Item No: 8(a)
Date: 15th July 2015
Report: Surrey Hills AONB Unit Report
Written by: Surrey Hills AONB Unit
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Purpose of Report
To update Members on the activities related to the Surrey Hills AONB Management Plan (2014 – 2019)
Summary
This report refers to activities of the Surrey Hills AONB Unit under the following Surrey Hills AONB Management Plan headings:
· Partnership and Coordination
· Planning, Landscape Conservation and Enhancement
· Enjoyment and Understanding
· Growing the Surrey Hills Economy
The report also includes updates from the Working Groups.
The Annual Report will include a table highlighting progress against the AONB Management Plan targets 2014 – 2019.
Recommendations
Members are asked to note the activities on the AONB Unit.
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Background papers: Surrey Hills AONB Management Plan 2014 - 2019
Attached:
Contact details:
Author: Rob Fairbanks
Job title Surrey Hills AONB Director
Contact no: 01372 220650
E-mail:
1. PARTNERSHIP AND COORDINATION
National Association for AONBs (NAAONB). A priority for the Association has been to raise the profile of AONB with the new Government. In association with National Parks England, a new publication ‘So much more than the view…’ highlights the wide range of benefits these iconic areas provide to society. Copies have been sent to our 5 Surrey Hills MPs and further copies should be produced for distribution to AONB partnerships and National Parks Authorities.
National Association for AONB Conference. The Chairman and AONB Director attended the annual Conference on 30th June. There was an opportunity to hear about some major initiatives including National Grid’s £500m allowance to underground and mitigate the visual impact of its major cables. The AONB Director also ran a Fringe Meeting looking at the future vision and structure for AONB units, including discussions on Conservation Boards.
Regional AONB and National Park Forum. A key focus has been to consider strategic issues related to targeting Government funding, planning and the emerging London city region agenda. The proposal for the Greater London National Park has potential implications for the Surrey Hills, Kent Downs and Chilterns AONBs. This is being closely monitored.
Surrey Hills AONB Family Marketing Group. The Family Marketing Group continues to meet on a 5 weekly basis. The group jointly met with Compass Buses and have negotiated a family promotion where the Surrey Hills logo and web address will feature on the side of buses on routes 32 and 42. These buses go through the Surrey Hills villages from Guildford to Redhill. Another joint family poster campaign has also been negotiated with First Great Western. The group are currently in discussions about a collaborative newsletter aimed at a wider audience than the Society’s newsletter. Costs, advertising and distribution are currently being discussed.
Finance. Defra has confirmed its offer of funding for 15/16 at the same level as 14/15. This is in line with the business plan that was agreed by the AONB Board in January. There is great uncertainty however about future funding from Defra. Natural England did however host the Defra’s Strategic Finance Director on a visit to the Surrey Hills which was a good opportunity to brief him on the funding model for AONBs and highlight the disparity with National Parks.
We are only in the third month of the financial year so it is difficult to predict any overspend at the moment. Based on our estimated budget figures for 2015/16 we will aim to balance the budget at the end of the year.
North Downs Way National Trail. Peter Morris has been appointed as the National Trail Development Manager. Peter will be introduced at the Board meeting.
Gatwick Airport. The Davies Commission report had limited reference to Protected Landscapes, National Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The tranquillity assessment generally highlighted the impact on populations, rather than landscape character which did not appear to be considered a significant issue. The additional noise and associated infrastructure of a second runway would affect the special, tranquil character of the South Downs National Park and the High Weald and Surrey Hills AONBs and the recommendation is therefore welcome. There are still very localised issues to do with Gatwick departures having a wider flight path. This is under review by the CAA and the Plane Wrong Campaign is lobbying hard and making a case which includes the impact on the Surrey Hills AONB.
Hurtwood Land Sale. There has been a lot of concern over the past period regarding the sale of land by the Shere Manor Estate of Pitch Hill. This is one of the most heavily used areas of the Surrey Hills for walking, hacking and mountain biking. The change in ownership could have significant impact on the management of the land and the operations of the Friends of the Hurtwood, of which the AONB Cahirman and AONB Director are both trustees.
2. LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION AND ENHANCEMENT
Making Woods Work. The National Association for AONBs is part of a new Big Lottery funded initiative to help people create social enterprises in local unmanaged woods. The Big Lottery Fund is awarding £1,151,111 to the Plunkett Foundation for its Making Local Woods Work project. That will involve fifty communities across the UK, due to launch later this year, that will help people to create social enterprises in local unmanaged woodlands so they can grow into sustainable businesses, creating new areas of employment and training to benefit their communities. In principle Surrey Hills Enterprises, as a community enterprise, should be a beneficiary to work with community groups in the Surrey Hills area, including the proposal to focus on community engagement in the Waverley woodlands.
Developer Contributions (Community Infrastructure Levy). The AONB Board Chairman is writing to the Leaders of the constituent borough and district councils. The letter seeks confirmation that the Surrey Hills Trust Fund will be included in their CIL funding list. Once the AONB knows this approach has been agreed it can then prepare a list of specific landscape enhancement and public access projects that can be submitted and considered alongside competing demands for CIL funding.
Frontline Surrey Hills Heritage Lottery Fund Project: This project, focused around Reigate Hill, is now completed. A pre-application enquiry to extend the project to Headley Heath has been submitted to HLF.
The Tales and Trails of the Tillingbourne Valley. Dr Anne Sassin has been contracted as the Project Corodinator. Anne will start on 13th July and will update the AONB Board in due course. A public launch of the project is being planned as part of the Surrey Heritage Showcase event on 3rd October.
