New protest called by downland campaign

A NEW protest has been called by down­land cam­paign­ers in Wor­thing, West Sus­sex.

They are fight­ing plans by Wor­thing coun­cil to sell off land next to Iron Age hill fort Ciss­bury Ring.

The cam­paign’s efforts have forced the author­i­ty to announce it is rethink­ing its plans, but pro­test­ers are warn­ing this is just a ruse.

At a meet­ing on Thurs­day Decem­ber 3, the coun­cil cab­i­net will be meet­ing to dis­cuss dis­pos­ing of the land on a 99-year lease, rather than actu­al­ly sell­ing it.

Stop the Ciss­bury Sell-Off is call­ing for a protest out­side the Town Hall in Chapel Road, Wor­thing, at 6.30pm and for peo­ple to attend the meet­ing at 7pm as well.

Said a SCSO spokesman: “Despite what you may have heard, Wor­thing Bor­ough Coun­cil have NOT aban­doned their plans to sell off land close to Ciss­bury Ring.

“Indeed, they have said that they will now sell ‘long term leas­es instead of sell­ing the free­hold of our build­ings and land’.

“That will mean any buy­er will con­sid­er them­selves the new own­er — just the same as you would if you bought a lease­hold flat with a 99 year lease.

“That means that full pub­lic access and enhanced con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment of our pub­lic down­land will be ‘out the win­dow’ unless we act now to make coun­cil lead­ers change direc­tion.”

Hun­dreds of res­i­dents protest­ed against the con­tro­ver­sial coun­cil plans on Novem­ber 14.
They then filed up on to the land itself, wav­ing ban­ners and plac­ards, and let off dis­tress flares to draw atten­tion to the threat.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the cam­paign, includ­ing maps of the land in ques­tion, can be found on the SCSO web­site at www.scso.co.uk. To con­tact the group email info@scso.co.uk