Hastings Country Park Maintains Funding
Hastings Borough Council has been successful in obtaining another 10-year Countryside Stewardship grant for Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve (HCPNR).This latest grant from HCPNR is estimated to be worth £70,000 annually and is due to start on 1 January 2024 and run for ten years.
The Nature Reserve is the largest area of publicly owned and managed land in the Borough and includes a nationally designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), an internationally designated Special Area of Conservation (SAC), farmland, ancient woodland, and a Country Park. It is one of the most important coastal cliff nature reserves in the UK.
Countryside Stewardship grants are developed by Natural England, the government’s advisors on nature conservation. The purpose of the grants is to pay land managers to manage their land to conserve and restore wildlife habitats and biodiversity.
Cllr Ali Roark, lead councillor for environment, says: “We are committed to protecting and managing this irreplaceable coastal nature reserve for wildlife, visitors and all the residents of Hastings, and this grant is the best way to do this.”
The new grant will prioritise habitat restoration and transformation through greater use of conservation grazing. The current arable fields at the reserve will be reverted to a wood pasture habitat managed by grazing. Greater use of livestock to manage nationally rare and important habitats is more sustainable in the long run and helps address the UK and global climate and biodiversity crises.
The full report, which includes a review of the successes of the Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve since 2000, is available online at tinyurl.com/2s772akc.
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