We must protect our best farmland, says Chichester’s MP

Chichester’s Liberal Democrat MP Jess Brown-Fuller pledged her support for British farmers on the National Farming Union Back British Farmers Day this week. 

“Chichester’s coastal plain has some of the best soil and the best climate in the UK for arable and vegetable farming and for horticulture. If you look at a map of the southeast of England, much of the Grade I and II agricultural land is around Chichester or in Kent,” said Jess Brown-Fuller.

“It is ironic that because most of Sussex uplands are in the protected South Downs National Park, all our best and most versatile farmland, which is on the coastal plain, is now under massive pressure to be developed,” she said, noting that the government’s National Planning Policy Framework consultation is recommending removing any weight given to protecting land used for food production. 

 Plans put forward by the Liberal Democrats at the general election to back British farmers included accelerating the rollout of the new Environmental Land Management schemes, with an extra £1bn a year funding, renegotiating the criticised Australian and New Zealand trade deals and ensuring the high animal welfare and environmental standards of British farmers’ standards are not undercut, and negotiating comprehensive veterinary and plant health agreements with the EU, to allow British farmers to trade with our European neighbours with minimal need for checks.