Since the war the fields have been farmed for arable crops and pasture, Longdown in the produced low yields of barley. Due to the poor productivity the fields were put into set aside in the early 1990’s, an agricultural scheme to reduce costly food production and deliver environmental benefits and the first countryside stewardship scheme that facilitated permitted access. Following these schemes, the fields were entered into a Higher-Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement that was designed to promote environmentally beneficial management practices. Whilst Great Down was grazed Longdown was mown annually to maintain the vegetation. The HLS agreement ended in 2017.
The Estate wanted to enter the fields into new Countryside Stewardship scheme in 2019 but the fields did not meet the criteria as priority habitat for lowland calcareous grassland. Priority habitats can be found on Defra’s Magic Maps: https://magic.defra.gov.uk/magicmap.aspx
The Estate finally investigated alternative land use options, including vine yards, before settling on woodland creation as a viable option.
Access
A significant number of respondents were concerned over increased traffic on Wood Lane and recreational use of the fields. There was some confusion over the use of the term woodland rides.
• There is currently no public access across the areas identified for tree planting, the only public right of way runs down the eastern side of the site linking the top of Wood Lane to the Puttenham Road. Great Down, Longdown and Little Longdown is private land with no access agreements. For a period access had been granted on a permitted basis linked to the past environmental schemes, these schemes have now finished.
• A woodland ride is a linear trackway designed for access; depending on management, it can have several zones: a central track or pathway, some taller grassland areas either side and then some shrubs and thicket grading into the taller woodland trees.
We do not intend to promote this area for horse riding, there is an existing trial on the Estate that is far more suitable for horse riding.
Wood Lane: There are no plans to create a car park at the top of Wood Lane.
Overall we were surprised at the response to our proposal to allow public access. Whilst there was a majority of people opposed to recreational use of the area, we believe many people did not appreciate there is currently no public access. We agree with the respondent who pointed out that Wood Lane is a public highway and it was unlikely the fields and woodland would become a ‘must see’ destination.
The Estate will take a considered view on public access as our plans develop including residents’ concerns over increased vehicle traffic on Wood Lane.
Botanical Interest
A number of respondents highlighted the importance of chalk grassland as a priority habitat with its associated flora and fauna.
• The consultation exercise has identified additional survey information that is helpful in the development of our plans.
• We have commissioned a phase 2 botanical survey of the site with vegetation mapping to identify areas that are species rich and can be considered as Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority.
Overall we were surprised at the response to our proposal to allow public access. Whilst there was a majority of people opposed to recreational use of the area, we believe many people did not appreciate there is currently no public access. We agree with the respondent who pointed out that Wood Lane is a public highway and it was unlikely the fields and woodland would become a ‘must see’ destination.
The Estate will take a considered view on public access as our plans develop including residents’ concerns over increased vehicle traffic on Wood Lane.
Botanical Interest
A number of respondents highlighted the importance of chalk grassland as a priority habitat with its associated flora and fauna.
• The consultation exercise has identified additional survey information that is helpful in the development of our plans.
• We have commissioned a phase 2 botanical survey of the site with vegetation mapping to identify areas that are species rich and can be considered as Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority.
• The survey will draw reference to Natural England Technical Note TIN110; Assessing whether created or restored grassland is a BAP Priority Habitat.
• In the development of our plans we will seek to design in open space with species rich areas and provide linkages across the site to help connect adjacent sites, such as the chalk pit, SSSI, at the top of Wood Lane.
Views
Understandably a number of the properties along the ridge were concerned of the potential loss of views.
• We will look closely at the impact of tree planting to the properties concerned. We have already addressed this issue to some extent in our draft proposals, maintaining views for the majority of properties. We will now look at a few properties who have expressed concern in more detail.
• We will consider the landscape impact when looking at the site from the North Downs and Puttenham Common.
Landscape
The fields are within the Surrey Hills AONB, which seeks to conserve and enhance the special landscape qualities of the area.
• Currently the AONB is approximately 40% wooded with the special qualities of the landscape shaped by past human influence on the land. We will seek to develop our plans taking account of AONB management plan aims and objectives.
• There are opportunities to link the ancient woodlands whilst maintaining a proportion of open habitats.
Key will be developing a plan that sits well within the existing landscape.
Too Much Woodland
A number of respondents felt that Surrey already had enough woodland.
• All the political parties at the last election committed to planting more trees, the current administration is committed to planting 30,000 hectares per year of new woodland across the UK, 10,000 ha/year in England. In 2019/2020 just 2330 hectares of new woodland was created in England.
• Surrey CC tree strategy sets a target of planting 1.2 million new trees by 2030.
Clearly there will be different views as to where new woodland should be created. It is likely most new planting will take place on grade 3b agricultural land, like the fields in our proposal, as the best land, agricultural grade 1 and 2, are highly valued for food production whereas the poorest quality land often carries ecological designations or is highly exposed.
Species Choice
There were a few respondents that were pleased to see a variety of species being considered with a general preference towards native broadleaves from other respondents.
• The species listed were identified from Forest Research’s Ecological Site Classification system, with our plans setting out those species that were suitable on the calcareous soils.
• The species list was tested against different climate change scenarios to ensure we had given consideration to a changing climate and how these species were predicted to adapt.
In our draft plans we favoured species that where predicted to grow well on the site and those that were most efficient at carbon sequestration, hence the higher proportion of conifers.
In developing our plans, we will review the species choice to seek to build in resilience to climate change, pest and diseases as well as considering landscape context and bio diversity.
Economic
Very few respondents gave any consideration to the costs of land management associated with their desired land use. Exploring grant support under a new Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS) the government is currently consulting on and grazing were offered as suggestions with one response recognising the land didn’t currently ‘pay it’s way’.
• Woodland Creation currently appears to offer the best viable option economically for long term sustainable management. Woodland creation attracts grant support, with the potential to create value from carbon sequestration and timber production in time.
• As set out under botanical interest the fields do not qualify for the current countryside stewardship funding to support current land management activities.
The fields are poor quality grazing.
In the absence of management intervention, the fields are slowly reverting back to woodland with prolific natural regeneration of hawthorn across Longdown and Little Longdown. Either the fields need to be annually mown or grazed to maintain the current vegetation.
Fire
There were a few concerns over the risk of wild fire drawing a the Thursley heathland fire this spring as an example.
• It is accepted that wild fire is an increasing risk which applies to a number of land uses including arable crops, heathland, grassland and woodland.
• We believe the risks on Longdown will be low compared to heathland sites. We will design in open mown woodland rides as fire breaks and areas of broadleaved woodland against the boundaries which inherently have a low fire risk.
Almost all wild fires are started through human negligence, with no public access there is little chance of a wild fire starting. We will consider these risks if the Estate choose to grant access in the future.
The Challenge
Finally we hope you will understand the difficulties we face for the future management of these fields. We have explored alternative land uses and at present woodland creation appears to be the best option.
The challenge we now face is that the new woodland is well designed and delivers a multiple of benefits from carbon sequestration through to biodiversity gain. We need to conserve key areas of botanical interest, ensuring the woodland sits comfortably within the landscape whilst maintaining views.
We thank you again for your comments.
With Kind Regards
Kevin Penfold MicFor
Consultation key issues
