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Interim results from the Public Survey shared
To enable local people to contribute to the two Local Nature Recovery Strategies being developed for Sussex, a public survey canvassed their views and observations regarding environmental issues. The survey ran between February and June 2024. 1,834 responses were collected:
- 57% from residents of West Sussex
- 43% from residents of East Sussex and Brighton & Hove.
The survey comprised of 17 intuitive questions that asked:
- What residents love - their favourite places to connect with nature, the habitats and species they value.
- What residents have noticed - whether they’ve observed any changes to local wildlife and wild places.
- What they’d like to see - which habitats at risk do they want to see recovered and which wider environmental benefits would they most like to see locally.
How these results will inform the LNRS
With some questions allowing for up to three free text answers, the survey garnered a significant volume of non-numerical data. This compliments quantitative answers and provides valuable insights into what local people have seen, what they think and care about, and the strength of their feelings.
To inform the priorities long and shortlisting process, key insights from the survey including verbatim comments have been compiled in this document with a focus on the habitats that respondents value and would like to see recovered. The quantitative figures for each habitat, in addition to the volume of comments and the strength of feeling for them, have been used to score LNRS priorities as low, medium and high in terms of public’s support.
What happens next?
Each priority is being reviewed against other criteria such as whether they contribute to national objectives and are within the scope of the LNRS to deliver (you can find all the shortlisting criteria on our publications page). Once complete, the scoring of the priorities, including the measure of public support they received will also be shared on this website.
Survey results will also be analysed in due course in respect of the species respondents value and specifically want to see recovered.
