Karen Stevens, Save Hogs Back campaigner.

Karen Stevens, a spokesperson for the Save Hogs Back campaign, commented: “This is wonderful news for a landscape under great threat from developers. We are very grateful to the parish councils for commissioning this independent study.

“It was clear from our own communications with Surrey County Council that this area had not been studied as part of the boundary review and we trust that the County Council and Surrey Hills AONB Board will revise their recommended AONB boundary accordingly.”

A University of Surrey spokesperson, in response to news of the new study, said: “Any development on Blackwell Farm would be built to high environmental standards and would be sympathetic to the locality. The plans will respect the existing Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and existing significant landscape and habitat features on the site.”

Cllr Susan Parker, (GGG, Send) commented: “This impartial study is very good news, and we are delighted to see that the landscape value of the historic Hog’s Back area is fully recognised.

“We hope that this study will be incorporated into the Local Plan after the consultation process.  Given the result of the study we hope the land will not be taken forward for development, and instead it will be opened up as an informal recreation area for the people of Guildford as the university promised in 2003.”

Council leader Paul Spooner (Con, Ash South & Tongham) and opposition leader Caroline Reeves (Lib Dem, Friary & St Nicolas) were also invited to comment but no responses were received.

In a connected development, a letter dated 12 November 2015 from Cllr David Wright (Con, Tillingbourne), written in his capacity as chairman of the Surrey Hills Board to Natural England, the government’s adviser for the natural environment, has been passed to The Guildford Dragon.

Cllr David Wright

In the letter David Wright expressed concern over the delay of the Surrey Hills Boundary review. He wrote: “…the continuing uncertainty about a date for the Surrey Hills Boundary Review is creating real difficulties for our local Councils in preparing their local plans. The case must surely be strong for the boundary review to be started as soon as possible.

“While the Government continues to urge Councils to progress their local plan work, the delay on this boundary review presents them with a real obstacle. Our many well-informed local communities will use every possible argument to challenge the local plans at their deposit and adoption stages and further delay on the boundary review will provide them an additional justification that Central Government and local Councils will not want. If this review were to become a casualty of Departmental spending cuts that will be counter productive to the Government’s wider interests in wishing to see local plans in place soon.”

Asked if the letter revealed a conflict of interest between his role as a GBC councillor, supporting the draft Local Plan and his role as the Surrey Hills Board chairman, David Wright responded: “I do not think there is any conflict. I am simply stating facts on behalf of the Board of a regional body to which I have been appointed by GBC.”

In an earlier, October 2012, note written by Rob Fairbanks, a director of the Surrey Hills AONB Board, it is stated: “The Surrey Hills Board has established that there is a high level of support for a boundary modification among local authorities, including parish councils, although concerns have been raised by Waverley and Guildford regarding the potential implication that the evaluation process and areas identified for evaluation may have on their emerging Core Strategies.

“As a result, it is important that all the local authorities on the AONB Board will be involved on any project steering group and the AONB partners will be made aware of the sensitive nature of the work.”