Petition to stop Vinnie Jones' shooting lodge in National Park
National Parks Are for Wildlife and for Everyone — Not for Shooters and Shooting Lodges
Actor Vinnie Jones - recently seen cosplaying as a gamekeeper in the Netflix series “The Gentlemen“ and cosplaying a rugged country landowner in the reality show “Vinnie Jones in the Country” - has submitted a planning application to turn redundant farm buildings at Blackwool Farm, Ebernoe (SDNP/25/01964/FUL) into seven private “bespoke accommodation units” for guests taking part in countryside “sporting activities” - a euphemism for shooting non-native, factory-farmed pheasants and partridges out of sky.
If approved, this development would carve off a section of the South Downs National Park, a vital area of protected countryside in Southern England that features rolling chalk hills, ancient woodlands, river valleys, and dramatic coastal cliffs, and hand it over for the exclusive use of paying shooters. This is not rural regeneration. This is not community benefit. This is the commercialisation of a protected landscape for the sake of bloodsport.
The development must be stopped.
National Parks exist to protect nature, not enable its destruction
Officially designated in 2010, the South Downs is the newest national park in the UK. The campaign for its creation began in the 1920s due to concerns over development and was driven by public interest groups and a growing movement to protect Britain’s countryside for the benefit of the entire nation.
It was created to conserve wildlife, preserve landscapes, and provide space for the public to enjoy nature. These priorities aren’t optional. They are legal duties under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.
Turning farm buildings into luxury lodges to facilitate shooting parties directly contradicts the purposes the National Park was created for.
Which however you look at it is not a ‘sporting activity’ at all’…
Wildlife in the South Downs is already under pressure
Wildlife in the South Downs National Park is already under considerable pressure from climate change, habitat loss from intensive arable farming, and declining water and air quality.
Ebernoe, where Mr Jones wants to bring his shooting clients, is renowned for its bats, ancient woodlands, nightingales, dormice, and diverse insect life. Ebernoe Common, a National Nature Reserve and Special Area of Conservation managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust, is right next to the proposed ‘shooting lodge’.
How can that possibly be allowed?
Developing a new hub for shooting on the edge of a nature reserve means:
Increased disturbance from gunfire.
More traffic, more noise, more pollution.
More land management geared towards killing non-native pheasants rather than protecting natural biodiversity.
National Parks should be held in trust for everyone. They should not be playgrounds for those who can afford guns and “private bespoke accommodation”.
A shooting lodge serves a tiny, wealthy minority — while the costs to wildlife, the landscape, and local residents are shared by all.
Our National Parks should restore and rewild, not become venues for hobbyists with guns.
The Planning Authority Must Reject SDNP/25/01964/FUL
On its website, the South Downs National Park Authority says the diverse habitat of the South Downs “supports birds, plants, reptiles, amphibians, fish and small mammals, as well as our brilliant pollinators”.
It talks about “renaturing”, boasts of a “Triumph for nature as we smash our Trees for the Downs target”, and the “rare and unexpected species” that calls the Park ‘home’.
It says that the Downs are “too much for one pair of eyes, enough to float a whole population in happiness”.
NONE of this is compatible with the industrialised shooting industry, with the ‘predator control’ it insists on, and the slaughter it practices.
Britain is one of the most bioversity-depleted nations on the entire planet. The south of England is already littered with shoots. We simply cannot allow yet another ‘national park’ to become like the North York Moors, the Peak District, and the Yorkshire Dales - dominated by shoots disguised as “diversification”.
EDIT 16:45 02/Dec/25
Within a few hours of this post going live we were contacted by the South Downs National Park Authority which (politely we should stress) asked us to post the following message:
We are receiving many, many emails through your website, which are legitimate representations, objecting to planning application SDNP/25/01964/FUL.
South Downs National Park has a partnership agreement with Chichester District Council who are attending to the planning application under delegated arrangements, and subsequently, I am contacting you to ask if you would consider amending the email address that the automated submissions are being sent to. Our info@ team has no direct involvement in the handling of planning matters, and the planning@ team, who I manage, are not processing this case. We are forwarding all mail relating to this case to the team at Chichester.
If you are able to change the page configuration so that all emails be directed to dcplannning@chichester.gov.uk, I would be very grateful. This would reduce the need for manual forwarding (our mail servers prohibit this to external domains) and would minimise delays in the handling and recording of representations as they will be reaching the correct recipients on submission.
That would be fair enough - only (as we have now realised) there is an extra ‘n’ in dcplanning! Thanks to everyone who spotted that before we did. We have corrected the email address that the petition is going to. Please do continue to sign and send - our message about this hideous development is getting through (correctly now, we hope)!
Speak Up Now: Sign our petition and oppose the Ebernoe development
If like us you believe that our national parks should prioritise wildlife, public access, and peace over the blasts of shotguns, then your voice is urgently needed.
What you can do:
Submit an objection on the South Downs National Park planning portal
Share this information widely — many people still don’t know this is happening
Write to your councillors and MP urging them to oppose the development
This planning application is not a done deal. Public pressure works as we have proved many times.
The relevant planning departments must hear loud and clear that this is not what people want for the South Downs.
The South Downs should be for wildlife. For walkers. For families. For nature lovers. NOT for hobbyist shooters cosplaying as ‘country gentlemen’.
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Vinnie Jones has always portrayed himself as a first class SOB - and he is.
Vinnie jones is a first class bully I Hate the gob shite.