Natural England has launched a statutory and public consultation for proposed extensions to the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The proposal to extend the Surrey Hills AONB is part of an ambitious programme of landscape designation and is one of four new designation projects to help deliver on the Government’s commitment to safeguard more of England’s beautiful and iconic landscapes for future generations.
If the proposed areas are added to the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this could bring many benefits including conserving and enhancing the natural and cultural heritage, as well as the views and beauty of the area. It will give improved access to nature for the benefit of people’s health and wellbeing whilst boosting economic growth and local tourism, and safeguard a nationally important landscape for future generations. All on the doorstep of London.
Stakeholders and members of the public can visit consult.defra.gov.uk/ne-landscape-heritage-and-geodiversity-team/surrey-hills-boundary-variation to find out how to participate in the consultation.
Once the consultation period has closed, Natural England will assess the feedback, make any amendments, and the Natural England board will consider whether to approve a draft designation order to include any new land within the AONB. Find out more about the consultation at Views sought on extending protected Surrey area - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
IMPORTANT NOTE
Kenley, Coulsdon & Riddlesdown have been included into Evaluation Area EA8b. But at this early stage they are not found to have sufficient natural beauty to be considered outstanding and none of the land within sub-area EA8b has been taken forward into the desirability assessment as a proposed Candidate Area.
The criteria for the designation process are:
- Does the landscape have sufficient natural beauty to be considered outstanding?
- Is it desirable to designate this landscape as AONB in order to conserve and enhance its natural beauty?
- Where should the boundary be drawn?
Consideration for Coulsdon Common, Kenley and Riddlesdown are set out on pages 115-116 on Surrey Hills Boundary Review (defra.gov.uk).
Natural England would like to hear your views on this area. Once you have been able to review the relevant parts of the documents, do submit your response using the online consultation form, letting National England know if you agree or disagree with their proposals. You may find it helpful to refer to the guidance document that Natural England use in assessing Natural Beauty. This can be found here: Guidance for Assessing Landscapes for Designation.
The consultation closes on 13th June 2023.
The image above is from candidate-area-maps-part-2-fig-11.8---11.14.pdf (defra.gov.uk). The green hatching is the proposed expansion.
