Registered Charity 1174975 Celebrating our first year 2018-19 WELCOME Lord’s Piece, Fittleworth 2 CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR © Jamie Fielding WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR As Chair of the South Downs National Park Trust I feel honoured to present this report of its first full year. Situated in the busy South East of England, the South Downs gives so much to so many people and the Trust represents an opportunity to give a little back, conserving and enhancing it for generations to come. Over the year the Trust has made great progress in raising funds for important In the coming year, along with the Trustees, I look forward to initiating practical projects, that wouldn’t happen without our support. Alongside this, we are setting projects to address some of the challenges facing the landscape, while pursuing up a number of endowed funds that will ensure this support stretches into the new ways to ensure that the South Downs is enjoyed by all. future. Our small staff team is continuing to deliver a great return for the National Park and our ambition is to maintain this as our funding grows, ensuring we Julie Fawcett, maximise those funds for the National Park. Chair of South Downs National Park Trust Harting Down © John Richardson / SDNPA CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR 3 WHAT WE DO We are the official charity of the South Downs National Park. We are small but have big ambitions. We want to see more land managed for wildlife, more rare habitats protected, more local communities thriving and more people able to access and enjoy their National Park. This requires more investment and we want to secure and direct the substantial goodwill that exists for the South Downs to places where it can make a real difference. South Downs National Park South Downs Way Alice Holt South Downs Way (footpath only) Railway stations Railway Countryside sites Selborne Settlement Common Black Down Visitor Information Points St. Catherine’s Country Parks Hill Iping Common Woolbeding Beacon Hill Common Butser Hill Old Winchester Hill Queen Elizabeth Harting Down Country Park Heyshott Down Chanctonbury Ring Bignor Hill Ditchling Kingley Vale Goodwood Beacon Country Park Devil’s Dyke Cissbury Ring Mill Hill Firle Beacon Long Man of Wilmington Seven Sisters Country Park 4 CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR Beachy Head ACHIEVEMENTS First year £344,000 income 1,312 Kids in the park 1,600 550 4Apprentices funded Metres of path restored 2,500 400 Trees Over 400 Metres of hedge planted planted donations CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR 5 OUR PRIORITIES INCREASE LEARNING TIME IN IMPROVE OUR GRASSLAND, IMPROVING WALKING AND THE NATIONAL PARK HEATHLAND & WOODLAND CYCLING ROUTES Children today spend half as much time playing We want to improve and increase our grassland, We want to increase the network of family-friendly outside as their parents did. We want to change heaths and woods – which are home to millions of walking and cycling routes and encourage more that, increasing outdoor learning time for young plants, bees and butterflies including many rare and disadvantaged people to visit, who live near the people in the National Park. threatened species. Park but rarely experience the many benefits it has to offer. 6 HELP FOR COMMUNITIES FUNDING ALLOCATION VOLUNTEERING TO SUPPORT Our operating costs are secured until 2021, £53.6k £70k THEIR NATIONAL PARK meaning all funds raised are focused on We support the grassroots groups already working delivering projects within the South Downs to care for the National Park. We work with a National Park. number of supportive partners and donors to fund their work. The Trust has had a fantastic first year increasing £344,000 investment in the South Downs, raising over £42k £344,000 across the following areas: £147.6k £30.1k Supporting Volunteering Increasing Learning Outside Improving our Woodland, Heathland and Grassland Increasing Walking and Cycling Routes Core funds CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR 7 STAFF AND TRUSTEES TRUSTEES Our work is bolstered by a strong experienced staff and board of trustees Julie Fawcett, Chair of Trustees- Josephine Carr, Trustee – Born Dan Montagnani, Trustee – Dan Julie is Managing Director of QBic, an in the South Downs at Winton Street, is Managing Director of Groundsure, an environmentally conscious and award Alfriston, Jo has been closely connected to environmental and land use data due winning hotel chain. She has had an and lived on the South Downs all her life. diligence business. Dan has spent 23 years extensive career working in the Private Equity Sector Her family has farmed the Downs in East Sussex for working in the environmental sector mainly in the risk as an “Entrepreneur in Residence”, for herself through over four generations and she now farms 160 acres advisory and property transaction areas. He lives in the set up and sale of a retail ecommerce business at Jevington, and her immediate family still farms over Lyminster, West Sussex