Peasmarsh has some very particular areas which are environmentally sensitive. As part of developing our NDP we will identify them and justify their protection. The environment is high on the planning agenda with the new Environment Bill which will soon be made law. The Bill will make provision about targets, plans and policies for improving the natural environment.

The natural environment can be used to :

• produce food and timber
• improve water quality
• reduce flooding and soil erosion
• improve air quality
• sequester carbon
• restore and enhance biodiversity and nature
• increase pollination
• improve our health and make us feel better

We have begun this process using the open-source [publicly available] data available and cross referencing with the work of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty [AONB] in which we lie.

Land quality : 83% (1,318 ha) of the parish is grade 3 agriculture and food production land with a small area (44ha) of grade 2 down by the River Rother. Grade 3 land is about half of the total agricultural land in England. It is moderately good soil for agriculture that has moderate limitations that affect the choice of crops to be grown, timing and type of cultivation, harvesting or yield.

Habitats : almost a third of the parish is a priority habitat, distributed as in the table and map to the right. [A larger scale version of the map is available as a 920 kB pdf file : hover over the map and left click, your browser should open the file in a new tab.]

	Ha.	% of Parish
Lowland Heath	2	0.1%
Traditional Orchard	7	0.5%
No Main Habitat but Additional Habitats Present	19	1.2%
Good Quality, semi-Improved Grassland	23	1.4%
Coastal and Floodplain Grazing Marsh	117	7.4%
Deciduous Woodland	327	20.7%
All Priority Habitats	495	31.3%

 

We are helped in protecting our environment because the parish is part of the High Weald AONB. We also have designated ancient woodlands which have special status but there are no designated sites of special scientific interest in our Parish.