Natural England broadly supports policy S26 on the Natural Environment. However, we recommend that explicit reference is made to Chichester Harbour AONB in the second bullet point (though recognising that DM19 is the policy for the AONB). We would also like the Plan to acknowledge the importance of views from the SDNP (at Kingley Vale) to the AONB, and strive to protect this connection. We suggest the visual link between the two protected landscapes could be referred to in the supporting text.

We welcome the policy regarding best and most versatile land. Though we note that the Sustainability Appraisal concluded that the majority of greenfield allocations would impact BMV land.