14 March 2007 - Green MEP Caroline Lucas has warned that the regional assembly’s plans to build tens of thousands of homes in Surrey could damage the county’s premier wildlife sites.

The sections of the South-East Plan that deal with the London Fringe area of the county will undergo three days of public scrutiny by a panel of inspectors, beginning next Tuesday (Mar 20) in Reading.

Dr Caroline Lucas, MEP for Surrey, said the inspectors must pay heed to the Appropriate Assessment – a statutory document - that judges the potential impact of the plan on sites designated by the EU as Special Protection Areas (S PA s) for their importance for birds or Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) for their importance for other wildlife.

She said: “The independent consultants who carried out the report concluded that three wildlife sites in the part of Surrey under consideration would be at risk from factors such as increased water ab straction and traffic and the encroachment of urban life on the countryside unless a great many steps are taken. I am concerned about some of the measures and have doubts whether others will in fact be carried out.”

The extension of urban life into the countryside can lead to more arson, vandalism, noise, fly-tipping, light pollution and predation by cats, crows and magpies.

Among the measures are reducing the need to travel by greater use of IT, congestion charging, restricting more polluting vehicles from the vicinity of the sites, controlling the number of site visitors coming by car, and creating buffer zones where no development is permitted and alternative green spaces for recreation.

The sites are:

Mole Gap to Reigate Escarpment SAC, near Dorking

At risk from increased air pollution and recreational activities, and the encroachment of urban life.

Thursley, Ash, Pirbright, & Chobham SAC, around Farnham, Guildford & Dorking, Surrey

At risk from increased air pollution, water abstraction and recreational activities, and the encroachment of urban life.

Thames Basin Heaths S PA , Guildford, Surrey Heath, Woking local authority areas

At risk from increased air pollution, water abstraction and recreational activities, and the encroachment of urban life

 
The sites are protected by the ‘precautionary principle’ so that development can only be permitted where it can be shown that it won’t damage the important wildlife features of the site, although there are get-out clauses.

Dr Lucas said: “Much of the planned housing is a result of the Government’s hothouse economic strategy – which focuses on the South-East, East of England and London at the expense of other areas of the country and at the expense of quality of life in these regions.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor

The regional assembly has designated the parts of Surrey and Kent bordering the capital as the London fringe. A total of 37,360 homes are planned for this area in the years to 2026. This is broken down as follows:

Elmbridge 4,620

Epsom & Ewell 3,620

Guildford (the part of the authority area that falls within the “ London fringe”) 5,940

Mole Valley (the part of the authority area that falls within the “ London fringe”) 3,420

Reigate & Banstead 4,740

Runnymede 2,920

Spelthorne 3,020

Tanbridge (the part of the authority area that falls within the “ London fringe”) 2,240

Woking 4,840

Sevenoaks (the part of the authority area that falls within the “ London fringe”) 2,000