areas where we intend to graze.
The grant will allow us to extend wildlife habitats, create flower rich meadows, grow arable crops to provide winter feed for wild birds and use local cattle to graze the fields.
In Warren Glen our priority is to reduce the existing amount of bracken and gorse cover. Our aim is to encourage the traditional coastal grassland habitats of mixed heather and coastal wildflowers that are particularly rare in southeast England.
When the farm is up and running again, we will be asking for everyone’s cooperation in keeping to the many designated footpaths, and not to walk across the farm fields.
One of our most exciting outline proposals is exploring the possibility of securing a brand new Visitor Centre for schools and visitors. We recognise the current visitor centre is not adequate to cater for the amount of visitors to the site. We aim to work with funding partners to provide the kind of high quality facilities we can all be justly proud.
As events progress on this exciting venture, we will keep you informed.
We are committed to year on year improvements at the Country Park, which we feel is our most prized natural asset. In order to ensure the Park continues to receive financial investment, we will be investigating all sources of funding, income generation and grant aid available today and in the future.
Over the summer we will be displaying information at the existing Visitor Centre and around the Park in order to keep everyone fully informed. We are also proposing a series of open days where Council staff will be available to discuss the management priorities and future proposals.
We will be establishing a Management Forum with Elected Members and statutory agencies to ensure our management plans stay on track. We will also help establish a community-based group for key users of the Country Park, residents and visitors keen to promote and contribute towards the special interests of the Park.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our open days over the summer to discuss these exciting changes to the management of Hastings Country Park.
From voluntary conservation task days and school visits to midnight bat watches and butterfly walks, the Rangers are constantly finding new and imaginative ways of getting people involved in the parks and open spaces so if you're reading this and wondering what to do with your Summer, give them a call!
For a copy of our Countryside Events Leaflet call the Hastings Information Centre on 01424 781111
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This page last updated: 24/08/2004