South Downs National Park designation takes effect – 31 March 2010
The new South Downs National Park is designated at a minute past midnight on Wednesday 31 March. Covering an area over 1600 square kilometres, the South Downs National Park is the tenth National Park to be designated in England, offering an area of protected countryside that everyone can visit and enjoy. The famous South Downs Way, loved by walkers, cyclists and horse riders, stretches the entire 160 km length of the Park from Winchester in Hampshire to the white chalk cliffs of Beachy Head, near Eastbourne.