Inspiring Views and the Mittal benches. Mrs Mittal has agreed in principle to supporting a £200k programme of viewpoint (re)creation, access improvement, interpretation and outreach. This will also include commissioning a series of sculpted benches as a legacy project, which may be linked to artists in residence at the new education centre at Alderbrook. It has been proposed that the funds will be channelled through the Surrey Hills Trust Fund but we are still awaiting funds to be transferred.
Off Road Working Group (Chaired by David Wright): The Group last met on 13 May 2015. DW reported that he had written to District and Borough Chief Executives about the problem of fly-tipping in the Surrey Hills and had received replies outlining their current arrangements. Countrywatch continues to grow although there are disparities of coverage across Districts and Boroughs. Three new riders have been trained to ride the off road motorcycles in Mole Valley, and Epsom & Ewell Police have now got off road bikes through sponsorship with Honda. 5 illegal 4x4s had been caught on a road with a TRO but the drivers claimed ignorance, although the county map did show the road had a TRO on it. It was suggested that SCC could consider showing all TROs on their maps and putting a message on the SCC website warning people to look out for TRO signs.
DW had a very successful meeting with Asst Chief Constable Kevin Stephens and Inspector Richard Hamlin of Mole Valley Police, together with David Kennington of the National Trust, on 18 May 2015 to talk about Rural Policing. This meeting included discussions on Rural Wardens, Flytipping, Police presence in the countryside and road cyclists and mountain bikers.
The next meeting of the group is scheduled for 7 September 2015.
Mountain Bike Working Group (Chaired by David Mir): The Group has not met since the last AONB Board meeting but there has been a lot of activity. This includes a proposal to extend the Summer Lightning trail over Forestry Commission and Wotton Estate land. This has the in principle support of landowners and funding will need to be secured, including a bid to the London Marathon Trust. Two members of the Working Group are also cycling the Prudential RideLondon Surrey to raise money. There has also been a meeting to progress the Sustrans Study looking at off-road provision mainly in the Guildford, Cranleigh and Dorking area. This has been reported through SCREF and could be potentially progressed as a bid to the Local Enterprise Partnerships. The SCREF task group did advise that this project could also include horse riding and running provision. A meeting to progress the bid will be taking place on 23rd July. The next meeting of the Working Group is on 5th October.
Quiet Lanes and De-Cluttering Working Group. The Group met on 22nd June at Shamely Green. There was a major issue about the inability to appraise the effectiveness of the pilot scheme because of the lack of monitoring data. This is being addressed as a matter of priority. Colin Davis, who recently published Street for All with the Department for Transport, is developing guidance based on best practice with examples from Surrey. This guidance may take the form of website information, publications and training. The scheme at Compton should be completed in August with the re-surfacing and a new footway for the North Downs Way.
Undergrounding Power Lines. The Working Group will be sending a guidance note to parish councils regarding the undergrounding power line opportunity. In the meantime various schemes are being progressed with SSE including Mare Hill Common, near Witley; Compton; and near Puttenham with the Hampton Estate. A major scheme to underground cables and remove pylons at Titsey Farm, Hascombe, has also been undertaken with UK Power Networks. This is Godwin Austin family owned land which was used as the film set for the Nanny McPhee feature films.
3. GROWING THE SURREY HILLS ECONOMY
Our Land. RT.com is maintaining the Our Land website platform and marketing activity. There are 100 Surrey Hills businesses featured. The traffic to the site has seen healthy growth. As part of the development, there is an on-line landscape awareness module, as a quiz format, being created for each Protected Landscape which should be launched this summer. The AONB Director is engaged in considering the future business model for the project.
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). Over the next 5 years, the LEPs will be in control of millions of pounds of rural investment programmes. There is a concern nationally however amongst AONB partnerships that AONBs are not recognised by LEPs unlike National Parks which are given a very high profile as benefitting the economy of their respective areas. The AONB Director has written extensive comments on the Coast to Capital's Rural Strategy Task Group which will be an opportunity to promote AONB interests and help target appropriate investment in the Surrey Hills area. One major opportunity will be for forestry projects, including the development of Wood Hubs.
Rural Surrey LEADER. The local Action Group has been successful in its bid to Defra for a £1.8m rural development fund for 2015 – 2020. The priority will be on job creation. Dorking farmer, Hugh Broom, has been appointed Chairman of the Group. The first meeting of the new Local Action Group will be taking place on 14th July and the new scheme should be open for applications in September.
4. ENJOYMENT AND UNDERSTANDING
Website. The new Surrey Hills website continues to be populated with new information which includes a weekly and sometimes twice weekly news story. The site also has a payment facility which was used to take ticket sales for the Coverwood Lakes Opera event and is currently taking Wood Fair bookings. The site is averaging around 8000 visitors monthly with an increase being seen over the summer months.
Social Media. There continues to be lots of Social Media activity. A topic of particular interest over the past month has been the Surrey Hills Selfie competition in conjunction with the Duke of Edinburgh Award. To date we have approximately 1250 ‘friends’ on Facebook and 1935 followers’ on Twitter. Please join the Surrey Hills Social Media, simply visit www.surreyhills.org and click on the social media ikons.
PR. A wide variety of stories have been written and issued to the press over the past few months. Stories have included, Local Riders taking part in RideLondon to raise funds for the Surrey Hills Trust Fund , Power Lines removed in Dunsfold, Mike Band becoming Mayor of Waverley Borough Council, HLF funding and Project Co-ordinator role for the Tillingbourne project, Enterprises networking events, Coverwood Lakes Opera etc.. All press releases can be viewed at www.surreyhills.org/news.