Thank you for consulting the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) on the above document. We have received the Chichester Local Plan 2021-2039: Proposed Submission (Regulation 19) (“the Local Plan”) document and would like to provide the following comments of the ‘soundness’ of the Local Plan.

The Chichester District area lies within the Eastern Solent and Arun Valley, a Focus Area of work for the RSPB. This is one of our highest priority places in the UK for the promotion of conservation at a landscape-scale, adopting the principles advocated by the Lawton report Making Space for Nature (2010) , which recommended (in simple terms) more, bigger, better and more joined up protected areas.

A substantial part of the Council’s area boundary is subject to a wide range of statutory nature conservation designations. This includes (but not limited to) the Arun Valley Special Protection Area (SPA), Chichester and Langstone Harbours SPA, Pagham Harbour SPA, Medmerry Compensatory Habitat, and Solent and Dorset Coast SPA; Arun Valley Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Solent Maritime SAC; and a number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The RSPB regards the protection and enhancement of the SPAs, SACs, and their associated and surrounding SSSIs as being among the highest priorities for our work nationally.