with his family and is Chair of and the Third Sector, as Managing Director of Llamau 1000 acres in the area. Lyminster & Crossbush Parish Council. Dan is a Fellow of Housing Association. Julie is a keen sailor and walker the Royal Geographical Society and at weekends enjoys and lives in East Meon, Hampshire. walking in the National Park with his family and dogs. Greg Mahon, Treasurer – joined Helen Jackson, Trustee – Until Dean Orgill, Trustee – Dean Orgill Rathbones in 2002 as an investment 2014 Helen was Chief Executive of is Chairman of Sussex solicitors Mayo director before becoming regional the Campaign for National Parks, the Wynne Baxter. He is also Chair of director in 2010. With nearly 30 independent charity campaigning to Brighton & Hove Economic Partnership, years investment management behind him, Greg protect and promote National Parks in England Chair of IoD Sussex and Vice-Chair of Sussex has worked for SNC (now Merrill Lynch), Murray and Wales. For 7 years previously she was Chief Chamber of Commerce as well as a member of the Johnstone Private Investors and Premier Asset Executive of Museums, Libraries and Archives South Greater Brighton Economic Board. Dean lives in Management. He’s a Chartered Wealth Manager East, a not-for-profit agency supporting regional Horsham and is a keen cyclist, and has been tested and Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for museums, libraries and archives. on some of the muddier sections of the South Downs Securities & Investment, as well as an IMC member Way! of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society of the UK. Greg enjoys the many benefits of the South Downs living in Petworth, West Sussex. STAFF Vance Russell, Trustee – Vance James Winkworth, Head of Mark Rose, External Funding Russell is a Wildlands and Climate Charity – Starting out in commercial Co-Ordinator – Mark is an Change Adaptation Consultant. Prior sales and sponsorship, James has experienced Grants Manager having to this he was the California Director of worked in fundraising for over 10 years, managed multi-million grant programmes Programs for the National Forest Foundation where consistently increasing income at charities including across a range of organisations. Mark supports he managed community forestry projects throughout Amnesty International and Samaritans. James has the Sustainable Communities Fund grant panel and the state. He has nearly 30 years of experience lived in Hampshire for over 30 years and is a prides himself as a purveyor of the best pubs in the working in agriculture and natural resources lifelong user of the South Downs, he is also a Trustee South Downs. management. Vance now lives in the New Forest at the Hampshire Cultural Trust. National Park. Sophie Ritson, Fundraising Toni Shaw, Trustee – In 2007, Toni Development Manager – Sophie become CEO at the Hampshire and has over 20 years of fundraising Isle of Wight Community Foundation experience with national charities such where, with the support of the Board of as the PDSA and the Campaign for National Parks Trustees, she established the Foundation and built an (CNP) and regional causes including St Wilfrid’s endowment of nearly £11 million for the long term Hospice. Sophie worked for SNP in the years support of communities across Hampshire and the leading up to the designation of the South Downs Isle of Wight. Toni is a keen walker, having walked as a National Park and she is very happy to be extensive sections of the South Downs Way and lives working to further enhance the South Downs. in Basingstoke. CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR 9 PROJECTS IMPROVING WALKING AND Apprentice Ranger Programme – Some BEFORE RESTORATION: Plumpton Plain, South CYCLING ROUTES of the traditional skills and knowledge needed to Downs Way preserve our landscape, such as flint stone walling or traditional hedge laying, are in decline. Working raised for projects £147k in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority we have funded 3 Countryside Rangers, metres of path who will help a new generation of National Park 1,600 restored Rangers protect the South Downs and our traditions. 1,800 tonnes of stone laid South Downs Way 25,000 improved for users AFTER RESTORATION: Plumpton Plain 10 CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR Improving the South Downs Way – Through the Mend our Way appeal we raised £120,000 for critical improvements on the South Downs Way. Last year we completed the first section of the Trail identified for improvement at Plumpton Plain, this is the longest single piece of South Downs Way restoration ever completed! It transformed a muddy, water-logged track into a brand-new, weather-resistant path. As a result of the appeal, three other sections of the 100 mile National Trail are also scheduled to be improved in the coming months. CELEBRATING OUR FIRST YEAR 11 INCREASE LEARNING TIME IN School Travel Grant – We are supporting THE NATIONAL PARK more children from low income families to experience learning outside the classroom in the South Downs National Park.