We are looking for someone to take a leading role in the SOS Conservation Team, working with three current team members, two of whom have extensive experience of the work involved. The SOS has established a unique niche in conservation matters in Sussex, using our database of over seven million records of birds in Sussex, plus the knowledge of the Society’s 2000 members, to work to ensure that development does not occur in the parts of Sussex that are still particularly good for birds.

Working with partners such as Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT), RSPB, Sussex – Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and the Woodland Trust (a grouping known as the Sussex Planning for Nature Group) we are able to exercise considerable clout on planning issues without having to be qualified planners ourselves.

Our work is twofold:

1. Responding to planning matters and particularly commenting on District Authority’s Local Plans which lay out how many new homes they plan to develop and on where they plan to build them. And also commenting on other planning matters such as Rampion 2, the A27 Arundel Bypass and the (now withdrawn) Center Parcs holiday village proposal in Worth. All the time we use the Society’s bird records and the knowledge of our local members to provide the evidence to inform our responses.
2. Proactively seeking to get protection for sites that don’t already enjoy some conservation protection and to get improvements to sites that are already good for birds so that they become better for birds. This has included assembling the evidence to get Goring Gap designated as a Local Wildlife Site (LWS) because of its importance for birds and getting extensions made to the boundary of Littlehampton Golf Course LWS because of the site’s importance for bird.

You should be a confident communicator, able to work with the detail of planning applications. You don’t need to be a planner or an expert birder, but you will have a reasonable knowledge of Sussex and its birds. You should also be computer literate and will also need to become familiar with how to use the SOS’s bird records – this not difficult and training will be given. Work is shared among team members and prioritised, with the SOS Scientific Committee providing back-up, so the workload will always be manageable.

If this sounds like an exciting opportunity to help protect Sussex’s birds and habitats, then please contact me on 07736 788 077 or at mallalieum@gmail.com.

Mark Mallalieu
Chair, SOS Scientific Committee