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Giving more than £400,000 in grants directly to local people and places to support dozens of innovative projects through the Sustainable Development Fund since April 2006
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Helping to bring hundreds of thousands of pounds of extra money into the Forest to support commoning and other vital aspects of Forest life via LEADER and Heritage Lottery funding
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Fighting to protect the Park’s special qualities – for example, taking a leading role in opposing Southampton’s proposed ‘laser gateway’, which threatened the Park’s dark night-time skies, and on proposals to expand Bournemouth Airport and the north-south flightpath over the Forest, which threaten the Park’s tranquillity
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Working to reduce animal accidents – leading imaginative campaigns such as the animal emergency hotlines card, temporary roadside warning triangles and the ‘I go slow for ponies’ car stickers. 2008 had the lowest number of animal deaths since records began in 1956.
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Supporting the life of the Forest – for instance, helping to fund Land Rovers for the Agisters, backing the New Forest tour bus, and promoting New Forest produce including the New Forest breakfast
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Dedicated support for commoning – including a major Commoning Review and securing significant increased financial support for commoners
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Establishing strong partnerships that benefit the Forest – for instance, a long-term association with the Ninth Centenary Trust to turn the former New Forest Museum and Library in Lyndhurst into the New Forest Centre and a project with the Forestry Commission, the Verderers and Scottish and Southern Energy to bury unsightly overhead power lines underground
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Promoting understanding and enjoyment of the Park’s special qualities in diverse and creative ways … from an eight-minute movie to a fun zone on the website, from awareness panels to a prize-winning presence at the New Forest Show, from marking the boundary with locally-grown and locally-made signs to a Pocket Guide for visitors
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Taking on the role of planning authority for the National Park and dealing with more than 2,500 applications in the first two years
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Submitting, and progressing through Examination in Public to adoption, a joint Core Spatial Strategy for Minerals and Waste, working in partnership with Hampshire County Council and Southampton and Portsmouth City Councils. This was the first Minerals and Waste Core Strategy to be adopted nationally and the first Development Plan Document prepared under the new spatial planning system to be adopted by a National Park Authority
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Establishing four new Conservation Areas and instigating a fundamental review of existing Conservation Areas within the National Park
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Showing that the Authority means business on planning enforcement – by issuing a ‘stop notice’ on inappropriate works and prosecuting people who flout enforcement notices requiring the removal of unauthorised mobile homes, for example
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Developing a growing range of education, events and outreach work including setting up an Educators’ Forum, publishing an Outdoor Education Guide and education factsheets, establishing a National Park events programme with partners and using education travel grants to enable otherwise excluded groups to visit the National Park
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Getting in place members, key staff, temporary offices and initial plans in time for April 2006 and continuing to develop capability, systems and procedures – for example, a complete suite of HR policies, moving towards Investors in People accreditation and Corporate Sustainability Standard
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Involving stakeholders in work to produce the crucial plans that will shape the future of the New Forest National Park for years to come: the National Park Plan, the Local Development Framework Core Strategy, the Recreation Management Strategy and two Corporate (Best Value) Plans
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Providing a listening ear for the diverse voices in the Forest and a national voice for the Park with ministers and policy-makers
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Keeping people informed about the work of the National Park Authority and its partners through regular talks, events, the website and publications including the Park Life newsletter, Forest Focus visitor newspaper with the Forestry Commission and New Forest Today magazine with New Forest District Council
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